My Daughter is a Zombie
Director: Pil Gam-sung
Year: 2025
Rating: 7.5
Country: Korea
Koreans like much of the world have gone zombie
crazy. I have been trying to avoid new zombie ones for the most part, zombie
exhaustion but this sounded too adorable not to give it a try. A cute Korean
comedy can hit the spot. I admit to having a soft spot for them. A loving
father who has a zombie for a daughter and loves her anyways. I suppose one
could substitute zombie with trans or gay or anything. You love your children
no matter what. But let's stay with zombie. This plays out like a side story
to Train to Busan. An infection is turning Seoul into a zombie apocalypse.
Jung-hwan (Jo Jung-suk) and his 15-year old daughter Soo-a (Choi Yu-ri) fight
their way out to a car to drive to his mother's (Lee Jung-eun) home in a
small rural village. But on the drive, it turns out that Soo-a had a small
bite. A tiny one from a tiny zombie. But it is enough.
Though this sounds very straight forward
zombie, the film to this point has been more amusing than horrifying in how
it plays out and it remains sporadically light as it goes along. The mother
is a battle-axe who loves her granddaughter fiercely. Don't mess with grandma.
After thinking about killing her, they realize they can't. Love is stronger.
They instead decide to hide her and protect her. Even train her not to be
a such a zombie. And not get bitten. It begins to move more into a drama
as first as an old friend has to be persuaded not to turn her in and an old
crush who has become a champion zombie killer closes in on the truth. All
zombies are to be killed on sight and there are rewards for informing on
them.
But this is Korea and it takes a hard turn
into melodrama and then extreme melodrama. And it works of course because
this is what Korea does better than anyone. They spend much of the film building
a connection between the audience and the characters and when you bring down
Maxwell Silver's Hammer, it matters. You care. Fine performances by everyone
- even the cat - and the daughter is sweetie pie plus, even as a zombie.
It is directed by Pil Gam-sung and was a big hit in Korea and has gotten
some play around the world. It is nearly two hours long and it could have
had some scenes shorn a bit but builds up nicely to a heartwarming conclusion.
