Kingdom Season 2
Hangul 킹덤
Genre Historical period, Political drama, Supernatural, Horror, Thriller
Based on The Kingdom of the Gods by Kim Eun-hee and Yang Kyung-il[1]
Written by Kim Eun-hee
Directed by Kim Seong-hun
Starring Ju Ji-hoon, Ryu Seung-ryong, Bae Doo-na, Kim Sung-kyu
Country of origin South Korea
When I wrote a review of Kingdom in January 2019, I compared it to a Kurosawa movie. It was a great series, destined in my mind to become a classic, both in Korea and eventually the west.
Season two is even better. It is a fantastic tale of courage and honor, intrigue and patriotism, horror and beauty. Not only does it contain all the elements of Kurosawa’s finest work, but the lead actor, Ju Ji-hoon, reminds me more and more of Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa’s favorite in many of his greatest movies. It’s difficult to say the two resemble one another since like England’s Peter Sellers, they both could take on an endless array of miens. Mifune in Hidden Fortress resembles Crown Prince Lee Chang in Kingdom. But the sheer talent makes them twins.
The costuming and sets remain breathtaking (they built a one-third scale replica of the Imperial Palace since the script called for it to get utterly trashed in the final three episodes.) The battle scenes are worthy of the best in Game of Thrones.
Despite it being early 17th century Joseon Korea, an era not noted for women’s suffrage, two female actors turn in stellar performances in leading roles: Bae Doona as Seo-bi, a nurse who is the first to discover the source of the plague and how it operates in the human body. Kim Hye-jun is Queen Consort Cho, imperious, ambitious, vicious and in the end, mad. Solid performances from the rest of the large cast abound.
This is an extraordinary series, and while it may seem questionable to watch a series about a plague at this point in time, it does provide a bit of perspective, along with some truly superb entertainment.