The final few minutes of the last episode of “Kingdom Season 2” saw Ju Ji-hoon's Crown Prince Lee Chang and Bae Doona's Seo Bi travel North to find out more about the mysterious flower that brings the dead back to life, only to come face to face with a mysterious woman who keeps zombies as pets in cages, boxes and chains. Since then, fans have been wondering who this woman, played by the amazing Jun Ji-hyun, is and have been looking forward to finding out more about her. While viewers waited for the eventual season 3, Netflix announced that they would instead be doing a special one-off extended episode, a spin-off if you will, called “Kingdom: Ashin of the North” that would answer to the mystery of this character and her bloody, brutal past.
This special episode begins a few decades before the events in “Kingdom”, when trouble was brewing between Joseon and the Jurchen people, their enemies across Manchuria, who are led by the powerful Pajeowi tribe. We are introduced to young Ashin and her people, the Seongjeoyain, who are originally Jurchen but have lived long enough in the bordering village in Joseon to be ostracised as traitors by them. When a large group of Jurchen are found dead, likely murdered, the Joseon send Ashin's father to tell them that they were mauled by a tiger in order to not anger them and start a war.
Meanwhile Ashin, who is looking for a rare ginseng to cure her ailing mother in a forbidden area, stumbles across a cave shrine where a mysterious purple flower grows in abundance. Engravings on the wall explain the origins of the flower and how the flower can bring back the dead but at a severe personal price. She returns with the flower, only to find that her entire tribe and village have been obliterated by the Pajeowi, who seemingly saw through her father's lies and killed him and his tribe as punishment. The sole survivor, Ashin seeks refuge under Joseon commander Min Chi-rok with an aim of seeking revenge against the Pajeowi.
With that final scene that introduced Ashin in season 2, it was evident that she was going to be a very important character for the “Kingdom” saga going forward and including her backstory to the regular run of episodes would have only hampered the fluidity of the series's storyline. So this move to do a one-off episode by Netflix was a rather smart one, serving two purposes. Firstly, it tells Ashin's story the way it needs to be told without leaving anything out and secondly, it satiates the cravings of the audience, who have been waiting for more zombies in Joseon, even if for a short time. Korean cinema remains unrivalled when it comes to revenge storylines and Park Eun-hee, once again the sole writing credit on the show, takes this theme and utilises it with aplomb, treating Ashin's story as a Joseon “Lady Vengeance”. Outside of zombies, “Ashin of the North” follows the “Kingdom” rulebook quite well. Park moves the native Joseon setting to the borders. Where Kingdom was just as intriguing in its palace politics as it was exciting with its zombie attacks, “Ashin of the North” involves tribal politics that set Ashin's journey in motion.
In addition to the titular character's origin story, this also serves as an origin story for the purple flower that is the catalyst of the zombie outbreak in Joseon and, by extension of the zombie outbreak itself, and how Ashin plays a part in it. This does mean that, though Ashin's character is very well developed, as it should be for an origin story, the others surrounding her do not get the same treatment. There's a new character called Ai Da-han, the leader of the Pajeowi that we are introduced to and are led to believe will play a bigger part in season 3, but he is relegated to glaring intently for the few minutes that he is on screen.
Zombie attacks play almost second fiddle in “Kingdom” to the palatial politics and here too, they take their time to start but when they do, they are of the same brand that we have come to know and love over the 12 episodes that were released previously. The zombie tiger attack, in particular, is a thrilling set piece, as is the climactic one, the biggest one in the special episode. Netflix has no trouble throwing money at the production of this successful series and it shows throughout this 93-minutes episode. Helped by excellent make-up and CGI, the zombie scenes truly do give tough competition to some of the best out there. Costume design yet again is top notch, this time focusing on tribal Manchu dresses as much as on traditional Joseon ones. The cinematography makes full use of the vast plains, thick forests, tribal villages and army camps to capture some memorable shots.
The casting of Jun Ji-hyun (credited here by her western name Gianna Jun) was a big surprise when announced prior to season 2, but seeing this episode, it makes perfect sense. Returning to acting after 6 years, she is the sole centre of focus here as she takes the audience on a sympathetic ride with Ashin. Her mere screen presence is enough to make the progression from the kindly young girl to the anti-hero Ashin seem perfectly plausible, making the audience cheer her on to take bloody vengeance for everything she has had to got through and more. Nearly dialogue-free for the most part, the scene near the end where she does get to speak turns the writing, which was until then pretty good, to a brilliant level. Jun Ji-hyun selects her projects carefully but when she does, they are, just like “Kingdom: Ashin of the North”, made all the better by her mere presence in them. It's also worth noting just how astonishingly similar young Kim Si-a, cast as the younger Ashin, looks to the adult Jun Ji-hyun.
The biggest question on many people's mind prior to its release was, “Is this special episode really necessary?” Before seeing it, the answer could well have been “No”, because fans of the show would of course like the story to focus on the original characters and setting. Having seen it now though, many would surely change their mind because “Kingdom: Ashin of the North” not only embalms the people's demands to see more “Kingdom”, but also increases anticipation for what's to come for the character and just how troublesome she's going to be for Crown Prince Lee Chang and company in subsequent seasons.
