BEST REVENGE EVER!!! | "Ashin: Kingdom of the North" Movie Review

Hey y’alll, it’s me, Adrienne, and today I decided to watch Ashin: Kingdom of the North, it was released on January 23, 2021. It was realeased after season 2 of the series but the story of this movie is actually the prequel of the season 1 of Kingdom. It gathered a lot of attention and praises especially Jun Ji-hyun’s amazing acting and how well she portrayed Ashin’s character. And here’s what I thought about the movie.

CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!

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ASHIN’S FATHER IS ALIVE?!

You have no idea how shocked was when I saw Ashin’s father alive, but he was treated poorly, his arms and legs were cut off, ‘cause he was a spy and he betrayed his own kind. Imagine all the pain, mistreatments and hardships he went through, young Ashin has grown up into a lady and throughout those years, he was being abused. It makes me wonder what if Ashin found out about it earlier? Would things change? What will happen?

And don’t get me started on when Ashin burned the Pajeowi Military Camp, like yasss girl!! Get it!!! Nah, just kidding HAHAHAHA.

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WHEN ASHIN FOUND OUT ABOUT HOW JOSEON PLANNED IT ALL ALONG

So yeah, as I said, I was delighted that Ashin burned that military camp down and finally got her revenge but that delightfulness didn’t last long when I found out that JOSEON BETRAYED THEM!! Seriously, these things reminded me why I have trust issues. Like girl.. from the very start, Ashin’s father was loyal to Joseon (because they offered them land to build their own village, but ofc, even in this era, nothing is free and that’s how her father became a spy for Joseon) but they betrayed them.

Even after the boundary village was burned down and Ashin’s people were all killed, the first place she went to was Joseon and even asked to avenge his father’s death in exchange for everything (she was willing to be a butcher and even a spy!) I mean, even if Joseon is CLEARLY mistreating them, she still trusted them.

Joseon had the Pajeowi Jurchens and seongjeoyain (this is what Ashin’s people are referred to) wrapped around their own hands. How clever…and cruel. I mean, at first, the Pajeowi Jurchens knew that it was the men of Joseon, specifically that guy from the Haewon Cho Clan along with his elite guards, who killed their brothers and they were planning to have a bloody revenge against them. But Joseon knew that they don’t stand a chance against the Pajeowi Jurchens so they had to play dirty and put the blame on the seongjoyain.

I can’t fathom what Ashin must’ve felt the moment she found out about how Joseon betrayed them. All those years, she was a slave to those guys, only to find out years later that it was them who tricked the Pajeowi Jurchens, resulting to the death of his father, their village, and her people (most were slayed with a sword and some were hanged to death). What a plot twist.

Now in this scene, I had goosebumps, ‘cause you can see that Ashin is mad, plus the flashbacks, and the background music is like trying to tell you that something bloody is going to happen next.

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ASHIN’S ONE-OF-A-KIND REVENGE

Okay, I know that it was kinda impossible, but I was expecting that she would kill all the Joseon men one by one and that’s how she got her revenge. But no, that wasn’t what happened LMAOOO. She killed one Joseon man, turned him into a zombie mashing that plant that “brings the dead back to life” and putting it on an acupuncture needle them piercing that needle one pun deep into the glabellar and had it attack the rest of the Joseon men and then all of them became zombies. SO AMAZINGGG!! SPLENDID INDEED!!!

Also, she killed everyone who tried to escape the village, who was hiding from the zombies and everyone who has not turned into a zombie yet. DESURVVVV!! YASSS!!! THIS KIND OF REVENGE IS UNIQUE AND IT DESERVES A STANDING APPPLAUSE ISTG!! I didn’t expect that that would happen (‘cause halfway of the movie, I thought there weren’t going to be any zombies) but it did and it is really commendable!!

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MY GUESS ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED IN THE LAST SCENES

So in this scene, Girl…at first, I was like “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? WHAT HAPPENED?” And then after a while, I realized that those were her people.

Remember when that man said that Ashin buried all of the bodies? Well, surprise surprise, she didn’t actually bury them, she made them into a zombie so in that way, she’ll never feel lonely, I guess.

So yeah, they were zombies since that day when the Pajeowi Jurchens attacked and burned their village. I also had goosebumps when Ashin said, “I am not lonely. We are together so I am not lonely. When my job here is done, after I kill every living thing on Joseon and Jurchen soil, I will join you.” So that means, she’ll feed herself to her people, who are now zombies?

And in that last last scene, where she offers the plant to that physician, saying that it can bring the dead back to life, that’s where the story of Kingdom (the series) starts and it was all because of Ashin’s revenge.