The author of this article is written by @Min Sijia
Movies can explain what can't
Wasteland, the end times, masks, yellow sand all over the sky, plus speeding cars, what do you think?
Probably most people's first reaction is "Mad Max".
Recently, Netflix's sci-fi Korean drama "Doom Knight" was probably made with such an "imitation" attitude.
Unfortunately, after the release of the full episode last Friday, "Doom Knight" only received a passing score on Douban, although it came up with a popular handsome guy like Song Seung-hyun + Kim Woo-bin, but the finished film effect was disappointing.
This may be related to the fact that the series mixes and matches too many common, old-fashioned doomsday elements in similar film dramas.
"Doom Knight" is adapted from the webtoon, and the basic setting is the Doomsday Wasteland world that we are familiar with.
In 2071, because the comet hit the earth, most of the continents sank, and the Korean Peninsula became a desert that was difficult to survive, and only 1% of the original population survived.
Due to serious air pollution and extremely low oxygen content, people can basically no longer breathe on the surface of the earth, must wear oxygen equipment, and have developed oxygen devices. Oxygen, thus becoming a scarce survival resource.
Due to the setting of resource scarcity, the common class division in the doomsday utopian genre also appears unsurprisingly in Doom Knight.
Through a specific QR code, survivors are divided into different levels. People with QR codes are divided into three levels: general, special, and core -
Especially with the core group, of course, the elite class, who live below the surface, where there are modern buildings built by technology and a comfortable environment.
The general population can only live in houses made of concrete on the surface, relying on oxygen and other materials regularly sent by "couriers". There is yellow sand at your doorstep, and there is no living experience at all.
But it is already worth "rejoicing" to become a general population, because at least you still have a residence and a QR code to prove your identity.
Another group of larger groups, which do not even have QR codes, can only fend for themselves in the desert and are classified as "refugees". Many refugees are struggling to survive, so they live by snatching supplies delivered by "couriers" in the desert and working as "hunters".
The story of "Doom Knight" begins with the "courier" who transports supplies.
The couriers here are different from the delivery guys and couriers we already know, they are both part of the screws of this huge utopian machine and chivalrous figures.
They have to carry out the official work of transporting supplies on the one hand, and on the other hand, they have to resist the invasion of hunters, so they need to have excellent combat capabilities.
The protagonist of the story, the courier 5-8 played by Kim Woo Bin, although he only belongs to the "ordinary people" class who barely make a living, but has become the benchmark of the group with his strong combat ability.
In contrast, Yoo Seok, played by Song Seung-heon, is the son of the boss of the consortium, the ruler, and the absolute core class, but he also faces the dilemma of how to get more real power from his father.
The overall story does seem to have a lot to offer.
For example, two male protagonists, one white and one black, a classic combination of low-level resistance to high-level;
For example, fragmented societies and class relations that rely on weak connections to sustain them;
For example, the setting of wearing a mask when the sky is full of yellow sand and going out also overlaps with the current reality.
But despite this, audiences familiar with the apocalyptic theme should already be able to see many existing elements from the story of "Doom Knight".
First of all, in the doomsday world, the setting of the class determines the living environment, which is easily reminiscent of the different carriages in "Snowpiercer", but "The Last Knight" turns it up, turning it into a surface VS class division in the depth dimension.
The setting of the legendary courier 5-8 delivering supplies is clearly influenced by the classic game "Death Stranding". In the apocalyptic world of this game, players can control a protagonist named Sam to travel through the map and complete the delivery of goods.
Because the doomsday form is set as a desert full of yellow sand, "Doom Knight" has filmed a lot of scenes of fighting, chasing, and racing in the yellow sand, and these visual spectacles make up most of the apocalyptic sense of the series, but if you have seen "Mad Max 4: Fury Road", the yellow sand fighting/chase scene in "Doom Knight" is not even a tribute.
"Mad Max 4", a wild picture shot in real life
It clearly wanted to create a world in a wasteland aesthetic, but the lack of layers of loess space, the lack of innovative desert racing, the overt post-effects and the plastic feel of the studio shot made it a parody of Mad Max 4: Fury Road.
Even the setting of oxygen as a scarce resource is clearly a use of water scarcity in Mad Max 4: Fury Road.
In addition to film and television classics, "Doom Knight" does not forget to rub a wave of current hot "Squid Games" or "The Hunger Games".
In addition to the legendary courier 5-8, the series also weaves another narrative line: the growth path of Yin April, a refugee teenager without a QR code.
Yin April was adopted by the army major Xue'e, but always wanted to see the outside world, 5-8's deeds are the spiritual food he repeatedly chewed, he dreamed of becoming a legendary courier like 5-8, got the QR code and identity, and entered a class, so he signed up for the "Courier Competition".
Originally, at the beginning of the story, we were still curious about Yin April's identity, he seemed to be a little different from ordinary people, obviously shot but fine.
Where do teenagers come from? Why was it adopted? But these curiosity was soon drowned out by the life-and-death gladiatorial struggle of countless people vying to be "couriers".
This is like following "Squid Game" and choosing a lazy creation, I think the audience loves to watch the fight between competitors, but this "courier competition" in "Doom Knight" is very chicken.
It does not have the contrast of suddenly implanting murderous qi in childish games in "Squid Game", nor the refreshing feeling of wild survival and the final victory of the big heroine in "The Hunger Games", and the final impression to the audience is pure hand-to-hand combat with visual fatigue.
An apocalyptic story can have many ways to succeed.
Either build the world, make the audience empathize with the characters, or even create despair. "Doom Knight" has neither succeeded in learning existing cases nor developing its own patterns, and even the depiction of the so-called apocalypse can hardly bring a suffocating sense of despair.
Perhaps the most "desperate" part of it is that it has borrowed so many classic elements, but it is still so mediocre.