First of all, this drama was really attractive in that it made good use of the genius worldview that can only be created during the COVID-19 era. The worldview of Happiness is meaningful in that it has thrown a new perspective and point of view and another subject to discuss in zombie films.
In the zombie films that have been released so far, the distinction between humans and zombies is clear. However, the zombie setting in Happiness is somewhat unique. Even if you become a zombie, zombie symptoms do not continue to appear, and after a certain period of time, you will not see any symptoms at all, and you can overcome the symptoms of biting and tearing zombies through patience.
This setting blurs the boundary between humans and zombies by making the zombie virus a simple madman “disease” and the zombies “infected”. In other words, zombies were treated as contagious diseases like Corona. However, when the symptoms of the contagious disease manifest, it goes beyond being violent, and just shows a desire for blood and biting people.
So I think that a more diverse group of people could be expressed even within the limited background of an apartment. In particular, the infected who try to hold on to the opposite sex and overcome the madman disease, the infected who lose their reason and try to bite people somehow to quench their thirst, those who selfishly take advantage of the apocalypse situation and those who end up being used, and the madman There are so many different characters, such as people who still try to treat sick patients as human beings.
In particular, I personally think that these characters were used very well to express what the drama wanted to do. This is clearly revealed in the part that shows the conflict between the infected people who try not to harm the people around them as much as possible even though they are infected, and the human group who selfishly tries to take advantage. Through this, it was more effectively highlighted that the scariest thing is not the sick person, but the selfish person.
Perhaps thanks to such detailed directing, Happiness felt that the progress of the play was smooth and flowed without a loose feeling, even though it had a relatively small scale and few thrill points compared to other zombies such as Kingdom or The Walking Dead. Therefore, I would like to say that it is a well-made masterpiece even though there are many regrets.
And even if there are some regrets, I think the combination of director Ahn Gil-ho and writer Han Sang-woon was so perfect that I can’t really comment on it. Especially in the directing part, I think that the many decalcomani scenes that appear have contributed to the goosebumps felt while watching the drama.
The direction I liked the most was the one that zooms out the whole view of the apartment as if implicitly showing that room 101, which had been discriminated against for being the first infected person, has now become a haven for the only survivors and at the same time spreads madness throughout the apartment. I still remember. In addition to this, the elevator production (deleted detailed impressions and contents related to the scene because it was judged to be a spoiler) was also quite impressive.
On the other hand, the OST is really good. When watching a drama, the music can be said to have been used well. When watching the drama, the music is not felt (it is not intrusive), so it feels like the actor’s breathing, but when you listen to it afterwards, a specific scene unfolds vividly in front of your eyes. I think. Songs by artist Joe Layne were used a lot in this drama, and I got a lot of impressions that it captured the shady yet sweet subtle feeling well.
I think it was very suitable for the genre of zombies, human groups, and intermittent romance. I think I will deliberately look for music director Kim Tae-sung’s works in the future.
After watching the final episode, what I liked the most was our Navocado (played by Na Su-min). The fact that the hero who saved the world wasn’t the main character, and that this hero was a really ordinary office worker who only knew his family was so fresh and nice. In addition, the main character also showed an infection, and I also received the feeling that the heroic tendency of many dramas, especially zombies, was greatly restrained.
But there are still so many questions. Saebom and Lee Hyun’s happy appearance is really good, but the fact that there are still questions about the characters’ settings is not a perfect ending to the genre, so I think the story of happiness is not over yet.First of all, another main character, Han Tae-seok, who held the key to the madman crisis. If this person’s later story had come out even a little bit, I think it might have been a more convincing and more complete ending.
However, the fact that there was not even a word of mention about him in the ending made me suspicious of the absurdity of whether the actor Jo Woo-jin, who was the actor of the role, was set as the main character to write the name on the poster. I don’t think I would have felt this much regret if the story about his family, including whether or not he was responsible for his inhumane behavior, had come out instead of the melodrama scene in the final episode.
In particular, the child with the infected wife, Young-in, could have been a fairly important figure in the madman outbreak, but it is all the more regrettable that this setting was not properly utilized. Whether the fetus that lived in the body of an infected person for 3-4 months was born as an infected person, or whether it became a strong antibody holder and took the lead in saving mankind would have been an interesting story development element, but I feel resentful of the writer for missing such an important setting. Of course, to include this kind of content, wouldn’t a season system be essential… I think it’s season two.
There are still questions about other characters and settings. The method of getting the antibodies to the brain, which continued to be difficult in the play, the reason why Oh Joo-hyung did not get infected even after eating Next, and whether the severely infected people trapped in the refrigerated truck were all returned after being hit by Navocado’s antibody, Seung-young This is why he came back as a vegetarian, why everyone is crazy about bloody meat even after getting antibodies… I’m upset because there are so many gem-like contents and rice cakes that have not been solved even now that the show has ended.
And in particular, it was very disappointing that he couldn’t properly utilize the setting of Mr. Kim Se-hun in No. 1201 and killed him right at the point where the play was heightened. Also, it was very disappointing that the effective role of the killer Andrew in the play was not so great. Kim Se-hoon left after playing a role that completely reversed the atmosphere of the play, so personally, Andrew was very upset because he thought that there would be a minimal narrative while watching the drama from the beginning.
As shown at the beginning of the play, he was so resolute even in the face of a rush of infectious diseases, and he kept trying to hide his face. So I guess he got his face bitten as the very first infected person in this outbreak, but he has the antibodies and he’s still alive and well. So this kind of thinking led me to a pretty sharp inference that he might have escaped like this to avoid high-ranking officials who were targeting his antibodies.
If it wasn’t for this direction, I thought that he might be a person who is related to the pharmaceutical company that spread NeXT as a villain, so he could be a person who receives instructions from his superiors (as expected, who has madness) and carries out a mission to bring people with antibodies from the field. But really, it was literally just a “tattoo serial killer”. He didn’t hide his face and wasn’t bitten because he was just a wanted criminal.
He could have been used as a character with a lot in his hands as he was a mysterious figure who drew various speculations, but it was honestly very unfortunate that he was made into one of the final villains that only heightened the play. And if he was a serial killer, why didn’t he just kill the residents in the first place, It is also curious whether it only revealed its true nature right before the final blockade was lifted. However, given the nature of the 12-episode drama, there were some parts that were inevitably difficult to solve, so I will limit the criticism to this extent.
As a person who waited until the final episode for happiness to come not only to the main characters, but also to everyone around me, I was disappointed in many aspects.
In fact, I am very curious about the real ending of Happiness. I think this drama is a really well-made work in that there can be various interpretations of the meaning of the ending.
Only after the final scene of the drama is over, the ‘e’ that has been running throughout the play in Happiness finally returns (see the gif above). If you think of it as a sad ending and look at it, in fact, no one has gained objective happiness from this drama. All of them went through the process of realizing true happiness in the midst of the outbreak of madman disease. I think the production was intended to mean that in the process of the returned e returning, the preciousness of the happiness enjoyed in the past came to be felt.
Therefore, from this point of view, it is possible to interpret that the pleasant scenes at the end are all the happiness that Saebom longed for while dreaming of happiness, and it could be Saebom’s dream or fantasy. Concerns about this conclusion continued to bother me because Lee Hyun-yi was shot by Andrew and immediately faded out after lowering his head, leaving out too much content that should have followed.
Over the course of a year, so many things have suddenly been sorted out, and the bright atmosphere, which is in contrast to the last scene, came to me personally very differently. Was it really necessary to go beyond that time by using ‘n years later’, which Koreans hate the most? So, what if Lee Hyun-yi was dead at the time she lowered her head?
Considering the frequent use of paradoxes in many works of art, I wonder if the two scenes, which are too far apart, were put together to emphasize the paradox that happiness did not actually come. Anyway, in conclusion, what the author wanted to say seems to be that happiness is about who you are with. Saebom realized that being with Lee Hyun-yi, whether they were together or apart, brought happiness, and this fact was conveyed to the viewers (at least me,,,), so ultimately, it seems that the author has achieved his intended purpose.
Even if it was just a happy ending without having to think so profoundly (and as a result of watching the commentary, it was really just a happy ending..!), I think it is a drama with a high topicality because it is appropriately mixed with criticism of these days’ society. It feels like it ended with a wacky melodrama, but it dealt with many discrimination and problems in reality, such as the reflection of the corona reality situation, the elderly’s use of kiosks, the real estate price problem, and the rental discrimination problem, through various groups of people in the apartment. is considered to have significant implications for
I think this work was good enough that it gave me so much room to think about in one ending. Of course, as much as I expected too much, I felt a lot of regret and discouragement, but I still enjoyed watching it the whole time.
