A feel-good zombie comedy juggles horror, heart and humor with dexterity
Korean cinema showed up fashionably late to the zombie party. But when it finally arrived with 2016’s “Train to Busan,” it more than proved it could hold its own.
Now we’re dealing with an even quirkier subspecies: The so-called zom-com, a hybrid genre as awkwardly constructed as its shambling subjects.
From cult favorites like “Shaun of the Dead” to “Warm Bodies” and “Zombieland,” this mash-up of horror and comedy has staked out real cinematic territory — one that turns blood-soaked chaos into unexpected belly laughs. Korea’s earliest foray into this space might be 2019’s “Zombie for Sale,” which spun the undead into a get-rich-quick scheme gone predictably sideways.
Enter “My Daughter is a Zombie,” based on the popular webtoon of the same name. It takes the zom-com formula one step further by throwing earnest family melodrama into an already volatile mix.
The story centers on Jung-hwan (Jo Jung-seok), a zookeeper and devoted single father raising his teenage daughter Soo-ah (Choi Yu-ri) through the familiar turbulence of adolescence. She’s got the classic puberty playbook on display — rolling her eyes at her dad, brushing off his well-meaning questions, and delivering dry comebacks with teenaged flair.
Their occasional moments of connection come through a shared love of dance. Jung-hwan, once an aspiring performer, now bonds with his daughter by helping her rehearse K-pop routines for her school talent show — including, rather quaintly, BoA’s 2002 hit “Number One.”
But the everyday bickering comes to a halt when the zombie apocalypse strikes. The two watch in disbelief as their neighbors begin devouring each other in the street — mistaking the carnage at first for passionate lovemaking. The reality hits when a zombified neighbor crashes through their apartment window, and emergency broadcasts confirm their worst fears. Jung-hwan grabs Soo-ah and makes a run for his mother’s home in the countryside, but the escape takes a devastating turn when Soo-ah is bitten during their frantic getaway.
Despite its sunny title and cartoonish promotional materials, “My Daughter is a Zombie” doesn’t shy away from legitimate horror tropes. Soo-ah’s transformation sequence is surprisingly intense — bulging veins, clouded pupils, basically the full undead makeover. After a chaotic slapstick scuffle in the car that ends with Jung-hwan knocking his daughter unconscious, he straps her in and speeds toward his hometown, dodging military helicopters and roadblocks along the way.
Once they arrive at grandmother Bam-soon’s (Lee Jung-eun) house, Jung-hwan tries to keep the truth under wraps. But when Bam-soon discovers her granddaughter’s condition, she’s more irritated than alarmed. Wielding a wooden back scratcher like a weapon and armed with a sharp tongue, she instantly asserts dominance. The zombified Soo-ah, cowed by her grandmother’s presence, behaves like a scolded puppy. Still, the question lingers: What now?
After agonizing over whether to put his daughter down, Jung-hwan starts noticing glimmers of humanity in her behavior. Most strikingly, Soo-ah responds to familiar K-pop songs — reflexively moving through bits of choreography.
Encouraged by a dubious YouTube clip suggesting that memory triggers can reverse zombie symptoms, Jung-hwan launches a desperate, increasingly bonkers rehabilitation mission: Retraining his daughter like one of the animals at his zoo. He’s soon joined by childhood friend Dong-bae (Yoon Kyung-ho), a well-meaning but somewhat hapless pharmacist who offers comic relief and steady support.
Things grow more complicated when Jung-hwan crosses paths with his childhood crush Yeon-hwa (Cho Yeo-jeong), now a middle school teacher. Yeon-hwa, still traumatized by her own zombie-related past, is now a militant anti-undead crusader determined to stamp out any infected survivors. As suspicions grow and the authorities close in, Jung-hwan is forced to go to greater lengths to shield Soo-ah — while confronting long-buried family rifts along the way.
At its core, “My Daughter is a Zombie” traffics primarily in anodyne feel-good vibes, following a predictable emotional arc that trades logic for crowd-pleasing sentiment. It isn’t chasing profound insights into humanity — and to its credit, it doesn’t pretend otherwise.
Its shortcomings are fairly easy to spot: The film occasionally loses momentum in meandering slice-of-life interludes that feel more like a webcomic vignette than a feature film. And for a film billing itself as a comedy, the humor can be hit-or-miss — the slapstick is plentiful, but not always sharp.
Still, it would be a mistake to dismiss the film outright. Some movies manage to transform their clunkiness into charm, and “My Daughter is a Zombie” comes close to hitting that sweet spot.
The key lies in its bold tonal shifts — gripping suspense undercut by slapstick gags, gut-punch drama interrupted by biting one-liners — which sound ridiculous on paper but click in practice.
In an early escape sequence, Jung-hwan and Soo-ah avoid detection by mimicking zombie movements through dance — a stunt so over-the-top it becomes unexpectedly delightful. Elsewhere, a tense debate over whether to mercy-kill Soo-ah is derailed by a cultural in-joke about MBTI personality types. These sharp left turns, rather than feeling disjointed, become part of the film’s distinct comic rhythm. And when the film drops the comedy to lean into sincerity — especially in its audacious finale — it does so with just enough conviction to land the emotional payoff.
Much of this tonal balancing act works because of the cast. Jo Jung-seok, a reliable box office draw (“Pilot” drew 4.7 million viewers; “Exit” pulled in 9.4 million), is in his element here. As the awkward but fiercely loving father, he moves fluidly between goofball gags and gut-punch emotion, grounding the film even in its wildest moments.
Lee Jung-eun is equally convincing as Bam-soon, delivering a mix of crusty wit and tough love that’s both hilarious and oddly touching — much of it reportedly improvised. And 16-year-old Choi Yu-ri gives a breakthrough performance, managing to project both feral intensity and lingering innocence from beneath layers of prosthetic makeup. Her zombie Soo-ah is part monster, part misbehaving pet — and somehow, still heartbreakingly human.
Will “My Daughter is a Zombie” defy expectations and become one of the summer’s surprise hits? While it’s far from a genre reinvention, it’s hard not to root for it. At a time when high-budget blockbusters are tanking one after another, a modest film with genuine laughs and heartfelt moments might be exactly what audiences need.
“My Daughter is a Zombie” hits theaters July 30.
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