Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Zombie for Sale Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 12, 2020

There is a very interesting and well done video essay included on Zombie for Sale as a supplement entitled Eat Together, Kill Together: The Family in Peril Comedy, where critic Pierce Conran details what he terms (as indicated by the supplement's very title) a “family in danger” subgenre that has populated Korean cinema for decades. Conran includes a wealth of salient examples in his piece (including last year’s Best Film Academy Award winner, Parasite ), but the most important thing to realize about Zombie for Sale is that the “peril” in this instance is played strictly for laughs. That said, there are certain more serious socioeconomic issues that Zombie for Sale at least alludes to, if not addresses outright, as the film’s focal family, the Parks, are schemers and some might even allege grifters out to better themselves in any way possible in a society that doesn’t always provide them easy access to a so-called “easy” life. While Zombie for Sale perhaps unsurprisingly ultimately features a number of "The Walking Dead" (so to speak), it also has some unexpected plot elements, including a sidebar that almost plays like the zombie version of Cocoon, with elders discovering a "fountain of youth", at least temporarily, after having been bitten by one of the feral shambling creatures.

While the zombie (Jung Ga-ram), a product of some pharmaceutical shenanigans, is seen emerging from an partially buried barrel early in the film, we actually get to know the Parks (for better or worse) before the actual “zombie antics” begin. Jun-gul (Jung Jae-young) is attempting to keep his family in house and home (or at least their combo gas station / domicile) by running a tow truck scam where he leaves spikes on a country road that unsuspecting visitors drive over and then get a flat tire from. Jun-gul lurks in waiting behind some nearby trees and magically arrives to “save” them with his tow truck, accepting only cash as payment. It’s just the first clue that the Parks are willing to “push the envelope” in order to survive.

The other Parks include Joon-gul's pregnant wife Nam-joo (Um Ji-Won), his brother Min-gul (Kim Nam-Gil) his sister Hye-gul (Lee Soo-kyung) and the kids' widower father Man-deok (Park In-hwan). Meanwhile, the zombie, whom Hae-Gul ultimately names Zzong-bie, has started stumbling around some rather incredibly scenic locations (the film is almost intentionally anachronistic in how it features bright, sunny outdoor locations, not always the center of zombie films). An unexpected showdown between Man-Deok and the about the be rechristened Zzong-bie results in Man-Deok getting bitten, but rather surprisingly he doesn't immediately morph into one of the "undead", but instead seems to get an entirely new lease on life. That of course only sparks the always machinating Parks into thinking they, kind of like Zzong-bie himself, may have stumbled onto something unexpected, and in this case probably quite lucrative.

Suffice it to say that the Parks' attempts to "reinvigorate" the populace of course leads to disastrous consequences, which is when the film begins to resemble more "traditional" zombie outings. Even here, though, things are played resolutely (or at least almost resolutely) for laughs, with a lot of sight gags and shtick filling the film. There's a romantic subplot of sorts between Hae-Gul and Zzong-bie which will probably remind some viewers of films like Warm Bodies, though this film has a probably more consistently outlandish sense of humor about events.

Note: Spellings of the transliterations for both the characters and performers portraying them are all over the place in various online databases. I've followed the spellings in Arrow's insert booklet for this review.

Zombie for Sale Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Zombie for Sale is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.38:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains only the following pretty generic verbiage about the presentation:

Zombie for Sale / Gimyohan gajok is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio [sic]* with Uncompressed Stereo and 5.1 Surround sound. The High Definition master was provide by M-Line Distribution.

This is another film of relatively recent vintage that I haven't been able to track down much if any technical information on, though in a kind of weird little datapoint, one of the few credits for the film that the IMDb lists is for "digital intermediate producers", which I think may be the only time I've seen that particular credit. In any case, the recent vintage of the film may have helped to support this generally excellent looking presentation, one that offers a really nicely vivid palette, especially in the many outdoor scenes, and some nice fine detail that understandably perks up considerably during close-ups. There's not a ton of grading in the film, though the rain drenched opening is bathed in cobalt blues and some later material after Jjong-bi is more or less taken captive features a prevalence of golden ambers and yellows, but detail levels remain nicely consistent throughout for the most part, with only some intermittent deficits in shadow detail.

*The IMDb lists the film's original aspect ratio as 2.39:1, which makes the disc's aspect ratio more or less correct.

Zombie for Sale Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Zombie for Sale features both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 tracks in the original Korean, with optional English subtitles. The surround track nicely opens up the outdoor material in particular, and some of the film's fun underscore also is noticeably more spacious in this version. The stereo track still has decent separation, but the music in particular can sound a bit more focused and less dispersed. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout, and there are no problems of any kind to report.

Zombie for Sale Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Q & A with Director Lee Min-Jae (1080p; 12:55) is from a 2019 screening at Asian Pop-Up Cinerama in Chicago, and is moderated by Darcy Paquet. Lee's comments are subtitled.


• Eat Together, Kill Together: The Family in Peril Comedy (1080p; 19:40) is a really interesting and well done overview, as noted above. I'd even suggest starting with this and then moving on to the film, at least for those who want to put this into some kind of "Korean cinema" context.


• Making of Featurette (1080p; 4:24) is a short Korean piece that looks like it might have been done for television. In Korean with English subtitles.


• Behind the Scenes offer two brief "segments" in Korean with English subtitles:

  Segment 1 (1080p; 1:02)

  
  

  Segment 2 (1080p; 1:03)

• Original Trailer (1080p; 1:20)


• Audio Commentary with Sam Ashurst and Dan Martin

As usual, Arrow has also provided a nicely appointed insert booklet, with lots of stills and an essay by Josh Hurtado.

Zombie for Sale Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Zombie for Sale is a rather sweet and often quite funny enterprise, and it manages to build its humor out of both well established characters and some inventive sight gags. Things of course get into almost farcical chaotic territory in the final act in particular, and the film does have a few lapses in internal logic, but anyone wanting a few laughs in an at least intermittently angst ridden context may well find this unusually entertaining. Technical merits are solid, and as usual Arrow has provided some appealing supplements. Recommended.