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Happy Ju Ji Hoon day: Dissecting actor's Kingdom role and its dynamic growth in zombie apocalypse K-drama
Ju Ji Hoon, the versatile actor turns 42 years today on May 16. To celebrate the day, let’s get to know his role in the zombie series Kingdom through a detailed breakdown. Read on!
Kingdom is considered a masterpiece that molds a jolting narrative using the overused zombie trope. Actor Ju Ji Hoon embodies the protagonist character in this series, and his role garnered quite an impression for its dynamic expedition throughout the two seasons. Amid the power-hungry politicians at play, his ‘crown prince’ character takes a few chances to save his ‘kingdom’ from the terrifying zombie outbreak. While his true warrior behavior is laudable, the question remains about the character’s final fate.
Today, on the powerhouse actor Ju Ji Hoon’s birthday, we will try to find an answer to this.
What is Ju Ji Hoon's popular series, Kingdom, all about?
To analyze Ju Ji Hoon’s character in Kingdom. It is important to run through the drama’s plot. Set against the backdrop of the chaotic Joseon dynasty, the ‘kingdom’ is steered by a diseased monarchy, whose greed for power and wealth endangers the commoners’ lives more than the zombie outbreak does.
The series kicks off with a sneak peek into the political plots being orchestrated inside the royal palace. Lee Chang (played by Ju Ji Hoon), the crown prince, is set to take the throne after the current king, whose whereabouts are a little questionable. Meanwhile, the cunning Queen consort Cho (played by Kim Hye Jun), who is pregnant with the king’s child, schemes with her more evil father, Lord Cho Hak Ju (Ryu Seung Ryong).
They plan to overthrow the current crown prince and have the forthcoming child be coronated to be the next king.
Ju Ji Hoon's crown prince character's fight begins in the royal palace
Ju Ji Hoon excels at the crown prince Lee Chang character, which is molded with intricate layers that deliver insights into his actions. Let’s have a thorough look into his journey through the thrilling episodes of Kingdom
In the beginning, Chang appears to be an entitled crown prince who is mostly concerned about his upcoming throne, unaware of the civilians’ lives outside the palace. While it may make him look like a power-hungry person, in reality, he just didn’t have any power at all to care about the commoners. He might be the King’s first son, but his deceased mother wasn’t from any noble family, which endangers his throne anyway.
Moreover, with the King’s prolonged absence, he is all alone fighting against the evil Cho clan, who are secretly planning to take over the whole kingdom.
But Lee Chang learns about their scheme a lot later, when things already get out of hand. Previously, whenever he requested to visit his ‘royal highness’, Queen Consort Cho always stopped him. At that time, it was prohibited to visit the king, and the Cho clan made sure to spread the news that he was suffering from contagious smallpox.
When the King seems to be not returning and rumors spread that the Cho clan has seized power, the crown prince tries to find the truth. But what he comes across is a blood-hungry monster lurking in the palace, and that’s when he overhears from the guards that the ‘royal highness’ has gone missing.
Suspicious Lee Chang tells his only loyal friend, his personal guard, to snatch the King’s health’s royal record. When he comes back with the journal, the last entry, “what troubles the royal highness has no aid”, only deepens the mystery.
From palace to street: Ju Ji Hoon battles against both the living and undead
This takes the crown prince into the second step of his upcoming perilous journey, which he is even unaware of at this point. To find the royal physician who made the entries in the King’s record, he sneaks out of the palace with only his loyal guard by his side. They set out to visit the physician in a village named Jiyulheon. But when they reach there, they are welcomed by only a gory scene—all the bodies of townspeople piled up on each other.
As a crown prince, he ordered the local magistrate to investigate the bodies and what could have caused this mass ‘death’.
But a female physician, Seol Bi (played by Bae Doona), who somehow escaped the unknown phenomenon, returns to the scene and explains why the bodies should be burned before the sunset. The physician explains that those bodies are in fact ‘alive’ despite looking dead, and once awake, they will attack the living. But no one believes it and when night falls, the town gets a taste of the truth.
At this point, Lee Chang, who has been away from home now and already gotten entangled in this unknown outbreak, understands that the Cho clan might have something to do with it. He also harbors the thought that solving this would help him find a cure for the king. He joins hands with Seol Bi to stop this horrific situation once and for all. Thus, his journey begins, filled with many bloodbaths, remorse, frustration, and a lot more.
While, initially, Lee Chang starts to annihilate the undead in order to protect his throne from the evil Cho clan, his character goes through major changes over the course of the whole series. While meeting the commoners’ struggle to survive, he becomes one with them. Soon, his journey becomes more about saving the ‘kingdom’ than protecting the throne.
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