For viewers who are easily sidetracked like me, the references to other kdramas in this show is such a catnip that the mystery of Zombie’s death and Santa Killer’s identity fall by the wayside.
Me: Who’s Santa? What’s going on? Huh?
First, let’s get the pop culture out of the way, shall we?
Episode 2. When Zombie couldn’t remember what martial arts was part of his skill set, he demonstrated in front of a karate class. He was parodying Bruce Lee.
This waa Zombie with a jump rope.
This was Bruce Lee with nunchucks.
Episode 4. When SunJi was hanging outside his window and showing him messages written on notepad, that scene was copied from the movie, “Love Actually.” Zombie scoffed that she watched too many dramas.
From “Love Actually”
Episode 5. SunJi’s brother-in-law (or hyeongbu in Korean) thought that the name of the movie she was watching on her laptop was “Hyeongbu” or 형부. The camera then focused on the movie poster on the wall, “Train to Busan” or “Busanhaeng” or 부산행.
🤔 Is “Haeng-Bu” a trendy slang for Busanhaeng? I didn’t get that joke.
There was also this scene when the rival detective Lee SungRok covered Zombie’s face.
That was spoofed from Mr. Sunshine.
![SPOILERS!!!][ddoboja reviews] Mr. Sunshine ~ ddoboja blog • Let's Watch It Again](https://i0.wp.com/4.bp.blogspot.com/-9xRz6GX3AvE/W89qvzxbN3I/AAAAAAAAIVU/UzPKbd5qYx8nv7ShwoX0CLNDWuMwm6x7ACK4BGAYYCw/s1600/mrsun-hands.gif?ssl=1)
gif credit: ddoboja’s blog
Episode 6. SunJi was picking the brains of her best friend for info on amnesiacs. She said that a lot of dramas featured an amnesiac character. This was self-referential or meta, because this kdrama actually is about a character with amnesia, Zombie.
Back in their office, Zombie was watching a kdrama and wondering if he was an heir. This was a shout-out to his kdrama with Lee MinHo, “Heirs,” but the background music was an homage to Lee MinHo’s “Boys Over Flowers.”
In his fantasy, he was a rich man with a corporation to run and plenty of food to eat. After dining, he’d listen to kpop. He was listening to “Heartbeat” by 2PM. I knew this because of Ok Taecyeon.
Here’s zombie, so happy that he could actually hear his heartbeat.
Here’s Taecyeon rapping this part.
The background music here was the OST from “Jewel in the Palace” started. “Jewel in the Palace” is about a servant girl who became a royal cook then a royal physician.
Here’s the OST. It’s called “Onara.”
Ah! Before I forget —
The melody that SunJi’s unni was humming as she backed up her motorcycle was “Fur Elise.”
I thought this was funny because it reminded of that time I was in Asia, and the car I was riding on, suddenly began playing “Fur Elise” loudly as it backed up. The music startled me; nobody in the US ever played back-up music.
The umbrella scene in the forest is borrowed from the umbrella scene in “Temptation of Wolves,” only Zombie did it in reverse. He was pulling the umbrella down to cover his face, while Kang Dongwon was lifting the umbrella up to reveal his face.
And I’m sure this scene has a drama reference but I don’t know what it is for now.
This one, too. Please, if anybody figures them out the kdrama reference, please share here. Thanks!
Now, let’s move on to the mystery part of the show.
This is what we heard about “Santa” from the news report:
Kim Sori was kidnapped on Dec 25, 2018. The killer was very meticulous because he even sprayed the CCTV. And the video captured him wearing a Santa outfit.
Snow had fallen overnight so all clues or evidence that could be helpful to the case were lost. Four months after the kidnapping, the child’s body was found in a reservoir. The police said that the possible motive for the abduction and murder of the child was a grudge towards the child’s father. Mr. Kim was a president of a trading company, and a subject of a TV investigative reporting a month prior to the kidnapping. According to a witness Mr. Oh Hyungchul, the killer was in his late 30s and had a scar on his cheek.
The facial composite sketch of the alleged killer was shown on TV.
He looked like Zombie to me. The scar matched.
I don’t know what Mr. Oh, the eyewitness, hoped to achieve by framing a dead man for murder. I’ve no doubt that Mr. Oh was somehow involved in the child’s abduction since he kept the missing stuffed rabbit. But I don’t get why he voluntarily stepped out of anonymity and inserted himself in an open police investigation by posing as a witness.
At any rate, after speaking on the TV, Mr. Oh claimed that the killer came after him, and attacked him from behind with a knife.
Then, he positively identified his assailant as the child-killer/Santa. That sounded dubious to be. How could he have seen his attacker’s face when the attacker was behind him? He had no visible defensive wound so it didn’t look like he wrestled with his attacker.
As for his mother, she has dementia. She may or may not be speaking the truth when she confused Zombie as her son. But it wouldn’t be far-fetched to imagine Zombie as her other son since Mr. Oh seemed familiar with Zombie, too.
However, if Mr. Oh was indeed Zombie’s brother, and if Mr. Oh was the one who shot and killed Zombie, then why did he need to blindfold Zombie, drag him in the middle of nowhere, and cover his face up with a hoodie? They knew each other, right? There was no need for secrecy. Or did he not want his brother to see his face as he killed him? lol. If he was feeling guilty for killing his own blood and kin, then he shouldn’t have killed him.
As for the lighter, it did seem to be custom-made. It looked like one of those Zippo lighters that can be personalized.
Zombie’s estimated time of death was a 1:12 am.
That’s all I know about Zombie Detective’s mystery.
As for the romance between Zombie and SunJi, I like that it’s slow. I don’t mind if only friendship developed between the two leads, but since the show indicates that SunJi has budding emotions for Zombie, then I approve of a slow burn. Currently, the progress of their relationship can be summed up as two steps forward, one step back. It was a romantic move to save her from the wild boar, and then to shield her eyes from the gruesome sight of seeing him eat the beast. (Two steps forward) But it was definitely an UNromantic move to make her haul the heavy carcass home. (One step back)
But I do like two things here.
One, I like SunJi’s slow growth of empathy for Zombie. She said that zombies were human before they died.
And even when they were already dead, they were still struggling to survive like they once did when they were still alive. She “humanized” Zombie and felt affinity for him as a fellow human being.
Two, I like the cuff comparison. Did you notice them?
SunJi inspected the cuff of his jacket, saying, “Seeing that even the sleeve cuff is clean, you seem to have taken a good care of it. Were these buttons sewn on by you? It doesn’t look to have been professionally done at the cleaner. Seeing that the sewing job is neat…if this is really yours, you were a very neat person or you had a family that took care of you.”
Note here: Zombie did sew that last button on. He used a red thread.
That button was dangling at the start of Episode 1.
My take here? He may or may not have family, but he sure does take care of his things.
Then, when Sunji came home after her adventure in the mountain, she noticed the blood stain on her jacket. She remembered he saved her from the wild boar and asked herself, “What kind of zombie doesn’t bite a human but saves her instead?”
Nobody notices cuffs nowadays, unless you wear cufflinks. I like that something small, and often invisible as cuffs was used in the story to reveal Zombie’s character trait. I like such attention to details. But more importantly, I like that SunJi realized that somebody cared. His neat cuffs signified that somebody cared enough to sew on Zombie’s buttons, and the stains on her cuff meant that Zombie cared enough to protect and save her from danger.
I’m looking forward to Episodes 7 and 8.
Thank you @packmule3. 🍪🍪🍪
I wondered if the ‘Korean Dream’ remark was a reference. It was made by the Chinese assistant detective Wang Wei as he watched the tripe restaurant owner deflate the soccer ball. He was lost in admiration in any case.🤣
I loved when Zom came down the street wearing his new suit. I expected “Sharp Dressed Man’ by ZZ Top. Even better we got a sexy slice of “Harlem Shuffle“. Some think the lyrics in that song relate to the slow stagger of junkies.
‘You move it to the left, yeah
You go for yourself
You move it to the right
Yeah if it takes all night
Now take it kinda slow
With a whole lotta soul….
Etc ‘
Thanks for all the meta references @pkml3. I don’t know all of them but what little I recognised got me laughing with delight. They are woven in so naturally and acted out so earnestly. This is quite a gem of a show.
And I’m surprised you didn’t give an extra line or two to the dashing vision of our zombie in his tailor made suit or how amazing he looked in his imagination as a chaebol. That was truly delish!!
I think I’ve got to go watch those scenes again!!!
😂 Because a zombie does shuffle along like a junkie!
Yes. That “Korean Dream” sounds meta, doesn’t it? But I’m not sure if it’s a reference to a movie or a term like “Hell Joseon” which is how people describe the living conditions in South Korea.
And thanks, you reminded me that Zombie’s walk down the street is so theatrical that it must be a parody, too. I can easily imagine that swagger in perfume commercials and Diet Coke ads. 😂
I’m really happy with this drama.
I thought the tailor shop (or haberdashery, as my father called them 😂) was a hoot. There he was getting fitted, but he just had to ask if it was still discounted!! He wanted the 50% discount! He isn’t a spendthrift, our Zombie.
I don’t know about you but I fell for that director’s troll. I thought it was going to be revealed in Ep 6 that he regained his memory and that he was chaebol. But 😂😂 as it stands right now, he could just be a regular Joe with a mom with Alzheimers and a kidnapper for a brother.
LOL @pkml3, I fell for it too… took me some time to realise that it was just his wishful thinking or his re-interpretation of the makjang drama he was watching. I think I was just overly taken by his visuals, LOL. The raw chicken should have clued me in at once. Love how smoothly the tripe was served and the PPL for the packet of tripe was slipped in.
Yes! The PPL for the tripe was well-done.
Speaking of raw chicken, did you see the look on his face as SunJi put stacks of raw chicken in his fridge? Was that a look of LOVE on Zombie’s face?? It’ll be cute if he falls in love with her because she’s the only one who knows how to feed him raw intestines and raw chicken. It puts a new spin on that old saying that the way to a man’s heart (or in this case, a zombie’s heart — wait! he doesn’t have a heart!) is through his stomach.
I do wonder why he’s obsessed with tripe, though. It must be his favorite food when he was human? Or the child Sori’s favorite?
And did you see the framed photograph of him dancing in the tripe restaurant? He was the “center” of the boy group? How funny is that? The “center” in a kpop group is the popular one and assigned to do the promos. But our Zombie is so shy. When he was photographed in front of the police department, he was covering his face. lol.
This drama is so clever with the jokes.
@pkml3 Yes, that look on his face at the filling of fridge with raw chicken scene was him really appreciating her, in contrast to how he’d been resisting her attempts to attach herself to him. That look of his transitioned so neatly into the photo comparison of him with the real Kim Moo Young by the World King Agency detective.
LOL. He does have a heart but it’s not beating, poor guy. I wonder if there’s some way to get it back into action. I was ‘rolling on the floor’ over the scene where he was in ecstasy while listening to his heart through the stethoscope.
Sunji too raised the question of whether tripe had been his fave food before he died. He possibly won’t remember, but now he likes it raw!! (I like cooked tripe. :-D)
Yeah I noticed the boy zombie boy group photo. LOL. It got me checking on whether he ever started out as an idol in real life, but no. However he does sing.
And Sunji’s question on whether he used the bathroom like a normal person was to die for. She was so pleased to know that he was not that different from other people. And LOL he calls her ‘Poop’ when he thinks of her!
@packmule3, I think you and @GB are correct that he is probably just a regular guy and no chaebol. Between the affection for tripe, the insistence on the discount for his haberdashery, being able to sew a button and him night fishing, (because I think it was him sitting near the ‘witness’) the few clues we have don’t really lead to a chaebol past.
One other scene I liked was in the tripe restaurant after eating. Zom is wondering why something like this happened to him. He’s trying to make sense of his existence. “To me life and death always coexisted. I couldn’t chose either of life or death.”
Sun-ji replied, ‘It must have been scary, lonely and intense.’ She goes on to explain that he’s perfectly suited to a detective job because in films, people with flaws who might consider themselves monsters but are heroes to others. She believes he could be a hero. He protests but you can see that he is interested. And she offers to help him find his past; who he is, why he died, if he has a family waiting for him.
Sun-ji’s idea is rather fanciful, but I think it’s possible that he will be a hero even if it’s the last thing he does.
For the umbrella scene, it reminded me Clean With Passion for Now. The FL protected the ML with the umbrella when he had a panic attack in a airport.
There are so many references. I loved the one in episode 3 when the detective Lee Sung-Rok wondered if he would like Choi Jin Hyuk if he lost weight. It was so funny.
@packmule3-Yay-what a great fun post. In keeping with the fun, the variety show me The Immortal Songs did a Zombie Detective special featuring our leads and supporting cast members who proved to be talented singers and entertainers. It’s on Viki in the 400 numbers. Our rival detectives and brother in law were revelations. The other thing thàt impressed was how supportive the cast was of each other. You can also see Choi Jin-hyuk’s performance on YouTube (along with some other singing he’s done). But to my mind if you can, watch the Immortal Songs episode. It was a real joy.
Thanks, Old American Lady. I’m skimming through it now as you recommended. The Zombie Detective cast has a special. Ep 472. Choi JinHyuk’s Emergency Song wasn’t bad.
According to Choi JinHyuk’s interview on “Immortal Song,” he actually took a bite of raw chicken. Not sure if he swallowed, though. Ugh.
I didn’t know he could sing.
@packmule3, thanks to algorithms, my YouTube feed brought me lots of Mr. Choi’s fan meetings that included his singing and dancing. So many of these K Drama actors are multi-talented. The cast of Hospital Playlist comes to mind. The supporting cast of Zimbie Detective proved to be really good with one veteran of musical theater who has one gorgeous trained voice. And bro-in-law and the rival detectives were supremely entertaining. These discoveries are all the more reasons to follow and love KDrama.
My husband is watching this drama with me and having a great time. Usually he does not watch dramas, but he is very supportive of my interest. Thank you, Zombie Detective!
@Snow Flower I think this is a drama men would enjoy-it has action,comedy, horror and it’s romance light. I’d love for my husband to watch k dramas together with me but it’s not happening. 😊
@Old American Lady, I can’t get my family members to watch K-dramas either. Even though I suspect my older daughter and possibly husband would have enjoyed ZD. They have watched Korean films, however.
Some of the humour in ZD was so clever; I was reminded of Beetlejuice.
You’re right! Beetlejuice
I’m glad that the writer didn’t go down the depressing Edward Scissorhands route, where the hero and heroine have to live separately for the rest of their lives. The writer gave us an open-ending. Crossing my fingers for a Season 2.
Season two as in ‘Viva Zombie Detective?’ 🤣