By: JUSTIN ONEAL
Staff Writer
Warning: there are spoilers, you have been warned!
Last time, I talked about the underrated and wasted potential of Lee Na-Yeon and how she could have become one of the best characters in All Of Us Are Dead if the writers hadn’t decided to write her off. Besides Na-Yeon, there are other issues that I have with the show not fleshing out characters and wasting their potential. Ji-Min was forgettable for the audience but is arguably a character that I believe has a lot of potential in the show.
Kim Ji-Min is a supportive character in Netflix’s All Of Us Are Dead, portrayed by Kim Ji-young. During the pre-apocalypse, nothing is known; she lived in Hyosan and was a childhood friend of Seo Hyo-Ryung. When the outbreak occurred, she was among the students who hid in the classroom. In episode six of All Of Us Are Dead while the group used the drone to explore the outside area, we learned that Ji-min’s parents crashed near the school and their zombified bodies were found. This made Ji-min break down and tried committing suicide but was stopped by her peers.
Episode six of the series was used to establish Ji-Min’s character and give ideas about what direction the writers going to take with her. There is one note-worthy line at the end of episode six where the students are trapped in the music room. While recording herself, she claimed, “I’ll stay alive and get revenge, I’ll kill all the zombies”. With this, you could portray Ji-Min as a strong character who survives no matter the costs. It shouldn’t be necessarily hard to spot the golden potential of Kim Ji-Min.
Instead of portraying Kim Ji-Min as a strong and fearless character in All Of Us Are Dead; Ji-Min leaves Hyo-Ryung in a panic when she noticed the zombies running toward them. She would get lost while being chased by the zombies and ended up on the football field where she was eventually attacked by a zombie. Kim Ji-Min’s death doesn’t seem to be acknowledged by any of the characters after episode eleven. It’s lazy writing by the writers to kill her so suddenly off-screen. Similar to Na-Yeon, They put so much time and effort into her character but then wasted it in the end.
I arguably believe that Kim Ji-Min should’ve been one of the nine characters that survived the Jonas outbreak. Replacing Hyo-Ryung in the process due to not serving any values in the show; that’s my personal opinion. If the writers hadn’t written her off All Of Us Are Dead, we could have seen Ji-Min’s journey going through the struggles of losing her parents and surviving no matter the consequences; it will add variety to the remaining characters. As much as you want to argue, Kim Ji-Min’s character in All Of Us Are Dead was forgotten and their potential wasted.