“Gyeongseong Creature” Asks Who Is the Real Monster?

What makes a person good and what makes them a monster? What role does context play in justifying or vilifying a person’s actions, and how do these actions define their humanity? The Netflix historical drama and creature thriller series “Gyeongseong Creature” asks us to consider these questions as well as one more: Who are the real monsters — the creatures themselves or their creators? 

The plot centers on the master of Gyeongseong’s biggest money house Jang Tae-sang (Park Seo-joon) and sleuth Yoon Chae-ok (Han So-hee) as they both try to survive against greedy forces both mundane and horrifying. 

“There is a wide variety of greed. In 1945 and the historical background, we get a particular historical context [when Japan occupied the colonial city of Gyeongseong],” says director Chung Dong-yoon. “There’s always greed in humans, limitless selfishness, wanting to gain wealth. Those desires and human greed are what start the story.”

“Gyeongseong Creature” begins when Tae-sang is seized and threatened by Japanese police commissioner Ishikawa into searching for Ishikawa’s missing Korean mistress. Tae-sang has until the cherry blossoms fall to locate her. Otherwise, Ishikawa will take everything from him. 

When his sources come up dry, Tae-sang strikes an uneasy bargain with sleuth Chae-ok and her father (Jo Han-chul). The father-daughter duo have been searching for Chae-ok’s missing mother for 10 years, and their interests temporarily coincide with Tae-sang’s. Their investigations lead them to Ongseong Hospital, which is reserved for Japanese occupiers and houses a secret military testing facility. 

The show tracks them and a diverse cast of characters as they all try to fulfill their sometimes competing and interwoven missions. Survival is the name of the game, and higher ideals seem to be a luxury in this dark period of Korea’s history. 

Blending the Historical and Creature Genres: a Metaphor

“When you think of the two words: Gyeongseong [the capital city now called Seoul] and creature, and the mood each of the words give to me has to do with the keyword of sadness,” says director Chung. “There is a joint crossroads when the two concepts meet that evokes a certain sadness.” 

It is this sadness, this underlying grief, that pulses in the background and drives the action forward. It is this river of collective sorrow that adds a poignancy to character choices — even when the choices result in gore and cruelty.

The horror and creature genres often use literal monsters to symbolize figurative ones, and “Gyeongseong Creature” is no different. During the 1910 to 1945 Japanese occupation of Korea, the Japanese methodically and systematically set about erasing Korean culture by banning the teaching of the Korean language and history, burning historical documents, and forcing Koreans to adopt Japanese names and speak the Japanese language. During this time, Korean people often disappeared, hundreds of thousands of them forcibly conscripted to fight in Japan’s armies and serve in sexual slavery. 

Set in late March of the last year of the occupation, the series uses historical fiction mixed with fantasy to discuss the horrors of war, colonization, collusion, rebellion, and survival. For example, Tae-sang’s survival depends on keeping in the good graces of the Japanese — except at some point, the cost becomes too high. Part of Tae-sang’s character arc is him deciding which side to choose: survival or humanity.

For the Japanese officers in charge of the experiments, the creature is a last ditch effort to salvage their war efforts. Their repeated callous decisions to harness the creature’s powers causes countless deaths — both from their own ranks and that of their experimental subjects. As for the creature, they are just as much a victim as they are an abomination. Can the creature be redeemed or is it decidedly evil? Does it even have free will and agency, or is it running purely on instinct and reactionary survival?  

The Concept of “Between”

One way the show demonstrates that fine knife’s edge of balancing survival and humanity is by incorporating “between” in each episode’s title. The idea is to reflect the characters’ constant struggle between the edge of moral and practical boundaries. Series writer Kang Eun-kyung explains, “The ‘between’ concept here signifies the difficult choices characters face in defining their humanity.”

Kang adds that “between” can hold many meanings. Not only can it be used to identify one thing or phase from another, humans also live through many “between” experiences. “Take good and evil, for example. We ask, ‘Do I choose this or that?’ or ‘How should we live as human beings? What comes first, survival or humanity?’” Kang says. “Depending on which side you choose, discernment between good and evil takes on different meanings. Aren’t we all navigating through life in this way, constantly choosing sides?”

Beauty to Distract from the Beasts

Not only is the story a ripping good yarn, the vivid images of Gyeongseong in the 1940s also helps set the mood for the series. Art director Choi Ki-ho meticulously recreated the historical Gyeongseong with the well-designed spaces, sumptuous historical sets, and delicious fashion.

“Some spaces were beautiful, some mysterious, some eerie, and some downright bone-chilling, especially without any lighting,” says actor Park Seo-joon. “It’s really helpful for actors to feel the space as realistically as possible, and I applaud how they went beyond our imagination in creating the period feel.”

That bone-chilling feeling was definitely front and center in the series, especially in the underground military lab of Ongseong Hospital. I say with no shame whatsoever that I looked away during some of the jumpscares, and it wasn’t until the latter episodes that I even knew what the creature looked like. 

Chung does an excellent job of building suspense and fear from using light and shadows to great effect. He manages to make you feel a lot without showing much at all, driving your curiosity about what the monster looks like so you keep watching. Just like with the set and costuming, the money on visual effects was well-spent. The monster looks believable and I alternated between fear for the characters I loved and glee for the comeuppance of the characters I did not.

“Gyeongseong Creature” is compulsively watchable. Brilliantly acted, thrilling, and action-packed, the series examines what it means to be human, what it means to be a monster, and how easy it is to blur the fine line between the two.

Part 1 of Netflix’s “Gyeongseong Creature” was released on Dec. 22, 2023, with seven episodes, and Part 2 will be released on Jan, 5, 2024, with the last three episodes. A second season has been confirmed and is currently in production.

Image credits: Netflix