Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show, I'm your host Paul and this video we're breaking down
Black Knight on Netflix.
Incase you've not seen it, no, it's not that Martin Lawrence movie from the noughties.
This is actually a new Korean Post Apocalypitc drama that feels like a mix between Mad Max,
The Hunger Games, X-men and a lot more.
There's so much to talk about and throughout this video we're gonna be going through it
all to talk about everything in it.
Full spoilers ahead so if you haven't had a chance to check it out then check out now.
Please hit the thumbs up button and if you enjoy the video then make sure you subscribe
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With that out the way, thanks for clicking this, now let's get into Black Knight.
Now the series takes place in the aftermath of a comic that hit the earth 40 years ago.
This decimated the landscape and completely destroyed the atmosphere leading to oxygen
becoming the planets most valuable commodity.
Most continents sunk into the sea with the Korean Peninsula becoming a desert.
With just 1% of the populartion left a new social structure was created in which some
members of the public are given QR code tattoos that give them a higher ranking.
This is demonstrated by the use of an upside down triangle in the intro which actually
becomes symbolic later on.
I'll talk about this more as we get into the video but a big mystery in the season centres
around the triangle tattooed soldiers that we meet throughout.
The entire populace is divided up into the status of core, general and refugee which
becomes important at the end.
Now the entire society is heavily reliant on soldiers known as Delivery Men who are
basically Amazon prime drivers that are allowed to carry guns.
They take things like oxygen and supplies from one location to the next and are basically
the backbone of this new world.
When watching the series I couldn't help but think of the essential workers that kept everything
going throughout the pandemic and because of this the Delivery Men have access to almost
everthing.
Now those that weren't chosen to be part of the system are labelled as Refugees and these
outcasts were forced out into the harsh landscapes with a lot of them becoming hunters that attempt
to steal supplies from the Delivery men.
Thus the delivery men have to be exetremly skilled combatants and we primarily follow
a legendary one known as 5-8.
He's a badass with a heart of gold that you know
know would have the high score on crazy taxi.
Throughout the season he slowly unearths why so many Refugees are disappearing whilst he
acts as a mentor to one aspiring to join the Delivery Men.
This is Refugee 034 who originally lived in some of the irradiated zones before he was
taken in by a woman known as The Major and her daughter.
It violates the law to harbour refugees but he's managed to hide with her whilst also
doing deals and his buddies out in the Refugee zones.
They're led by a character known as Grandpa who becomes a big person later on.
Gonna be honest with you, whenever I cover a Korean show I normally s**t myself thinking
I'm gonna butcher all the names but when they started calling them 5-8 and Grandpa I was
bloody loving it.
Now it turns out that 34 is basically a mutant that has the ability to rapidly heal.
One day his apartment is stormed by some soldiers and his sister is shot and killed whilst he
takes a bullet to the head.
He manages to survive it due to his healing factor and he begins the trials to become
a delivery man.
They're basically big elimination rounds that see him showcasing his heart of gold when
he attempts to help other players out.
Though some of the CGI in these moments is a bit ropey I actually really enjoyed the
turns that it took and with shows like this you can see why K-Dramas continue to be some
of the best out there.
I also noticed in episode 3 that 34 was wearing a Simpsons top but they all had gas masks
on which was a nice little touch.
With everything that was going on in the world while they were filming it was actually pretty
smart to incorporate masks into the world like this and it probably made filming during
the pandemic a lot easier.
Normally when we're dealing with post apocalyptic stuff it gets all tied in with supernatural
things like Zombies or Aliens but this managed to keep the focus on humans and still keep
things interesting.
Now As this tournament is going on we see as 5-8 starts to investigate who was behind
the attack on 34 and his family.
This leads him to uncover Ryu Seok...which...think I got that right, who is the wealthy heir
to the Chun-Yeom corporation.
Towards the end of the season we learn that the groups actually been polluting the air
through using their cleanup vans which are supposed to be making things better.
He also broadcasts the final round of the delivery men tournament which brings in Refugees
from around the area before he has explosives set of that kill hundreds of them.
He also carries out a vaccination programm designed to wipe out the refugees and yeah
lots of social commentary I'm sure people will be able to read into in lots of different
ways.
Going against his father the Delivery men attempt to assasinate Ryu-Seok but this ends
up failing.
We learn that Grandpa isn't all he seemed to be and that he's actually old friends with
Ryu Seoks father Ryu.
We see that he burned the qr code off his hand and would rather live above ground without
steady oxygen than underground where there is.
He also helped to make the air core which converts the atmopshere into oxygen and allows
the higher ups to have a steady supply.
His garden shows that the earth to the south is getting it's oxygen back and that the world
is healing.
Ryu wanted to give oxygen to the refugees and move them to the general area which his
son was deadset against due to the money involved in their corporation.
He's also prejudiced against the refugees because he doesn't see them as being something
that can offer his society any benefits.
They have their oxygen and those in the more structured areas who all have QR codes.
Therefore he sees the refugess as a blight that steal from his delivery men and the people
he views as being worthy of life.
The entire arc with the father could be a commentary on him switching from being a capitalist
into a socialist.
K Dramas always have a wealth of political subtext to them and there are those who believe
that it won't work or that they simply don't want it to.
Thus a coup is staged and Ryu is killed during this with his son assuming command.
The President is captured by the defense minister and thus this gives both him and Ryu Seok
control of Korea.
He orders that all the Delivery Men be tracked down which takes us into the final part of
the season.
Exposing the medical programme for what it is and mounting up, the Delivery Men storm
Ryu Seoks base whilst 34 is caught and captured by him.
One think I haven't mentioned so far is that he was bringing in lots of refugee to take
their mutant blood...I think.
I dunno this whole thing is kinda in the subplot of the subplot.
Why I'm bringing it up now is that we catch him at the end attempting to do a blood transfusion
with 34 so that he can take his abilities.
The transfusion has to be stopped when the Delivery men reach the core and the President
is saved.
The Defense minister is arrested which leads to the soldiers surrendering making Ryu Seok
take on desperate measures.
He starts the process of overloading the air core and though he's taken down this still
explodes and destroys the capital.
However the populace manage to make it out along with the freed refugees and the President
announces that the societal structures are being abolished.
Everyone will be viewed equally without discrimination which leads into us getting a 3 month time
jump that hints to where things could be going down the line.
Now what does the ending of Black Knight actually mean and what happens in it.
Well pick up with 5-8 still carrying out his duties and finally he takes 34 out into the
world after his recovery.
We see that due to the lack of Ryu-Seoks pollution vans that the air has started to clear and
the harsh dust storms that once ravaged the land are disappearing.
34 winds his window down and both he and 5-8 are able to sit with their gasmasks off and
breathe in the air.
Man, man even sticks his head out the window to get a sniff of it and it shows how much
the planet has been turned around.
Well I think that the series is clearly commenting on things like climate change, segregation
and how society is built with infrastructures that hold the poor in place.
The corporations could easily have helped the planet to get greener but their need for
money kept them polluting the air.
This can very much be viewed as a metaphor for real life as we have several corporations
that heavily destroy the atmosphere but rather than scaling things back they'd prefer to
expand their profit margins at the cost of others well being.
The way Ryu-Seok uses the refugees as experiments to empower himself could also be seen as symbolising
how workers are exploited and used to pawns rather than being seen as people.
You have a class struggle going on here with lots of comments on things like the pandemic,
keeping people subjigated and also who actually runs the show.
Though we have a president character its clear that the people in charge are actually the
corporations as they supply the oxygen and therefore the jobs.
They have to keep people working to remain profitable and this is why the refugees are
seen as unnecesaary.
They don't contribute to the profits and Ryu-Seok sees them as something that will eat into
his which is why he has no problem with killing them.
The corporation basically runs the entire show and it also hands out the QR codes which
are what the society is built on.
They're happy to have people fighting amongst themselves and even try and appear as the
goodguys by giving out the free medical exams and so on.
To me what the show is trying to say is that though leaders and politicians can come and
go the main people running things will always be these more permanent structures.
I definitely think that the series is leaning more with the idea that equality is the way
to lead to a better future which is what I take from the ending.
Now what this means going forward I don't know as there are still some stories that
they could tell in this world.
However it does feel like it has a conclusive ending and at the moment there hasn't been
a season 2 announced.
I am making this video on the day of release so things might change but yeah let me know
what you'd wanna see in a second season if we ever got one.
Now as for my thoughts on the series I've got to be honest I wasn't that impressed by
the trailers.
I've made a pledge to cover as many korean shows as I can though cos...cos that Squid
Game video paid for my butt lift.
What
But after seeing that I thought I might skip this.
However it's been a quiet week so I gave it a go and I'm so glad that I did.
I think this is such a good series and it works on a number of levels pulling in lots
of things that seem like they shouldnt really work but somehow mixing them together perfectly.
They add a lot of things into the story and though they often seem like they wouldn't
really combine well I think that they do.
Youve got Mutants, combat tournaments, delivering stuff...which I love, political coups and
so on that tell this amazing overarching story.
Now though it deals with politics I think it's also something that can be enjoyed by
both the left and right as you can clearly see metaphors for both throughout the show.
I think it works really well and shows how people are manipulated to do their bidding
by those in power.
I definitely think if you're interested in Korean shows and youre looking for a good
one then this is the one to watch.
That's for people who watch these videos without actually watching the show but yeah, go check
it out, its 6 45 minute episodes so its not even much of a time sync.
Bloody loved it I did and I'm gonna give it an 8.5/10
Now obviously I'd love to hear your thoughts on
it in the comments section below.
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If you want something else to watch then make sure you check out our breakdown of perfect
scene in Spider-Man Homecoming.
We break down the entire thing so it’s definitely worth checking out if you wanna know more.
With that out the way thank you for sitting through the video, I’ve been Paul and I’ll
see you next time.
Take care, Peace