#Here’s Why All Of Us Are Dead Feels So Real

Park Solomon, who plays Lee Su-hyeok on “All Of Us Are Dead” alongside co-stars Lee Yoo-mi, Park Ji-hu, Yoon Chan-young, and Cho Yi-hyeon, recently spoke with Cosmopolitan Korea about the series and noted that the cast took their roles very seriously. “We tried really hard to act like modern Korean high school students,” Solomon said. “Compared to 13 years ago when the webtoon was made, the culture of high school students is different now.” Show creators Lee Jae-kyoo, Chun Sung-il, and Kim Nam-su allowed the space for the actors to modify their characters and on-screen relationships to better reflect the current Korean high school culture, as well as modify any necessary language. “We included a lot of improvisations that measure up to today’s Korean high schoolers,” Solomon concluded.

At one point in the series, Nam-ra, the class president with an icy attitude, turns into a half-zombie and says, “You know how students are not children but not yet adults, either? I’m like that. I’m neither human nor a monster.” In an interview with NBC Asian America, Cho Yi-hyun, the actress who plays Nam-ra, highlighted this moment as an example of the dual identity that plagues much of Gen Z. “Everyone faces an identity crisis at one point in their life,” she said. “As a teenager, I also felt like an adult but not yet an adult … in those aspects, I related to Nam-ra.” 

During a moment when things seem to be at their most bleak, Nam-ra echoes this sentiment by saying, “We won’t be the first to be rescued. We’re not that important. We’re just students. Nothing more.” This feeling of helplessness is unfortunately common for a lot of high schoolers not just in South Korea, but across the globe.