First of all: If you're looking for a zombie movie, Ashin will disappoint you. It is the story of a woman and her solitary quest for vengeance in an unforgiving, cruel world - zombies do show up at some key points in the story but they don't even feature for most of the movie.

Once you accept that this isn't a movie about people in the zombie apocalypse, as you might expect from Kingdom, it is a very enjoyable dark tale about bigotry, selfishness, and the true evil being people.

The latter is my problem with the story, it is too dark and grim, with nearly everyone being some flavor of terrible and no hope, no goodness, only despair and every goodness being punished by the narrative. Ashin herself is the only character who feels truly three-dimensional, while everyone else only exists to drive home the message of the world of the living being a greater horror than the zombies.

I enjoyed it for the story of Ashin growing from a child into a lethal warrior and clever spy, all the while suffering greatly. She has quickly made it right to my list of favorites among the Kingdom characters. It is also very interesting to get more backstory on the plant and to get more on this bigger plot the ending of season 2 hints at. I didn't even miss the familiar characters, though I wish more characters besides Ashin would have stood out distinctively.

Aesthetically, I didn't miss the splendor that the royal plot lines of Kingdom provide, the grime and mud suited the atmosphere of the story well. But with this movie nearly completely set at night, a few scenes early on aside, I got very annoyed with the lighting. It's tiresome squinting at your screen trying to see something amidst all that darkness for most of a movie.

That aside, I love this movie and it was exactly what I would have wanted from this kind of backstory tale. Something which tells a new, unique story within the universe and exploring a new part of our heroes' world instead of retreading familiar ground. It also stands very well on its own.