‘Physical 100’: Jeon Young Choreographed ‘Hellbound’ and Korea’s Monstrous Zombies
Netflix‘s Physical 100 has an impressive array of contestants beyond national athletes, bodybuilders, and fitness celebrities. One contestant that will pique K-drama fans’ interest in Physical 100 is Jeon Young. He entered the competition series shocking the contestant with his fluid moves and seemingly zombie-like movements. In reality, Jeon Young is the creative mind behind the zombies of some of the scariest zombie K-dramas.
Jeon Young displayed his creepy yet fast movement on ‘Physical 100’
All the contestants of Physical 100 have some athletic or physical background. Fans met mountain rescuer Kim Min-cheol, MMA fighter Choo Sung-hoon, strongest man Jo Jin-hyeong, and feared Olympic skeleton racer Yun Sung-bin. But among the muscles stood out Physical 100 contestant Jeon Young. He entered the series, intertwining and rotating his shoulder blades beyond what most people can do. Bodybuilder Kim Chu-ri exclaimed, “My gosh, that scared me. What’s his deal?”
Behind him, the other contestants tried to mimic him but could not. In his introduction, Jeon Young explained, “I’m Jeon Young, the leader of Korea’s first bone-breaking team.” According to KoreaJoongAngDaily, he is part of a five-member dance crew Centipedz. The style originated in Brooklyn, New York, and involves contortionist movements.
His impressive fluidity surprised the contestants during the first quest. Jeon Young placed last during the pre-quest challenge and went up against national athlete Yang Hak-seon during the first elimination quest. He said he wanted a fun match, and “I wanted to just move instinctively like a beast.”
His speed and calmness blew away the contestants, with someone comparing him to a spider. Yang commented, “You’re like a zombie. It’s scary.” Despite this, Jeon Young lost the quest and was eliminated. But Yang was accurate in calling Jeon Yeong a zombie, as the Physical 100 contestant has choreographed some of K-drama’s scariest zombies and monsters.
Jeon Young choreographed the monsters in ‘Hellbound’ and the zombies in ‘Kingdom’ and ‘Train to Busan’
When Jeon Young arrived on the Korean unscripted series, he explained, “I designed the choreography for both seasons of Kingdom and for Hellbound and worked on the motion capture.” The 2019 horror K-drama, Kingdom, was Netflix’s first zombie series that gained global fame. Unlike other versions of the monsters, the zombies in Kingdom are fast and ruthless. But Jeon Young has also worked on the highly acclaimed zombie movie Train to Busan.
“What distinguished zombies in Train to Busan from other films and television shows such as 28 Days Later (2002), Dawn of the Dead (2004), The Walking Dead (2010-2020) and World War Z (2013) was the movement in which the undead would constantly writhe their necks, whether they were standing still or running,” explained Jeon Young. “Yeon asked me to create movements that were similar to people who were infected with rabies, and the grotesqueness of this motion had a mind-blowing impact [on audiences].”
For Kingdom, he explained the director said the zombies “should appear like ghosts from traditional urban legends.” Jeon Yeong choreographed the zombies to have their heads work separately from their bodies “and rely on their noses to sniff out the blood.” He also worked on Peninsula.
Hellbound does not involve zombies but a new world order with Emissaries from Hell. They come to kill the condemned. The rabid movement of the monstrous creatures was also from the creative mind of Jeon Young. Unlike Kingdom, Hellbound required Jeon Young to do motion capture and wear green body suits to later add in the VFX effects.
Fans can follow ‘Physical 100’ contestant Jeon Young on Instagram
Unlike the other contestants of Physical 100, Jeon Young’s career is based more on the big and small-screen. K-drama and Korean entertainment fans can easily spot his work and intricate bone-breaking movements that bring the most heinous zombies to life. But for an inside look into his personal life, fans can follow his Instagram, @undead_jedi.
His Instagram has over 3K followers and is verified. His posts include his dance and choreography work with his team and adorable photos of his daughter. Jeon Young is married to dancer I-eun Park. Their daughter was born on March 22, 2021.
