[HanCinema's Hall of Fame] "King of Pigs"

In the Spotlight this Week: "King of Pigs" by Yeon Sang-ho

Animations are often branded as innocent dreams for young minds, vivid characters whose sugar coatings are as sweet as their own happy ever afters. This approach to the genre is the rough rule if commercial success is your emerald city, however most animated features contain subtle themes and references that fully-fledged filmgoers can quietly tapped into and enjoy. This matured shadow is often muted and obviously understated, but in "King of Pigs"(2011) Yeon Sang-ho reclaims some territory from the penguins and hens and opens up his own slaughterhouse filled with poisoned placebos and animated anarchism. In "King of Pigs", Yeon inverts the comforts of animation's anthropomorphic rule, and instead favours a disturbing zoomorphism that captures some serious social issues that dwell deep within Korea's concrete jungles.

Kyung-min's business has gone bust, but instead of coming home and just kicking the dog, he intimately ends his wife in their high-rise home. Angry, frustrated, and confused, Kyung seeks out his old school mate (Jong-suk) whom he shared those fatalistic and formative years with so long ago. Jong-suk himself is now a ghostwriter working on someone else's life story while he dreams of his own. The two men are poisoned by their past, confined by a cruel world made by a grunter-god whose sick selfies still stares back at them well into adulthood. They are both 'pigs' and have been since middle school where they were bullied for being slop-sipping children of nowhere. Their assailants where of the K-9 variety, mutts intent on maintaining the sick status quo of the schoolyard – butch bullies who gorged themselves on power and the suffering of others. These malignant whelps have done the damage, but will always remember the royal swine that stood up to their repressive rule – particularly the King of Pigs that rose while others watched and absorbed.

Stylistically the film is as crisp as it is cruel, detailing its dystopia with a devilish mordacity that openly salts its own form. Largely static backdrops and their violent actors engage in a farmyard war that still rages on today, leaving many younglings to still wonder if they will find Babe or burnt bacon in their future. The film's serious content overshadows its form without remorse; its aesthetic ultimately gives way to a sour message that doesn't leave its intent to chance. The visuals are, indeed, eye-catching and Yeon makes great strides here in presenting the other side of the coin as the South's animations started spinning with purpose. But visuals can only take you so far, and where Jeon's attractive slaughterhouse really gets its shiner is through its shocking thinkings on schoolyard violence and its everlasting effect.  Scars seems a pathetic term to describe the long-lasting lacerations bullies can carve, those festering open-wounds over which even scar tissue refuses to grow. These weeping sores are still able to stain the future, coagulated blood that clouts healthy development and chokes those around you. But after all the years of life-happenings, the universe has called these two men together to remember and relive the 'good-old days' – a time when life had nothing to throw at them but fists and the future.

"King of Pigs" failed to catch-up to its $150,000 budget, but it did create a cult following on the festival circuits during its time. Such grisly and nightmarish events rarely attract enough of the populace to start worrying about the bottom line. But thankfully though Yeon Sang-ho's next annexed animation ("The Fake") has just been released in Korea, and seeks to once again explore the evil mismanagement of those in power. Those not in the land of morning calm will have to wait until Yeon's new dog-eared chapter reaches them, time that would be well-spent returning to Yeon's abandoned zoo to relive this pig-king's plight.

- C.J. Wheeler (chriscjw@gmail.com; @KoreaOnTheCouch)

 

Available on DVD from YESASIA

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