The King of Pigs
Dir: Yeon Sang-ho
2011
***
Yeon Sang-ho's The King of Pigs feels a little bit contrived at first but then I've had my fill of anime films that evolve around the High School. Is School such a horrible experience in Asian countries? Whether it's falling in love or depression or murder or being abducted by aliens, it always seems to be Schools fault. However, I loved the film's mix of violence, MANGA style South Korean extreme cinema. It is unapologetically dark, which I really loved about it. I found the empty viciousness of the story compelling, the violence soon became the normal of the story however, and once you acclimatize yourself to it, you can see further and understand what the film is really about. This is a very clever trick to pull off, particularly in moving animation. The opening scene which sees our protagonist murdering his wife is a shocking introduction to the story and characters but it is far from sensationalist. When you learn that the film is based on true events and that every detail has been depicted to the very last detail, it will leave you cold but impressed. The animation is of a very high standard, with wonderful attention to detail, particularly in the backgrounds. I'm not sure I liked the character animation as much but the facial expressions are at times, amazing. I've tried to picture what a live-action version would look like but I almost don't want to, somethings are best left in animation. It's a stunning film, I have to confess that I didn't like all of it - I'm not sure 'like' is the right word - but I'm utterly impressed all the same.