In April I posted a crazy clip from some Korean animation. Here is a quick side question – is Korean animation still considered anime, or is that name reserved solely for Japanise productions? Honestly, I don’t know!
Either way, I managed to track down and identify that movie. It is called Achi and Ssispak (or Achi-wa Ssipak). If you google it, you will find quite a few other clips from that movie on Youtube. I’d recommend staying clear of the official website unless you like to be assaulted by criminal amount of flash, and javascript – including poppups, dynamically resizing windows (ie, the onHover action is to move and resize the window), and etc.
I haven’t written a review in a while, so:
Korean tale about a world with anal fixation
If you enjoy crazy offbeat movies with lots of action and some twisted, black humor, chances are you will enjoy this movie. If you are offended by gratuitous violence, nudity, foul language please stay clear.
The plot of this movie is rather… Interesting. In the not so distant future, all natural resources are depleted. Fortunately, science has found a way for the civilization to thrive by harvesting the power locked in the human feces. To ensure a steady flow of feces to the power plants each citizen of the futuristic totalitarian city has special anal-chip implanted at birth. The chip monitors their bowel movements, and each time they deposit some brown in an authorized lavatory they are rewarded by a tasty, highly addictive treat called a Juicy Pop.
Abusing Juicy Pops apparently causes some severe mutations. It shrivels your genitalia, and renders your intestine track inactive, preventing you from defecating. It also seems to cause some form of acquired dwarfism and skin discoloration. Juicy Pop mutants are blue skinned, perpetually grinning, addicted, impotent smurfs, who’se only form of sustenance are Juicy Pops. Which of course they can’t obtain legally.
So what do they do? They form a gang (dubbed Diaper Gang, probably because of their unorthodox headware), and try get their fix any way they can. Unfortunately hijacking heavily armored Juicy Pop transports, and fighting with with the local Juicy Pop dealer mob them nothing but heavy casualties.
So they devise a clever plan, to collect implants from all the members of the gang, and implant them in the anus of someone who can still defecate. Then the next time this person visits a state controlled restroom, the dispenser machine will spit not one, but few hundred Juicy Pops. Just enough to feed the starving hordes of the grinning smurfs.
The titular characters Aschi and Ssipak are small time thugs who make money by riding public lavatories and selling Juicy Pops on the black market. In a twist of bad luck Ssipak (the bigg and bald one) falls in love (at the first sight) in a woman who has been chosen to receive the implants of the whole Diaper Gang. The duo manages to rescue the poor girl, and then proceed to exploit her newly gained unique ability to become instant Juicy Pop Tycoons.
It also puts them on the most wanted list of the Diaper Gang, the state police and the local Juicy Pop mobsters who they displaced. This leads to many chase sequences, shootouts and explosions.
The character designs in this movie are far from realistic. The drawing is simplistic, exaggerated and grotesque at times. But the backgrounds and CGI effect absolutely gorgeous. This creates an interesting dichotomy between the simplistically drawn caricatures, and the 3 dimensional, dynamic environment they inhabit. The chase sequences really convey the sense of urgency, and the combat scenes are simply awesome. In fact the character design really adds to the dynamism, allowing them to bend in improbable ways, do insane acrobatics and get mutilated in spectacular ways. So despite what you may think when you look at a static screenshot from the film, it is really aesthetically pleasing.
Unfortunately, the story does not live up to the eye candy. The script essentially moves the characters between consecutive chase scenes, and extremely violent shootouts at a breakneck pace rarely stopping to explain anything to the viewer. Dialog is sparse, and consists mostly of bickering between the protagonists. And while the writers make small attempts to show the realities of living in a feces obsessed society (ie. barrage of laxative commercials on TV), it is mostly done for cheep laughs. The plot could have been deeper… But then again expecting any depth from a movie about Diaper Gangsters, and a girl with a “magical” anus is probably silly.
The creators knew that they were creating a silly and ridiculous piece of fiction, and they treaded it as such. The movie doesn’t treat itself seriously. All the characters are deranged and grotesque caricatures. The protagonists break the 4th wall with impunity. The Diaper Gang smurfs have the combined charm of a pokemon, Jar Jar Brinks, and a derranged, psychotic serial killer, and the skill of Monarch Henchmen. It’s a crazy, silly and at times awesome thrill ride.
Strangely enough, for a movie about shit obsessed society, there is surprisingly little of actual feces shown on screen. In fact. I don’t think there is even a single scene in that movie that graphically depicts the actual act of defecation. Which, is not a bad thing.
I give the movie 2.5 stars out of 5 – the straight, down the middle average. While this definitely not a great movie, it is fun, silly and original enough to keep you watching.
My rating: stars
Apparently a subtitled DVD of this movie is currently available in US. You can order a copy for around $33. But I guess I should mention that this video is out there *cough*tv-links*cough* and the quality is decent (hosted at DivX Stage 6).
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