Aachi & Ssipak

I like to think of myself as above potty humor. You know what I mean? Fart jokes, clever references for the butt, an absurd interest in what goes on in the bathroom..

The world is full of giggling children who can't pronounce the word "defecate" but can use the s--t word with great effectiveness. For some reason, this type of humor never grows old to some folks, but sticks itself into the collective psyches of many adults permanently.

It was never my thing. So how did I end up watching this? Well, for starters the whole movie is a not so subtle metaphor for society in general. The idea of breaking down the advanced and intricate systems of the world and then articulating it all in overly simplified terms is always a winning movie making formula to me.

This movie is vaguely similar to a film called "Equilibrium," where the basic foundational idea of society is presented as a single statement: "Obliterate all human emotion to create the perfect society." The film then grows out of that idea. The plot grows organically as a result of trying to maintain the believability of the original idea.

In the case of this film: "All energy comes from collecting human feces; encourage the populace to defecate profusely." The idea is so simple it leaves you wondering immediately if there is more buried underneath it. Well, unfortunately there isn't. The basic plot flow of this film is not original. It has been done before in hundreds of movies. It's very formulaic really. But it still works because of the setting.

But no one is really watching for the plot. By now word has gotten around that this movie is violent as heck. It really is. Gore, explosions, torture.. it's got it all. DO NOT play a drinking game with this one, especially if you need to drink every time someone dies. There are several sexual references, so don't think this is appropriate for your kids. There's also some pretty creepy looking characters. The police Captain in particular was worthy of a cringe or two.

The voice acting is acceptable (if you are watching the English dubbed version), but not great. The animation itself is somewhat difficult to follow from time to time; characters wiggle like jello and bend like Gumby.

All told, the film holds itself together admirably and is very entertaining. It's not going to be a favorite of mine, but I do not regret watching it. It was worth a watch.

The only thing it doesn't have (surprisingly) is the actual showing of fecal matter. The mere reference to it is apparently enough.

Aachi and Ssipak is a delightfully wicked piece of animation. It's full of fun, and politically incorrect, full of high octane action, and set against a nonsensical background in the future. It's rude, vulgar, and totally unapologetic about it.

In the future, humans have learnt how to harness human waste to become rich sources of energy. As a result, the government encourages everyone to defecate and collect their waste to power our world. To reward its population, those who defecate are given juicybars as rewards when they do their business at designated collection points. However, these juicybars (they look so phallic when being sucked upon) are addictive, and here you have a black market churned from obtaining and selling these bars. With gangs, one of the most notorious ones called The Diaper Gang, come forth to wreck havoc on the populace, and with the authorities not going to sit back and do nothing, they unleash their cyborg policeman Geko to take them down, violently.

And all these happen in the first 5 minutes. Like I said, it moves at breakneck speed, infused with comedy and various pop movie references galore, ranging from Pulp Fiction and the Untouchables to the obvious Robocop, and a sequence taken straight out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. If you thought that the Koreans had the most ultra realistic and violent movies in their crime genre, this is also brought over to the animation field, with this movie a showcase just how violent a cartoon can be - heads get shot off constantly, and various dismemberment happen so often, you'll start to want nothing less than a swift violent end for its characters, in particularly the members of the Diaper Gang, who serve as disposable fodder.

So where does Aachi and Ssipak fit in you say? They're small time hoodlums who discover a girl called Beautiful (whom I thought was anything but), who has the capability to defecate and be rewarded bucketloads. As small time hoodlums, they see this as a get rich opportunity, and it becomes like a round robin hide and seek game amongst all the players involved.

There are plenty of human waste jokes and references, coupled with tons of swearing and showing of bad signs (middle finger, thumb in between fingers, the flipping of the forearm, etc), and probably served as direct insolence to both the gangsters as well as to the V for Vendetta like fascist government and their polices.

If you like your animations vulgar, fun, full of action and violence, then Aachi and Ssipak will be right up your alley.

In the shadow of the South Korean movie hype that brought masters like Bong Joon Ho into the international limelight there was also a small but unique movement to emancipate the country as a quality provider of animated features in its own right, and not just a cheap location for Japan and the US to outsource their inbetweening to. Echoing the same development rival Japan went through when it emerged in the eighties as an animation powerhouse. Unfortunately, close to 15 years later now, 2D animation hasn't taken off to the same degree in South Korea despite the undeniable qualities of movies like Yobi the five tailed fox, wonderful days or this vulgar gem whose title I literally can't translate into English because it would violate imdb language standards.

Aachi & Ssipak is a satirical view of modern mass media with a few subtle stabs at North Korea and many not so subtle references to classic movies, spiced up with a very dark and crass sense of humour.

In the future the only remaining energy source is fecal matter, hence feces become quasi-religious symbols. Citizens get rewarded for their business with lollipop-like drugs that eventually turn them into tiny smurf-esque creatures called the diaper gang that can only live on these drugs and thus roam the cities and desolate wastelands as marauding scavengers.

...It all makes a little more sense in the context of the movie...

Despite the cartoonish look this isn't a movie for children (unless you're a really cool parent). It's filled with sexuality, graphic violence and vulgar slang (especially in the original Korean dub). Yet it never feels like it's trying to be edgy, it just has this natural offbeat punkrock FU attitude that you will either love or hate. I find it intensely likeable myself.

Give it a chance and you'll be rewarded with something very unique and unironically some of the best animated action scenes in recent memory.

This is the best cartoon movie I saw in the last few years. Surely a movie for adults, you'll find it out in the first 2 minutes where the body count starts raising, and rockets to the sky.

Hope this wont take away anyones appetite watching it, because this is a movie with lots of black humor, beautifully graphics, lots of action.

Why not to watch it? Disgusting, sick story, 3-4 deaths for each minute.

Why to watch it? Disgusting, sick, and 3-4 deaths for each minute.

You either like it, either hate it.

The good guys are violent hoodlums who want to get rich by selling drugs on the black market, the bad guys are the diaper gang, the police is the tyrannic force in the city. The power source of the future is human feces. And the state collects it and rewards the people with addictive juicy bars.

The funniest characters are the ant like diaper gang members. They are the addicts of the drug that can be received after defecation. These poor guys/girls (they have no longer any sex) need the juicy bars, but because they cannot defecate they have to find other ways to get the desired food. In their efforts they loose their live by the dozens. Mostly because of the cyborg police officer Geco. He is like Robocop, defying the laws of physics, mainly with unlimited ammo usage. The diaper gang calls themselves orphans of the city. Their small size, and as they act I think they are like kids turned into addicts. (Despite the original story that they were normal citizens.) The rest of the characters are bad guys too: Aachi and Ssipak are always arguing on something. They are marauders attacking people on the toilet. Beautiful the woman is a porn star, or prostitute. The leader of the police is much like an angry chiwawa: a little blonde girl, shouting with her inferior officers.

Overall: lots of action, lots of location, good storyline, weird ideas.

Warning: this film is vulgar and violent. If you can't get beyond the fact that there is much too much discussion of defecation and killing in this film then don't watch it. But for those who can overlook the aggressively adolescent fascination with feces and fighting will find beyond it a rather diverting discussion of political instability. Much like the Cambodia government of 1975 or any number of contemporary African government, the political authorities of the world envisioned by this film are facing an insurgency of fanatical children soldier led by a cult-like totalitarian leader. And much like the same governments, the authorities respond with equally ruthless violence and complete indifference to the well-being of their citizens or even allies. Trapped between these two equally vicious groups are our anti-heroes, interested only in making easy money. Their anti-heroic struggle against overwhelming odds to control the unlikely source of energy in their bizarre world should be an inspiration to entrepreneurs everywhere.