Aachi & Ssipak

For what it's worth, "Aachi & Ssipak" represents a stylistic and technical milestone for Korean animation. Now, even if it might not be good or enjoyable, it does manage to drop jaws in the sequences that do work. Quite obviously inspired by the glut of web animation on the Internet, the film twines absurdity, political lampoons and sexuality into an incoherent mess that's just much too energetic and maniacal to take your eyes off. In his simplest form, it's about a ragtag crew of criminal elements caught in the middle of a war between the city's Big Sister government and a terrorist group called the Diaper Gang. The prize, ultimately, being the proliferation of an addictive candy delivered in phallic-like packaging called a Juicy Bar. In an animation so concerned with faecal matter and the anus, there's not much subtext to be gleaned from its fascination with derrieres other than its producer's willingly gleeful lapses into iniquity

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.

4 stars for guts and the direction it takes in the first 30 minutes. Snore-fest thereafter (seriously, I fell asleep). The rest of it is nothing special and the movie progresses as just another lame commercial movie. Once you get over the surprise factor, there is nothing much to talk about.

The animation quality is pretty good. However it isn't enough to cover-up the faults. I believe the producers could have made a better film if they spent a little longer in contemplation and creativity.

There was no place for this to be played in the Auckland film festival. I believe the authorities should be more careful in selecting movies in the future. I am certain that the Korean dialogues must have been funnier than the subtitles as I could figure out by the loud laughs generated by the Korean audience members. To a non-Korean speaker, it wasn't too funny.

Watch it only if you must.

Aachi and Ssipak is one film I've been wanting to see for a while now, and lemme just say "Wahoo!" for it satisfied my expectations. But not for the poopiness, but for the insane amount of violence and nods to famous film. Well, the poopiness is also a plus.

Story revolves around poop being the only(?) resource for energy, addictive Popsicles called Juicy-bars which you're rewarded with if you make a poop, and lots of little mutants who use Juicy-Bars as their means of provision. Oh, you can throw in Aachi and Ssipak if you want, but the real enjoyment comes from the violence you watch whenever the Diaper Gang is on screen. There is also a main villain who leads the Diaper Gang, but at times you seem to root for him, which was a nice touch. And then there is Geko, one of the best fighting machines you'll ever see. He's only killing little blue freaks, but hell, those lil blue freaks carry uzi's and machine guns, and Geko takes care of them without a stutter.

Aachi and Ssipak was 2/3rds awesome violence, and the other third is slightly tedious story-filler. And weirdly, that's when A and S are on screen. Sure they're in some of the fights, but mainly, they're second fiddles to the Villain and Geko, and all the little blue freaks known as the Diaper Gang.

Overall though, this is a welcome addition to any fan of animation who likes the weird and violent as well. I dug the heck outta this film for it's unique animation style, which seemed to combine the show DUCKMAN and the film AKIRA. And with a unique story, good characters and great violence, this is one flick I'm sure I'll be adding to my collection very soon.