Aachi & Ssipak

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.

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.

Holy ****(pun intended) this movie never apologizes for where it goes and where is goes caused me some problems laughing so hard at 1 in morning amid housemates. I suggest you read nothing of the plot and just go in blindly, unless you dislike childish potty humor even if it is done in satire and with skill and class.

This is not for kids and not for folks who can't take satire and black humor that lives somewhere between the bottom of the toilet and the sewer.

Japan has been giving us lewd b-grade porno/potty toons for decades now and I have seen nothing that trumps this South Korean gem. It is way too much fun and very pointed. The subtitles felt natural and true to the story. The animation was slick but not overly proud of itself (and it mixed styles and types of animation fluidly).

This film is not for everyone, even I usually hate potty humor. But this film isn't really potty humor because it basks so directly in it's filth that is rises above the immaturity of say something MTV or Adam Sandler to make a greater point. In fact I wonder if the folks who made this weren't making a direct statement about North Korea. But anyway...

I laughed and loved it!!!

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.

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.