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The King of Pigs Movie Review

The King of Pigs is a 2011 South Korean animated crime film directed by Yeon Sang-ho. It’s a very repulsive movie.

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“And we are the pigs that are their food“

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The movie examines bullying within Korea’s social hierarchies. Kyung-min and Jong-Suk are both struggling to make their way in the worlds of business and literature. They meet up to discuss their childhood, which was anything but joyful. I do not personally like Yeon Sang-ho animated crime movies. I do not care for ‘The Fake’ and I certainly don’t find The King of Pigs appealing in any way.

It’s such a grotesque crime movie that is simply too difficult to watch at times. There is this violent animal torture sequence that honestly made me sick. Thankfully, the second half became at least more restrained and more meaningful in narrative, but still the violence piled up too heavily, resulting in a one-note movie that also did not seem believable to me, though the director swears that he mostly based it on his own childhood experiences. If that’s the case, then I am shocked that this was going on in South Korea back in the day.

The main relationship worked and the framing device with the present in the beginning and the end while the flashbacks take up the middle of the movie worked for me. The editing, directing and especially voice acting are all great while the animation is actually quite interesting and different.

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It features some very haunting dream sequences that were the highlight of the movie for me personally, but it still remains grounded in reality and not overly stylized, which was a great choice for what is essentially a crime drama. Technically speaking, The King of Pigs definitely is striking, but I simply found the story and the lack of themes examining the issue of teenage crime problematic.