The King of Pigs
is a dire and relentlessly depressing look at how bullying victims can
sometimes be transformed into the same monsters they feared as children. Told
mostly through flashbacks, Kyung-min and Jong-suk are two former friends
ravaged by a traumatic childhood that comes together to relive and reassess the
events that led them to their destructive and violent states. As children, they
meet Chul who helps them overcome fear and fight back against the school's
elite who torture the meek with insults and violence. Don't be fooled by the animation style, it only serves to
tell the bleak story in a slightly more accessible way.
The story has an admirable and topical anti-bullying theme
that falls apart under the weight of its unrelenting and monotonous depiction
of teen violence. Each flashback
sequence holds to a specific pattern showing the violence, Chul's actions, and
the consequences never deviating until the film makes a late game shift to
mystery. The film is at its most
effective when analyzing the effects of bullying and how violence begets
violence, leading to individuals who can no longer control themselves or their
actions. It's an obvious and
simple theme but one that continues to be relevant even today.
In stark contrast to the overwhelmingly depressing subject
matter, the animation is beautiful, highlighting the darker, more internal
struggle of the characters. Some
of the visual representations of boiling rage are unique and shocking, but I'm
not sure the film needed to be animated.
I understand they needed to dull the impact of what's being shown in
favor of making something that's actually somewhat watchable, but I fear they
sacrificed an opportunity to more effectively tell the story by using real
people in real situations. The King of Pigs is depressing and won't
be for everyone, but the story can't be ignored as an effective assessment of
the ever-present power struggle between the strong and the weak.
