Even
in a restaurant aquarium, the law of the jungle still holds. However, one mackerel has different ideas, preferring
the hope of freedom to a life playing dead.
Obviously riffing on Pixar’s fish story, Lee Dae-hee’s Padak is surprisingly serious stuff that
might be better suited to older animation fans when it screens tomorrow as part
of the Korean Cultural Service’s regular free movie night (trailer here).
Even
before she reached the restaurant (more of a coastal greasy spoon), the young
mackerel did her best to flip and flop back to the ocean. In the tank, she compulsively darts and
dives, trying to break through the invisible walls. Somewhat amused at the futility of her
efforts, the other fish dub her Padak (meaning “flappy”). They have adopted the survival tactics of the
old flatfish, playing dead whenever humans approach the tank and cannibalizing their
sickly neighbors.
Padak
refuses to follow his strategy. She
would rather take her chances with a desperate escape attempt than the cringy
existence proscribed by the flatfish. In
fact, Padak rather powerfully
suggests the ultimate price of freedom is still favorable to an undignified
security. That is a laudable message,
but it might be a bit much for some youngsters to handle. Parents should note, there is also a fair
amount of filleting and gutting in the film.
Clearly, those tanks are not in front of the restaurant for decorative
purposes.
Padak’s animation is very
strong, approaching the level of recent Dreamworks Animation releases. The fish are quite expressive and the scenes
with humans have a dark, almost expressionistic flavor. However, the strongest, most complicated
character is the hard-bitten old flatfish rather than the plucky but not
particularly well fleshed out Padak.
