Dwaeji-ui Wang

After his business goes bankrupt, 30-something Kyung-Min (Oh Jung-Se) kills his wife impulsively. Hiding his anger, he seeks out his former middle school classmate Jong-Suk (Yang Ik-June). Jong-Suk now works as a ghostwriter for an autobiography, but he dreams of writing his own novel. For the first time in 15 years, they meet. Kyung-Min and Jong-Suk both hide their own current situations and begin to talk about their middle school days.

At their middle school, they were classified by their wealth and grades. Kyung-Min and Jong-Suk were at the bottom. They were called pigs. They were bullied by a ruling class called dogs. When they were called pigs, they got angry but couldn't do anything against the dogs. Then a king of pigs appears—Chul (Kim Hye-Na). Kyung-Min and Jong-Suk became to rely on Chul-Yi.

Now, leading Jong-Suk to their middle school grounds, Kyung-Min discloses the shocking truth to Jong-Suk of what happened 15 years ago.

(Source: Asian Media Wiki)

Kim, Chul Main

Hwang, Kyung-min Main

Jung, Jong-suk Main

Yeon, Sang-ho Director, Storyboard, Key Animation, Screenplay, Editing, Character Design, Original Creator, Background Art

Reviews

Sep 1, 2024

PxHC

Recommended

The directing is not bad when you think about scene composition and pace. Voice acting is mediocre, but the main problem is that they either lacked proper equipment, or a sound technician, because when the actors are laughing or screaming the voice starts clipping (distortion due to loudness). The art, now, the art sucks! And the animation is pretty bad too... why did a I give it a 9/10?

The King of the Pigs has a pretty good and well written story, a great narrative and well crafted characters. It's honestly the best animated story I've seen in a long time. There is a whole grim ... tone to it, so probably is not for everybody, but if you are up for a true psychological drama you should check it out (and I say "true" because the tag seems to be used very wildly around here).

Too bad it had a very low budget - if it had any at all!

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Aug 6, 2021

usernamesarehard

Mixed Feelings

So first things first, The King of Pigs is not a happy or uplifting movie. At all. It's relentlessly violent, has almost no morally good characters, and offers no salvation or reprieve from the suffering that takes place. With that said, is The King of Pigs still worthwhile? Well... it's not that easy.

Overall, The King of Pigs is a story about class struggle, and how dehumanising and inescapable class discrimination is.The story is largely told through violent altercations in a middle school between the rich kids, the "Dogs," and the poor ones, the "Pigs." The most similar example I can think of to this film ... would be 2019's Joker, which engages with a similar message of "The world is fucked and the only thing you can do is get violent and show people that you're not someone to be messed with." Except King of Pigs is even more fatalistic than that, and shows that people who act out like that only end up getting punished and that the situation only ends up getting worse than it was before. The only successful rebellion against the system anyone is able to make in this story is a self-destructive show of defiance that ultimately ends up changing nothing. The film portrays the process of the "Pigs" getting bullied, lashing out in anger, and then being punished for it as an endless cycle with no solution.

And if that wasn't depressing enough, there are almost no characters in this film that are portrayed as good or likable people. The "Dogs" are all complete assholes who enjoy tormenting those with less power than them, the main cast are prone to outbursts of anger and violence, and the movie starts off with the aftermath of one of them having recently murdered his wife for unexplained reasons, even the adults in the side cast are portrayed as caring about money above all else and exerting what little power they have over those with less than them. Furthermore, there's almost nothing in the way of healthy relationships either. The friendship between the two leads is tenuous at best, and their mutual admiration of Chul Kim is greatly tested by the later events of the story. Even the familial relationships they all have feel notably loveless. No one in this movie is a good person, and no one really likes anyone else. The prevailing emotions in this film are bitterness and anger and hatred.

On a lighter note, let's talk about the visuals! ...They're not very good. The character designs are horrendously ugly which is probably by design, but also the animation feels noticeably cheap, like they're trying to keep the number of actual frames of animation as low as possible. Movement is stiff, frame rates are low, and it's these elements along with the almost complete lack of lip sync to the dialogue that make it feel somewhat like an amateur production. The film also uses CGI models for its characters any time there's a mid shot or a long shot, and those models DO NOT blend in with the backgrounds in any way. It's not all bad though, as the usage of 3D backgrounds in some parts look pretty neat, and there are some pretty inspired artistic shots that use light and shadow to great effect.

The King of Pigs is a bitter, angry and miserable movie, but is it good? It's definitely not enjoyable or likable in any way, but I can't help but respect how relentless it is in its portrayal of its message, how it doesn't try to sugarcoat things for the sake of the viewer. I'm normally not a fan of stories such as this, as they often just feel like doom and gloom and violence for its own sake, but this movie actually feels like they're being put to use to show the injustices of inequality. I still can't call myself a fan since I prefer stories to have at least some measure of levity amidst all the despair, but I do think there is something to take away from this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Oct 25, 2018

MySweetLucifer

Not Recommended

This movie must be the most boring movie, who ever
touched the "it's violent, so it's deep" genre.
But first of all I have to say, that I don't see this movie as a bulliying film,
but for what it wants to be at the end of the day:
A Film that wants to be vile, in the edgiest way possible,
by saying things, a hundred other movies said before,
in higher Quality.
So, for anyone who wants to see "Dwaejiui Wang", I recommend
to watch "The 120 Days of Sodom" and the 134 other movies
doing that stuff better, in which this movie gloriously failed.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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