Aachi & Ssipak

‘I want to knock out Disney and Japanimation!’ says Joe Bum-Jin, spiritual father of the slightly bizarre universe of Aachi (‘no pain, big gain’) and Ssipak (rough bolster, hot-blooded spirit). That means: no sweet stylisation or happy end, but animation for (not too) mature people.
The action is set in Shit City, where all energy is derived from human faeces. The government, which has a monopoly in this field, distributes addictive popsicles to keep production up. At birth, citizens get a sensor implanted that records their bowel movements. But the city is plagued by the Diaper Gang, addictive and aggressive babies who protest at the one-popsicle-a-day policy led by the Diaper King. They clash with the shit police and a biotic cyborg, Geko. Anyway, that’s the state of play when Aachi and Ssipak, opportunist street scum yet still our heroes, get to know the sexy Beautiful, who… eh… that’s going too far. Let’s just say that she’s a popular source of popsicles.
Joe Bum-Jin’s exciting animation film is accompanied by Korean hardcore and filled with references to Mad Max, Pulp Fiction, Indiana Jones and also the manga classic Akira. None of thess are particularly refined. But that wasn’t the intention with this scatological blockbuster. (GT)