Padak

Padak (also known as Swimming to Sea) is a South Korean computer-animated musical psychological thriller film written and directed by Dah-hee Lee. It stars Hyen-jee Kim, Young-jun Si, Young-mi Ahn, Kyeng-soo Hyen and Ho-san Lee. It premiered at the 2012 Jeonju International Film Festival, and was released on July 25, 2012 to South Korean theaters. It was later distributed on Steam on June 6, 2016 as Padak by the comic book publisher eigoMANGA.

The film received acclaim from South Korean critics but mixed reviews from international critics. As of 2020, this is the only adult animated film released by CJ Entertainment to date.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) This film is very dark and depressing in a good way, as it focuses on a society of fish and how they're treated in sushi restaurants.
 * 2) Interesting story, as it focuses on a mackerel named Padak or Flappy (depending on your point of view) who's been caught and been placed in a fish tank of a sushi restaurant with other fish who are about to get eaten. She tries her best to encourage the other fishes to escape the tank and go back to the ocean.
 * 3) It unexpectedly shows fish getting killed on-screen, as they are chopped to pieces, getting there guts pulled off, and getting eaten by the humans. This is something you wouldn't expect from an animated film like this.
 * 4) Interesting and likeable characters like Padak, Spotty, and the flatfish.
 * 5) * Padak is an interesting character, as she tries to encourage the fish group to not lose hope on leaving the tank with her (mainly Spotty). She refuses to listen to the flatfish's lies about the ocean and desperately tries to escape from the tank to avoid getting eaten by the humans. Sadly, she was killed off at the end of the film, but her death inspires the flatfish to escape.
 * 6) * Spotty is another likeable character. He was interested in leaving the tank with Padak to avoid getting eaten as well. He was the only one in the group to befriend Padak, and was motivated by her.
 * 7) * The flatfish, while a jerk at first, has a heartbreaking backstory, as he loses his mate in the sushi restaurant, which leads him to be afraid of death. He would lead the fish group to survive the tank. He felt remorse for Spotty's death, and prevents anago from continuing to eat his corpse. He had a bad relationship with Padak throughout the film, but after being spared by the humans, he was forgiven by Padak for his actions. After Padak was killed, he was inspired by her death to escape the tank.
 * 8) Though the animation looks weird, it was actually on purpose. It captures the dark atmosphere in the film. The humans are meant to look ugly, the fish look fittingly sad and depressing (while also being pretty nice to look at), and everything else in the film is pretty haunting.
 * 9) * The 2D animation used in the musical numbers is amazing, as it comes in different styles.
 * 10) Well-written musical numbers, such as "Nightmare", "Think About It," "Forgive Me", and the unnamed end credits song.
 * 11) Even though there are some scenes that are pretty disturbing like the fish getting killed, the close ups of the one of the humans, and the fish corpses, they still manage to be done well.
 * 12) Padak and Spotty's deaths are unexpectedly shocking and heartbreaking at the same time.
 * 13) The film has an overall shockingly realistic setting in spite of it being, on the surface, an animated film told from the perspective of fish in a sushi restaurant. As the fish themselves behave much like real people and even much like real fish, not being straight-up good guys in spite of all being in the same situation where they're lives are all on the line. As they willingly feast upon dead fish fed to them, bit at each other's tails, and prey on smaller fish. These are all things that real fish do. And the master himself being the one to escape the restaurant in the end was a far more realistic way to execute the story. As while some way have expected him to sacrifice himself for the other fish due to being questioned by Padak if he thinks that being a coward is making his life worth living or not, having him instead survive nearly being served to costumers and escape the restaurant after actually witnessing the horrors of what goes on inside the place makes the story feel much more like something that could realistically occur in real life. So even if much of the story is cruel and dark, it's still also shockingly realistic.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) As mentioned above, the animation is very strange, and it looks like it could belong to animated series.
 * 2) The humans look very ugly and disturbing to look at. Though they were intended to look like Asian people, they're still pretty disturbing, especially that one kid who looked like Sid from Toy Story.
 * 3) Nollaemi and Jooldom are unlikable characters, as they frequently bully Padak and Spotty for no other reason. And they constantly beat up Padak for questioning the flatfish's motives.
 * 4) * The clownfish are also detestable, as they act like complete assholes towards Padak when she was put in their tank. They constantly try to tell her to get out of the tank and die like an "edible fish", which leads to Padak eating the clownfish while suffering from her wounds and starvation.
 * 5) The sea bass is barely in the film at all, as he just lays around and sleeps throughout the film.
 * 6) Some of the posters are misleading as they make it look like the movie could be another Finding Nemo rip-off.

Videos
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Trivia

 * Most people consider this film to be a darker version of Finding Nemo.
 * Because Steve Reviews brought up the film on YouTube, people became more aware of this film.
 * At first there wasn't much information about the film online, as it wasn't well known by other countries.
 * The animation looks pretty similar to Iron Man: Armored Adventures.