Aachi & Ssipak
| Aachi & Ssipak | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster | |
| Hangul | 아치와 씨팍 |
| Revised Romanization | Achiwa Ssipak |
| McCune–Reischauer | Ach'iwa Ssip'ak |
| Directed by | Jo Beom-jin English Dub: Ed Skudder Zack Keller |
| Written by | Kang Sang-kyun Jeong Hye-won Jo Beom-jin English Dub: Ed Skudder Zack Keller |
| Produced by | Kim Seon-ku Park Se-jun |
| Starring | Ryoo Seung-bum Im Chang-jung Hyun Young English Dub: Ed Skudder Zack Keller |
| Cinematography | Lee Chung-bok |
| Edited by | Kim Yun-gi Seo Dong-hyeon Park Han-jae English Dub: Zack Keller |
| Music by | Kang Ki-young English Dub: Nick Keller |
Production company | JTeam Studios |
| Distributed by | Studio 2.0 Mondo Media (US) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | South Korea |
| Language | Korean |
| Budget | US$3 million |
Aachi & Ssipak is a 2006 South Korean adult animated comic science fiction action film directed by Jo Beom-jin and features the voices of Ryoo Seung-bum, Im Chang-jung, and Hyun Young.
Plot
[edit]Somewhere in the future, mankind has depleted all energy and fuel sources, however they have somehow engineered a way to use human excrement as fuel. People started to build the new city by making new energy with their excrement. Soon after, the city's leaders announced two legislations to generate and control the new energy; including installing ID chips in each citizens' anus to monitor the defecation level; providing an addictive juicybar to citizens in return. Soon enough, defecation amounts have skyrocketed and the city becomes full of addicts, due to juicybar's strong addictive qualities. An illegal juicybar trade becomes prevalent and its side effects has created dumb pint-sized mutants. The mutants later organize a gang, plundering juicybars, later becoming known as the Diaper Gang.
Section 4 travels back to the city (filled with juicybars), with police officers in their motorcycles for protection until the Diaper Gang hijacks it and kills everyone, they succeed but fail as Geko comes to kill off, once all gone, Aachi and Ssipak returns to the city. Aachi and Ssipak are street hoodlums who struggle to survive by trading black market Juicybars. Through a chain of events involving their porn-director acquaintance Jimmy the Freak, they meet a porn star named Beautiful, who gets a pink ring inside her butt which makes her defecations rewarded by exceptional quantities of Juicybars. For that reason, Beautiful is also wanted by the violent blue mutants known as the Diaper Gang (led by the Diaper King), the police (most notably the cyborg police officer Geko), and others.
Cast
[edit]- Ryoo Seung-bum as Aachi, one of main protagonists, a hoodlum who struggles to survive by trading Juicybars. In the English version, he is voiced by Ed Skudder.
- Im Chang-jung as Ssipak, one of main protagonists, a hoodlum who struggles to survive by trading Juicybars and falls in love with Beautiful. In the English version, he is voiced by Zack Keller.
- Hyun Young as Beautiful, one of main protagonists, a wannabe-actress who is wanted by the Diaper Gang and the police after Jimmy puts another chip to her butt, and can gush out thousands of Juicybars.
- Shin Hae-chul as Diaper King, the main antagonist, mutated king and leader of the illegal clan, Diaper Gang
- Yang Jeong Hwa as Diaper Gang, hoodlums and mutated minions of Diaper King
- Seo Hye-jeong as Jimmy the Freak, a porn director who creates illegal movies, friends with Aachi and Ssipak
- Oh In-yong as Gangster, the boss of a gang until loses all the juicybars and gets his leg broken, goes revenge
- Lee Gyu-hwa as The Deputy, a special police officer and cyborg that can kill the Diaper Gang
- Lee Gyu-hyeong
Production
[edit]The original story was proposed in 1998. To test different film techniques, demos using flash animation were made before attempting a theatrical version. In 2001, the flash animation versions of the film with four episodes were showcased in the 11th Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival.[1] All six episodes premiered in an online theatre called cine4m with Aachi played by Ryoo Seung-bum and Ssipak played by Im Won-hee. The clip attracted three million hits, and the movie was originally scheduled for release at the end of 2002.[2] Ryoo Seung-bum later revealed that it was hard to voice act in the film.[3] There were also news reports that a game would be developed by teaming up with game company ziointeractive, expecting the film will be released in May 2005.[4] The team eventually delayed the release date of the film to November 2005.[5] 3.5 billion won was spent to produce the film.[6]
After animated films My Beautiful Girl, Mari and Wonderful Days flopped despite huge expectations, Jo's film ran into investor problems, and the production team halted working on the animation for almost a year.[7] It would take a total of eight years for the feature-length film to be finished.[8]
Marketing
[edit]The film was marketed with interactive games and character merch such as t-shirts and in case of t-shirts, they were worn by celebrities such as Yoon Do-hyun and Shin dong yup. Albums were even released.[9]
English dubbed version
[edit]Mondo Media hired Dick Figures creators, Ed Skudder and Zack Keller to rewrite a version of the film for English-speaking audiences.[10] It was released digitally on February 11, 2014, and the DVD and Blu-ray were released a month later on March 11.[11] Four minutes were cut, and dubbed English voice acting and an entirely new soundtrack (a DJ-rap music score by Mad Decent's Kevin Seaton) were added.[7]
Release
[edit]Aachi & Ssipak opened in South Korean theaters on June 28, 2006. Like most of its predecessors in homegrown animation, it was well-reviewed, but a box office flop, with total ticket sales of 107,154.[12][13] The film was invited to the 2007 36th International Film Festival Rotterdam.[14]
In November 2020, the film was rereleased on theaters at Seoul Lotte cinema world tower joined by Nancy Lang.[15]
References
[edit]- ^ [애니메이션 '아치와 씨팍' 조범진감독 인터뷰]. 2001-02-28.
- ^ "플래시애니메이션<아치와 씨팍>". 2001-06-07.
- ^ 류승범 "야수에 대한 선입견을 버려주세요". JoongAng Ilbo. 2005-07-27.
- ^ 지오, 극장용 애니메이션 '아치와씨팍' 게임으로 개발. dailyesports. 2005-01-17.
- ^ 엽기 애니 '아치와 씨팍', 11월 개봉. inews24. 2005-08-12.
- ^ 장편 애니메이션 '아치와씨팍' 제작현장. Hankyoreh. 2005-09-21.
- ^ a b Hendrix, Grady (18 March 2014). "Kaiju Shakedown: Aachi & Ssipak". Film Comment. Retrieved 2014-10-18.
- ^ "Scatological Animation to Hit Screens After Eight Years". The Chosun Ilbo. 25 June 2006. Retrieved 2013-03-23.
- ^ 국산 장편 애니메이션 '아치와 씨팍', 독특한 사전 마케팅 화제. 2006-01-20.
- ^ "Aachi & Ssipak". Mondo Media. Archived from the original on 2014-10-14. Retrieved 2014-10-18.
- ^ Mack, Andrew (7 February 2014). "Mondo Media Is Relaunching Korean Animation AACHI & SSIPAK". Twitch Film. Archived from the original on 23 October 2014. Retrieved 2014-10-18.
- ^ Kim, Tae-jong (2 July 2006). "Adult Animation Has Arrived". The Korea Times via Hancinema. Retrieved 2013-03-23.
- ^ Hartzell, Adam. "Aachi & Ssipak". Koreanfilm.org. Retrieved 2013-03-23.
- ^ '아치와 씨팍' 로테르담영화제 공식 초청. The Chosun Ilbo. 2006-12-26.
- ^ "[SR문화] '아치와 씨팍' 낸시랭·조범진 감독 GV 시사회 개최 外". srtimes. 2020-11-08.
External links
[edit]- Aachi & Ssipak at the Korean Movie Database (in Korean)
- Aachi & Ssipak at IMDb
- Aachi & Ssipak at HanCinema
- Aachi & Ssipak at AllMovie