Swimming to Sea

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Swimming to Sea
South Korean film poster
Directed by	Dae-Hee Lee
Written by	Dae-Hee Lee
Starring	Hyen-jee Kim Young-jun Si Young-mi Ahn Kyeng-soo Hyen Ho-san Lee
Distributed by	CJ Entertainment, eigoMANGA
Release date	April 2012 (2012-04) (Jeonju Film Festival) July 25, 2012 (2012-07-25) (South Korea)
Running time	78 minutes
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean

Swimming to Sea (Korean: 파닥파닥; RR: Padakpadak) is a 2012 South Korean computer-animated musical psychological thriller film written and directed by Dae-Hee Lee.^[1][2] 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,^[3] and was released on July 25, 2012 to South Korean theaters.^[4] It was later distributed on Steam on June 6, 2016 as Padak by the comic book publisher eigoMANGA.^[5]

It 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.^{[citation needed]}

Plot[]

A mackerel from the ocean is placed in the fish tank of a sushi restaurant in a Korean fishing village. She is driven to escape after witnessing another mackerel being prepared as food. Her tank is co-inhabited by a group of farm fish consisting of a striped beakfish, a snapper, a sea bass, a saltwater eel and the youthful greenling Spotty. They are ruled by a flatfish who hides underneath a grate and instructs the tank's fish to prolong their survival by playing dead when humans approach the restaurant. The fish derive sustenance from dead and dying fish that are periodically dropped into their tank. After witnessing the mackerel leap out of the tank in an unsuccessful escape attempt, the shocked farm fish christen her with the nickname "Padak Padak" (or "Flappy"). Each night, the flatfish, who falsely claims to also be from the ocean, gives riddles to the farm fish loosely based on stories of the ocean told to him by a mate who had been eaten before him.

Following a violent confrontation between Flappy and the flatfish, the eel grants Flappy permission to provide the night's riddle. Flappy uses the opportunity to encourage the group to ponder a means of escape. The sea bass proposes that the king crabs in the tank below theirs are able to break the glass walls, and can be convinced to do so by Flappy, who can speak their language. The night's meeting ends with Flappy being beaten by the group after she questions the flatfish's authority. The next day, as the restaurant's tanks are being cleaned, Flappy and Spotty make another unsuccessful escape attempt, in which Flappy abandons her own effort when Spotty's progress is impeded. That night, Flappy, in spite of her hunger and out of stubborn pride against the flatfish, declines to join in devouring a dying halibut, who mocks the flatfish's cowardice before his death. Flappy leaps into the king crab tank, where she is nearly killed until a young boy mischievously scoops her out of the tank and places her in the restaurant's aquarium. The starved Flappy devours all but one of the aquarium's clownfish before injuring herself on a knight decoration's sword and losing consciousness.

Spotty's own attempt to speak to the king crabs in their tank results in his death, and his body is placed in the farm fish's tank. As the flatfish suddenly defends Spotty's body from being devoured by the eel, Flappy is returned to the tank as well, and she attacks the flatfish after seeing him over Spotty's mutilated corpse. Their struggle is cut short when the flatfish is scooped by the restaurant chef and placed on his counter. As the chef prepares other dishes, the flatfish witnesses the happenings within the restaurant and begins fearing for his life, only to be spared when the customer changes his order to mackerel. When the flatfish is returned to the tank, Flappy apologizes to the flatfish for her misunderstanding and encourages him to move forward before she is taken and served ikizukuri-style. The next morning, the flatfish makes his own leap outside the tank, and with the aid of the sword fragment that had been embedded into Flappy, he escapes the chef's clutch and successfully reaches the sea as the rest of the fish watch from the tank.

Cast[]

• Hyen-jee Kim as Padak / Flappy
• Young-jun Si as Master Oldfish
• Kyeng-soo Hyen as Bream
• Young-mi Ahn as Spotty and the Snapper
• Ho-san Lee as Jooldom the Eel and the Sea Bass

References[]

External links[]

• Swimming to Sea at IMDb