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The first thought about this movie would be, ‘why on earth aren’t we treated to an English
dub?’. Like dubs or not, for the non-purists who prefer English dubs this movie may not at
first appeal. The reason as to why there is nothing of such could be presented within the
opening monologue, which is presented with scrolling text, and vocals, and subtitles. The
scripting is simply too ridiculous for English and I fear a lot of the people who would watch it
with English voice over would be put off. Thankfully, not only are we not spared that
travesty, but having to read it, almost gives its own sense of hilarity, especially at the
seriousness (or at least seemingly serious) presented by the voice over.
This may seem like a problem to some, but for me it works. Plus, who couldn’t love a movie
about a society where people have had ID chips installed into their Anus’ and rewarded with
addictive confectionary based on the amount they shit? I don’t know about you, but that in
itself should present one of two things. The show is far from a serious post apocalyptic
cyberpunk effect, and two, if you attempt to take it seriously, you shouldn’t have purchased
(or rented) this in the first place.
The basic premise just before we get started is that the world has run out of any forms of
energy, nuclear, coal, etc. To combat this a new city was born, which uses shit as the
primary basis of power. If that isn’t far fetched enough for you, not only is the place run on
poop, but people are rewarded for it with ‘juicy bars’, addictive bars with side affects (life
long constipation and the shrinking of the penis to peanut sized proportions). Amongst all
this illegal distribution and trading of the addictive bars has become prevalent. The city has
become full of addicts and the side effects have created dumb midgetised mutants, known
as the ‘diaper gang‘ who look like the maniacal versions of the Smurfs. This is all revealed
within the opening sequence, but thought it was worth mentioning for people who have not
heard of it before, or haven’t seen nary a scratch of it.
The animation of the show must be given a look at too. Not only is everything crisp and
clear, heavily detailed, yet simple enough as not to become confusing. Upon inspection (you
don’t even need ‘closer inspection’) there is an evident amount of mixing of various
animation styles. Certain scenes can have many types that will remind you of various scenes
from a multitude of anime titles all at once. One scene crafts a simple yet effect use of CGI
for the background, a style of colouring and flare predominant in American cartooning (think
Osmosis Jones), and character designs that share a mix from older ‘Studio Ghibli’ works
and various Saturday morning cartoons like ‘Hey Arnold‘ or ‘Rugrats‘. The backgrounds
when not in motion are present in very detailed, post apocalyptic anime styles (think
‘Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust’, ‘Origin’ or possibly ‘Steamboy’). Camera angles, well the
animated equivalent, are extraordinary, as well as the choreography of battles and fights,
hell, the opening road chase is a testament to this, which shares an artistic flair for graphic
violence similar to ‘Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children’ except with farm more fantastical
moves, bloodshed, and less constraints to the ‘realistic’.
The dialogue as mentioned is pretty corny if you were to imagine someone saying it in
English, thankfully its hilarious to read as a subtitle, it almost creates a sort of ‘distance’
thus allowing the viewer to take it a little less seriously (of course if you already speak
Korean you may think differently to me, I personally just think English voice actors couldn’t
pull off this dialogue without laughing their asses off at how it sounds). And just knowing
what the basic story of the show is adds a lot to the humour of the dialogue, specially with
bad guys spouting lines such as ‘We dedicated our crap to this city’ and meaning it literally.
The overall comedy though, is bloody fantastic in its silliness, the way characters react with
each other, act, all the way down to advertisements asking if you’re having problems
defecating, and I doubt many will find it hard to get passed the fact that there is no English
voice over track. Just to reiterate, this film works as is.
Every character in this show is a masterpiece of comedic brilliance, seeming to fuse the
mechanics of various forms of global slapstick. Everyone from the leader of the ‘Diaper
Gang’, to the ‘King of Defecation’ is a wonderful addition to the film, even if they appear
for only a few seconds, especially with minor characters and their ability to be remembered
throughout, especially when they enquire about such things as ‘Illegal Anus Users’. Even
simple posters have such an affect that I would go so far as to call them characters in their
own right, playing on popular fiction and advertising such things as ‘Anal Instinct’ or a faux
‘Justice League’ poster featuring Batman, Robin and Superman facsimile’s sporting porno
referencing symbols, they fill in gaps between dialogue like Seth McFarlane (Family Guy
writer and creator) fills in story line gaps with crazy and hilarious flash backs.
And you want to know the best part? I have purposefully only described things that occur
within the first quarter of an hour (I even watched the film again up till the Justice League
poster just to get that time for you!). There is so much within this first part of the movie
to make one laugh their anuses off that you could watch the first fifteen minutes of this
movie over, and over again without even touching any of the actual plot to get your
satisfaction.
Of course I best share some of the plot with you, don’t worry, I just wanted to share all that
‘first fifteen minutes’ stuff with you first before I went on to the overall story with you.
The film starts off with the ‘Diaper Gang’ attacking a Juicy Bar armoured transport. Their
plan being foiled by the cyborg death machine ‘Super Cop’ Geko, thus leading to a dramatic
speech, bloodthirsty interrogation of his minions, and an obvious foreshadowing that he is
somehow going to cause a lot of ‘shit’ for everyone later on. Next we are treated to a
barrage of varying scenes introducing several characters, one being ’Jimmy the Freak’ who
is forced to get high on juicy bars till he begins to hallucinate thinking he is the superhero
Shitman, and subsequently jumps out the window, a pan shot following his blood revealing
the presence of the Diaper Gang within the city. Upon a chance encounter with Jimmy, the
gang leader gets an idea to rig the amount of ‘Juicy Bar’s’ rewarded by the shit of a
certain blue haired vixen who has become the object of obsession of local hoodlums Aachi
and Ssipak. In an attempt to assist her during an escape attempt, the two luckless
miscreants get pulled into the dark gazes of the Diaper Gang, for stealing their new ‘cash
cow’ and also the authorities when the abnormal amount of Juicy Bar dispensing at their
residence raises alarms. They do not help their case when they become the premier Juicy
Bar barons of Shit City either. One could say that the two are currently up shit creek without
a paddle, with a barb wire boat no less.
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The audio for this feature is well done, with music, sound effects and other small nuances all
being well timed. I can’t give you a clear review of the voice acting seeing as I do not speak
Korean, but it does appear at least to be solid.
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The special features aren’t particularly stand out in this day in age of DVD production,
offering merely a music video, teaser and theatrical trailers, stills gallery, and various other
trailers from ‘Eastern Eye’ who (along with Madman Entertainment) are the ones responsible
for releasing this movie in the Region 4 format. Thanks guys.
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