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Shit is the future; the future is shit. (And if you haven't realized it yet, reviewing this film requires more of this shit-talking.)

That sentence can be taken towards various interpretations because the word "shit" has developed contradictory meanings. It can note shoddy construction ("Aachi and Ssipak is shit!"); whereas, the simple placement of a definite article shifts the meaning 180 degrees to mean something exemplary ("Aachi and Ssipak is the shit!"). To some, such a contradiction in meaning might signify that the word means nothing. But language signifies meaning through its use, and it is the words surrounding words, and the inflection with which they are spoken, that more often designates their meaning. Just like shit can be in its essence, the meaning of the word "shit" is loose. "Shit" finds its form from its linguistic use. And in the future world of the film Aachi and Ssipak, shit is not only mined for its linguistic use, but for its use as a valuable material resource.

In this animated sci-fi world, shit is the premiere energy resource and the government seeks to control the bowel movements of the populace. (And the media is awash with constipation cures.) In order to keep track of who's shitting for big brother, every newborn has an ID ring shoved up his or her anus before release from hospital. An infrastructure of outhouses enables the government to capture everyone's bowel movements. Their ID rings confirm each bowel movement, and after pulling on the flush cord of the outhouse, the citizen crapper is allotted one juicybar for their contribution.

In order to satisfy the world's need for more and more shit, the juicybars are made purposely addictive. So addictive that an underground illegal economy has emerged to supply those who can't get enough of this juicybar shit. Here enters our titular characters. Aachi (voiced perfectly by Ryu Seong-bum) is the runt of the brains of the juicybar-running outfit he's concocted with Ssipak (voiced by Im Chang-jung), the heavy of the two-man troupe, but not always heavy enough to handle competitors such as the "Diaper Gang", the blue, mutant, constantly-constipated, baby-ish spawn of relations between two juicybar addicts. Aachi and Ssipak are a small-time racket of big time dreams. And they find their dreams attainable when they meet "Beautiful" (voiced by Hyeon Yeong who also happens to be the voice of Koreanfilm.org's own Tom Giammarco's car navigation system). Beautiful's anus has been violated by the Diaper Gang's accomplice, Jimmy the Freak, with an intentionally malfunctioning ID ring that enables Beautiful to receive a shitload of juicybar blue gold whenever she has a movement. The trio soon becomes much sought after by more competitive groups than I can summarize here. But basically, there are a lot of subplots and the presentation of each isn't too disjointed to be distracting.

The crowd I watched this with at the San Francisco Indie Film Fest's 4th Annual "Another Hole in the Head" festival enthusiastically cheered the obscene levels of gratuitous violence that animation permits one to display. (What animation allows concerning violence is best illuminated when we consider the levels of violence "The Itchy and Scratchy Show" is capable of wielding when compared to that which we find portrayed in the wider cartoon of The Simpsons in which the cat and mouse are contained.) Sure, there might be people present about whom we might be concerned, but I'd wager the majority in attendance cheering on Director Jo Beom-jin were innocuously appreciative of the creativity of it all, not for their desire for such violence to occur in the real. As Catherine Yu argues in her contribution to the wonderful South Park and Philosophy: You Know I Learned Something Today, there is a nuance missing from Ronald de Sousa's argument that to appreciate phthonic humor (humor that endorses malice directed towards another object) one must endorse the attitudes and assumptions that make the humor possible. And that nuance is that humans are capable of imagination, and imagining a malicious act is very different from approving of it. "Imagining doesn't have to do with what a person actually believes, thinks, wants, endorses, or even secretly wishes" (p.. 28, emphasis Yu's). In fact, the often heard exclamation while laughing at South Park episodes and screenings of films like Aachi & Ssipak is something like 'Dude, that is soooo wrong!' which underscore Yu's argument that the watcher does not endorse the phthonic humor on display. This does not mean that certain portrayals here aren't problematic, and my fellow audience's silence during Beautiful's anal violation by Jimmy The Freak demonstrates that some imaginings are indeed not appreciated, but we cannot assume the reasons for laughter without further delving into what is behind the minds of those laughing (and those not laughing).

Aachi and Ssipak works because it has taken a taboo and run with it spectacularly. Aachi and Ssipak have fun with the mess we make in the world without an environmental critique of the mess we're making of the world. It's a dystopic future with no redemption except that of having fun with what remains are left.      (Adam Hartzell)

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