Top 20 Alternative Picks for Cannes 2012: Sang-ho Yeun’s The King of Pigs

The King of Pigs – Sang-ho Yeun

Buzz: The low-budget, animated feature debut from Sang-ho Yeun actually had its local premiere in November and the buzz was strong enough to win it a berth in the Directors’ Fortnight section. The trailer looks killer.

Gist: Kyung-min, a businessman, and Jong-suk, a failed writer, are former schoolmates. During a reunion dinner they look back on their school days, when a particularly cruel group of students, “the dogs”, exercised a reign of terror by hazing and bullying part of the other students, the “pigs”. One day, Kim Chul, one of their mates, stood up to the “dogs”, becoming the only hope of ending their tyranny. Fifteen years on, he remains a hero. But behind this figure, the two men recall the murky story of their bond.