The King of Pigs

The King of Pigs (돼지의 왕, 2011) is a South Korean animated thriller you can watch online on iFILM. Director Yeon Sang-ho — later known for Train to Busan — made his feature debut with a brutally honest look at school hierarchies, drawn for adults with no softening in sight.

Jong-suk and Kyung-min reconnect as grown men, but the past refuses to stay buried. Back in school they were "pigs" — the ones at the bottom, the ones the stronger kids used and discarded. Above them moved a different class, untouchable and cruel. What kept Jong-suk and Kyung-min from breaking completely was a boy named Chul: no family, no rules, and no intention of staying on the floor. He bit back. He called himself the King of Pigs.

The animation is raw and deliberately unpolished — the ugliness of the visuals mirrors what the story is saying. It's a film about how violence travels down the food chain, and how the kids who survive it don't always come out clean. Stream The King of Pigs (2011) online on iFILM.