8
16
1
Joerin
Greece
“Violent delights have violent ends”
Emerging from the darkness, covered in brutality, comes the King of Pigs and whispers “There is no creature in the world more cruel than human being”. And just like this, it haunts you. It makes sure that watching this drama will be something you won’t forget anytime soon.
‘The King of Pigs’ is a psychological thriller drama that is, as already implied, not for the light-hearted. It contains a lot of violent, gore and psychologically heavy scenes which make it almost unbearable to watch. Prepare yourself, because what you are about to watch is a very rough ride.
The story
The drama’s story is based on a 93 minutes animation film ‘The King of Pigs’ by Yeon Sang Ho which is also based on a true story. As I’ve watched the animation film too, I can say that the drama is lightly based on it. Actually, it feels like the drama took the original story, evolved it and ended up making its own and unique story. Thus, there is no point in comparing them.
Without giving away the plot, the story deals with the trauma caused by intra-school violence and how it affects the victim and the perpetrator. Specifically, the story explores a series of events of school violence which took place 20 years ago and the results of these events in the present.
The uniqueness of the story is that it doesn’t refer to these events passively, as something that happened in the past, but as something that started in the past and is still progressing. In other words, the story emphasizes on the dynamic nature of these events and successfully manages to show how greatly the victims were stigmatized and how even the perpetrators were affected by it.
The story denotes that an act of violence is not a simple act. It’s an act which opens the Pandora's box and destroys everyone involved without an exception, because an action always provokes a greater reaction. Thus, in the end, “these violent delights” can only “have violent ends”.
Moving on to the structure, the story has great coherence. As the story is dealing with trauma, it has many flashbacks that interrupt the present story. The transitions from the present to the past were very meticulously made so they don’t end up as tedious flashbacks but on the other hand, they help the story develop and escalate making the story impactful.
The story’s pace can’t be called fact paced because the events don’t unfold quickly yet, as the episodes are very tense, it can’t be called slow paced either. What is certain, is that the drama pace is balanced and manages to keep your attention until the very end.
Lastly, it has to be noted that the story isn’t perfect. In fact, it has some minor flaws as some illogical things occur. Fortunately, they don’t affect the general plot and also, they can easily be ignored or pass unnoticed by the audience.
The production
From my point of view, the production of the drama is almost flawless. ‘The King of Pigs’ is one of the most well-made and well-executed dramas I've ever watched. The directing is on point and manages to perfectly render the dark tone of the story’s theme. The drama consists of beautiful frames, great scene transitions and camera angles which combined with the dark color palette, make the drama visually stunning. The drama’s soundtrack is the cherry on top, as it works as the last stimulus which makes you shudder and frequents you emotionally with the moment.
As far as the acting is concerned, every actor did a pretty good and decent job as every emotion was delivered with great success, the interpretations felt very realistic to the point that the scenes became more traumatic and tense. Both Kim Dong Wook and Kim Sung Gyu had great chemistry and were great in their roles. It has to be mentioned though, that the young actors, especially Choi Hyun Jin, Sim Hyun Seo and Lee Chan Yoo, stole the show.
Conclusion
‘The King of Pigs’ is technically speaking, a very decent drama which deals with a very sensitive and heavy theme. Thus, it is a drama you can’t watch easily just for enjoyment and also, it may not be to everyone’s liking. If you are a thriller lover, I believe that you should give ‘The King of Pigs’ a try. For me, ‘The King of Pigs’ is a very impactful and unique drama that really deserved my time.
‘The King of Pigs’ is a psychological thriller drama that is, as already implied, not for the light-hearted. It contains a lot of violent, gore and psychologically heavy scenes which make it almost unbearable to watch. Prepare yourself, because what you are about to watch is a very rough ride.
The story
The drama’s story is based on a 93 minutes animation film ‘The King of Pigs’ by Yeon Sang Ho which is also based on a true story. As I’ve watched the animation film too, I can say that the drama is lightly based on it. Actually, it feels like the drama took the original story, evolved it and ended up making its own and unique story. Thus, there is no point in comparing them.
Without giving away the plot, the story deals with the trauma caused by intra-school violence and how it affects the victim and the perpetrator. Specifically, the story explores a series of events of school violence which took place 20 years ago and the results of these events in the present.
The uniqueness of the story is that it doesn’t refer to these events passively, as something that happened in the past, but as something that started in the past and is still progressing. In other words, the story emphasizes on the dynamic nature of these events and successfully manages to show how greatly the victims were stigmatized and how even the perpetrators were affected by it.
The story denotes that an act of violence is not a simple act. It’s an act which opens the Pandora's box and destroys everyone involved without an exception, because an action always provokes a greater reaction. Thus, in the end, “these violent delights” can only “have violent ends”.
Moving on to the structure, the story has great coherence. As the story is dealing with trauma, it has many flashbacks that interrupt the present story. The transitions from the present to the past were very meticulously made so they don’t end up as tedious flashbacks but on the other hand, they help the story develop and escalate making the story impactful.
The story’s pace can’t be called fact paced because the events don’t unfold quickly yet, as the episodes are very tense, it can’t be called slow paced either. What is certain, is that the drama pace is balanced and manages to keep your attention until the very end.
Lastly, it has to be noted that the story isn’t perfect. In fact, it has some minor flaws as some illogical things occur. Fortunately, they don’t affect the general plot and also, they can easily be ignored or pass unnoticed by the audience.
The production
From my point of view, the production of the drama is almost flawless. ‘The King of Pigs’ is one of the most well-made and well-executed dramas I've ever watched. The directing is on point and manages to perfectly render the dark tone of the story’s theme. The drama consists of beautiful frames, great scene transitions and camera angles which combined with the dark color palette, make the drama visually stunning. The drama’s soundtrack is the cherry on top, as it works as the last stimulus which makes you shudder and frequents you emotionally with the moment.
As far as the acting is concerned, every actor did a pretty good and decent job as every emotion was delivered with great success, the interpretations felt very realistic to the point that the scenes became more traumatic and tense. Both Kim Dong Wook and Kim Sung Gyu had great chemistry and were great in their roles. It has to be mentioned though, that the young actors, especially Choi Hyun Jin, Sim Hyun Seo and Lee Chan Yoo, stole the show.
Conclusion
‘The King of Pigs’ is technically speaking, a very decent drama which deals with a very sensitive and heavy theme. Thus, it is a drama you can’t watch easily just for enjoyment and also, it may not be to everyone’s liking. If you are a thriller lover, I believe that you should give ‘The King of Pigs’ a try. For me, ‘The King of Pigs’ is a very impactful and unique drama that really deserved my time.
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