Padak (film)

Padak (Korean: 파닥파닥; RR: Padakpadak) is a 2012 South Korean adult animated film that blends musical, psychological thriller, and drama elements. It was written and directed by Dae-Hee Lee. The voice cast includes Hyen-jee Kim, Young-jun Si, Young-mi Ahn, Kyeng-soo Hyen, and Ho-san Lee. The film first screened at the 2012 Jeonju International Film Festival and hit South Korean theaters on July 25, 2012. On June 7, 2016, comic book publisher eigoMANGA released it on Steam under the title *Padak*.

In South Korea, critics received the film well, but elsewhere it earned mixed reviews, with many pointing out the low-quality animation.

The story follows a mackerel caught from the ocean and placed in a seafood restaurant’s fish tank in a Korean fishing village. After seeing another mackerel get prepared as food, she becomes desperate to escape. The tank already holds several farm-raised fish: a striped beakfish named Bream, a snapper called Nollaemi, a sleepy sea bass named Bar, a saltwater eel named Jooldom, and a youthful greenling named Spotty. They are ruled by an old flatfish known as “the Master,” who hides under a grate and teaches them to play dead when humans approach, prolonging their survival. The fish eat dead or dying fish dropped into the tank. When the mackerel tries to leap out and fails, the farm fish nickname her “Padak” (or “Flappy”). Each night, the Master—who falsely claims to be from the ocean too—gives riddles based on ocean stories he heard from a mate who was eaten before him.

After a violent clash between Flappy and the Master, Jooldom lets Flappy give the night’s riddle. She uses the chance to urge the group to think about escaping. Bar suggests that the king crabs in the tank below can break the glass, and that Flappy, who speaks their language, could convince them. The meeting ends with Flappy being beaten for questioning the Master’s authority. The next day, during tank cleaning, Flappy and Spotty try to escape again, but Flappy abandons her effort when Spotty gets stuck by humans. That night, starving and stubborn, Flappy refuses to eat a dying halibut who mocks the Master’s cowardice. She then jumps into the king crab tank and nearly dies, but a mischievous boy scoops her out and puts her in the restaurant’s aquarium. There, Flappy devours all but one clownfish, then injures herself on a knight decoration’s sword and passes out.