A political comedy satirizing the policies and power of the Korean government.
This film was screened at the Independent Film & Video Makers’ Forum(Indieforum, Seoul), Berlin International Film Festival, Jeonju International Film Festival(JIFF, Jeonju), and the Hong Kong International Film Festival(HKIFF). But right before its theatrical release, the film received a ‘Restricted’ rating by the Korean Movie Rating Board(KMRB) on Aug 14th, 2011. Ever since film censorship was determined unconstitutional in 1996, the government started applying the ‘Restricted’ rating system after the Court ruled the renewed system implemented in 1997 to hold any decision to assign a rating to a film deemed by the KMRB unfit for public release, unconstitutional on Aug. 2001. But in an environment where special theaters for R-rated films were nonexistent, this was like cutting off all routes for films that fell under such category to reach an audience.
The Korea Media Rating Board based its decision to apply an R-rating to the film on the grounds that it “thematically exerts evil influence”, while claiming in the official statement of decision-making that the film “degrades the character and dignity of specific political figures”, and “makes murderous attempts against the Head of State”, thus a Restricted rating is inevitable.
The film reapplied only to receive another R-rating verdict on Sept. 22nd, only this time it was on the grounds that the film “exerts evil influence with its provocativeness” and not its original “thematic content matter”. The KMRB totally changed their position by arguing that the film is “too sexually explicit” pointing at the violence shown by the main character Podori, a Korean police mascot and scenes of copulating rats.
On Nov. 1st, 2012, a lawsuit to revoke the R-rating was filed, and after two trials, the Supreme Court finally ruled against the film’s R-rating decision on July, 2014. The film eventually had its theatrical release on Sept. 10th, 2015, but it was a victory left with scars of material and psychological damages upon the filmmaker that could not possibly be compensated.