Review: Leafie, A Hen into the Wild at TKFF

I am not ashamed to say that Leafie, A Hen into the Wild (Director, Oh sung-yun) made me cry not 
once but twice! I'm not sure if any of the children in attendance cried but I know there was at least one other adult woman crying too. This is not only a cute, funny and entertaing animated film for children, it also has many difficult and important lessons to teach them. This is admirable when you consider that Disney films literally teach children nothing except how to occupy rigid gender roles. The film starts off with Leafie in who is a battery hen gazing longingly at the animals who live in the yard. This is were i cried the first time. I was impressed that a children's film would depict the true living conditions of battery hens when the world seems more then happy to gloss over this fact (despite the ready availability and affordability of free range eggs). I think it's good for children to understand modern farming practices and ultimately where their food is coming from. Leafie is even shown with a bald neck and emaciated frame (typical of battery hens). She starves herself for three days to play dead which is the only way that she can get out of the battery and into the yard. Here again the film does not shy away from reality, The farmer is shown making his nightly rounds collecting all of the dead hens (a lot!) and heaping them into a wheelbarrow for disposal in a pit outside. From the pit Leafie narrowly escapes being eaten by a weasel, thanks to the help of a handsome guard duck named Wanderer. Leafie then finds a nice briar patch to live in with the help of the local real-estate agent, Otter. When her friend Wanderer and his wife are killed by the weasel Leafie is left to care for their egg. She hatches the egg and names the duckling Greenie. Unfortunately because of their difference in species the other animals are hesitant to accept them as mother and son. However, Leafie and Greenie must remain strong and ultimately they prove to the other animals that love transcends such differences which are ultimately trivial. 


Spoiler Alert In the end Greenie joins a flock of ducks and there are lots of sad moments between Leafie and Greenie struggling to say goodbye. During this time leafie accidentally discovers the weasel's burrow whilst looking for a warm place during the first snow. There she discovers the weasel's litter and is instantly taken by the cute babies. It is only when the weasel returns that Leafie realises that the babies she has been cuddling and keeping warm are the weasel's babies. She is shocked that things so innocent and beautiful could come from the weasel that killed and ate her friends. The weasel has caught a duck but Greenie rescues the duck and says goodbye to Leafie one last time. However, because Greenie rescued that duck from the weasel she now has no food which means that she can't nurse her litter. 


At the end when leafie watches Greenie fly away with his new flock for the winter, the weasel approcahes her from behind. Leafie takes a deep breath and says, 'Yes. You can eat me so that you're babies do not starve'. The weasel is obviously shocked by this but does as Leafie says. At this point I lost it and was crying like child. Leafie of course has realised that the weasel is not a monster, just another animal trying to survive in the wild in the only way that it knows how. Again, I was really impressed that such a concept was presented in a children's film. The majority of adults fail to comprehend/accept this basic fact of life and instead vilify predators like weasels who are merely trying to survive, just as we all are.


For more information on the Toronto Korean Film Festival 2012 and to purchase tickets please click here.