The Paper Boy
LEE Dae-hee │ Korea │ 2002 │ 9min
The “Paper Boy,” who makes and delivers newspapers, never stops working in order to meet people’s expectations. Through a rough sketch technique, the film skillfully blurs the boundaries between reality and illusion, revealing within its short runtime the contradictions that make up human society.

PADAK
LEE Dae-hee  │ Korea │ 2012 │ 78min
A mackerel, once freely roaming the sea, is caught by humans one day and ends up trapped in the glass tank of a sushi restaurant. Unlike the other fish that cleverly play dead whenever humans approach, the mackerel refuses to give up, repeatedly striking its head against the glass wall. Yet its desperate struggle for life is seen by others merely as a gesture of self-destruction. Eventually nicknamed 'Padak Padak' (flapping in Korean), the mackerel clashes constantly with the tank’s other inhabitants—a rockfish, red sea bream, and sea bass bred in fish farms, and a single flounder born in the open sea—but never ceases its movements toward the unseen ocean beyond.
Avoiding the easy anthropomorphism of nonhuman animals, the film, like the director’s debut The Paper Boy, interweaves music and imagery with grace, capturing each character’s distinct personality and gaze. "PADAK" received the Special Jury Prize at the 16th Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival and the CGV Movie Collage Award at the 13th Jeonju International Film Festival.