That was a scene from the animation “Leafie, a Hen into the Wild.” The locally produced animation film was released last summer and during its two-month run it had moved the hearts of countless Korean families.

The film is based on the best-selling children’s book of the same title, an adventurous and moving tale of the hen Leafie escaping from the poultry farm into the wider world outside the farm. “Leafie, a Hen into the Wild” was the first film in the Korean animation film history to break past one million ticket sales, ultimately drawing 2.2 million moviegoers. The sales figures for the original story and the DVD version following the successful movie run have skyrocketed. Moreover, the film has done exceptionally well in foreign markets, demonstrating the potential for Korean animation films as a new hallyu content. Today we’ll take an in-depth look at the film and its cast of colorful avian and mammalian characters.

It took us a long time to make the film, but I’m ecstatic that the response was overwhelming. It has been frustrating that animation films released during children’s summer vacation were largely Japanese or American ones. But this year our film stood out among all the Japanese and American competitors and inspired countless children and families. I was so moved by how much people liked the movie.

That was the film’s director, Oh Sung-yoon. He has shown hope to other Korean animation producers that making an animation film doesn’t have to be a financial bust.

The story begins at a chicken farm. There chickens are kept in cramped cages and fed on artificially produced feed delivered by automated machines. Their sole purpose is to lay eggs and be slaughtered for human consumption when time comes. But the hen Leafie wants to defy that sad destiny.

After finding out that malnourished chickens get thrown out of the poultry farm, Leafie starves herself, getting thinner and thinner. Her desire to escape is realized and she is dumped into a pit outside the farm. But it’s short-lived freedom. The real peril begins now.

Leafie is saved by a mallard duck wanderer from a dangerously close encounter with a vicious weasel. Then she becomes a surrogate mother to an egg laid by a female duck that was killed by a weasel. Leafie takes care of the egg, thinking about all the eggs she had laid without having had a chance to brood them, and out hatches Greenie, a baby Leafie has always wanted. Despite being of different species, Leafie and Greenie face the world together as mother and son.

Leafie is a single hen raising a duckling. She wants to show Greenie the rest of the world and heads toward the swampland in the east where it is safe from dangerous predators.

Their trek through the dark forest is the favorite scene of Director Oh. The forest is warm and alive with various life forms yet fraught with heartless dangers of nature. One can’t help but smile at the brave and curiosity-filled journey of Leafie and Greenie. Here’s Director Oh Sung-yoon again.



Leafie and Greenie have to pass through a forest on their way to the swamp. That scene is shown in the movie poster, but there was no such scene in the original story. I think the scene, although it was very short, was very well executed and harmonized well with the music. The scene represented the rite of passage, how nature accepts this unlikely mother and son. I think it is really well-made.

The hen and the duckling face numerous obstacles and learn to overcome them together. Leafie watches in pride and joy, but with a tinge of sadness, as Greenie learns to swim and fly on his own, and eventually joins a flock of his own kind.

After she sends Greenie off to join his own kind, Leafie chooses to throw herself to the hungry young weasels, bringing tears to the eyes of moviegoers.

There were lots of controversies about making the animation film’s end so sad. But Director Oh argues that the ending is not all sad.

If I didn’t end this on a sad note, I thought I couldn’t describe how Leafie finally found her place in nature. I had to make the film from Leafie’s position. That’s why I couldn’t give up on the scene in which Leafie sacrificed herself for the young weasels. I had the mother weasel shed tears at the end for Leafie’s death. I also hoped that the audience could understand how the weasel felt.

The success of the 2D animation film was quite impressive, given that the current film market is dominated by 3D and 4D live action movies. The highest-grossing animation film in Korean history had been the restored digital version of “Robot Taekwon V” released in 2007, which recorded 720,000 ticket sales. But “Leafie” broke that record in just eleven days and succeeded in drawing 2.2 million moviegoers even though Hollywood blockbusters muscled it out of all-day screening to restrict the showings to only daytime. “Leafie, a Hen into the Wild” is a heart-warming and gripping children’s tale that will live long in our memories because of its sad and realistic ending. Hwang Sun-mi, the original author of the book, also had high expectations for the film.

It was inconceivable when I first got the proposal about the film. I wrote the story from the hen’s point of view and I didn’t think it would make a good film. But then I saw how the story was turned into a cultural content of a completely different form and how the director reshaped it to fit the original vision. I wish the audience saw this as a beautiful story about what family truly is.



And such emotional appeal worked on foreign audiences as well. Here’s Mr. Choi Woo-hyun of Myung Film.

Since its release in July and subsequent success, it was applauded as an unprecedented record-breaker in the Korean animation history. I came to notice the heightened interest about this film among film buyers when it was shown the Cannes film market in October. We signed deals with a few European buyers there and later on with many American buyers at the American Film Market in early November. In all we sold the film to some 50 countries around the world, the best export performance ever for a Korean animation film.

Overseas marketing efforts had begun even before the film’s release. But the efforts were largely overlooked at the time because no Korean animation film had enjoyed any success in overseas markets. But, after the showing of “Leafie,” buyers’ reactions changed dramatically. Here’s Mr. Choi Woo-hyun of Myung Film again.

They all loved it. It wasn’t only fun and light-hearted, but it was inspirational and caused people to grapple with some philosophical and moral ideas. That’s why the film appealed not only to children, but to adults as well. Even the grownups were satisfied and inspired by the film. They also noticed how unique the drawing style was, how they combined the Asian and western styles.

“Leafie, a Hen into the Wild” was sold to 50 countries around the globe, including France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, China, and Japan. Director Oh said that he was able to see the enormous potential of Korean animation at the overseas previews.

I was so nervous at the British preview. I was worried how people of other cultures would react to the film. My anxieties had to do with whether they would laugh or cry at parts designed for such emotional reactions. Fortunately, the audience reacted generally in the same way, whether they were from Japan or England. They all laughed and cried at the same parts. That’s because the emotions and the subject matter were universal. After the previews I became confident about how well the film would do in other cultures.



The success of “Leafie” did not come overnight. This is the first film Director Oh directed, but he had worked in the Korean animation industry for two decades and was well aware of the grim and discouraging production environment. Yet he was still able to make a emotionally fulfilling and commercially successful film.

Hollywood blockbusters that were released this summer had budgets in the hundreds of millions of dollars. But our entire film production cost was a paltry 5 million dollars. It was no contest in terms of budget. But the content was good and that’s what earned rave responses. Our production staff had 200 members with only 30 to 40 core members. It was a small staff for any film.

It took ten years from brainstorming to filming. “Leafie” was Director Oh’s precious child, just like Leafie devoted everything to raising Greenie. It’s not surprising that all the work and care that went into making this film culminated in a success that rewrote the history of Korean animation. Director Oh says that Leafie’s life reflects his own path in life.

Leafie’s life is similar to mine. This was my first film in my 20-year animation career. Leafie’s nervousness and courage at trying to get out of the yard and venture out to the greater outside world resembles how I felt as I was about to show my work to the greater audience. As a filmmaker, I had lots of concerns about how I should make future films. I think, as a director of commercial films, movies should be for the masses in the story and format. I got to think deeply about my role as a producer of cultural contents. That process is similar to how Leafie came to understand nature and her role in it, and how she decided to live her life.

Despite many difficulties, “Leafie, a Hen into the Wild” left a defining mark in the Korean animation history. Then, what made “Leafie” such a great hit? One is the familiar and simple drawing style.



I wanted the drawings to be like storybook illustrations. That’s how the characters and backgrounds were designed. Unlike other animation films, my film tried to maintain reality as much as possible. It was difficult to keep reality while giving human-like personality and aspects to each character. For instance, the birds used their wings like human fingers, which is nothing like in real nature. So, we had to keep the animals as real as possible, but at the same time reshape them as interesting characters.

Instead of the splashy, awe-inspiring 3D or 4D animation techniques, “Leafie” opted to incorporate as much human feelings as possible. Also, the swamp featured in the film is based on Wupo wetland in South Gyeongsang Province, and the movements of the animals were kept as realistic as possible. And, for the first time in Korea the dubbing was pre-recorded. The film employed top-ranking film stars in Korea. Leafie was voiced by Moon Sori of the “Oasis” fame, Greenie by the rising star Yoo Seung-ho, and the Wanderer by Choi Min-sik, the star of “Old Boy.” Pre-recording the dialogues and drawing the scenes to fit the dubbing allows the film to become more dynamic and realistic. Sound effects and music also added force to the film.

The music was done in collaboration with a Czech orchestra. Myung Film invested heavily in perfecting the sound and music. The success of an animation film is determined by music, sound effects, and voice acting.

“Leafie, a Hen into the Wild” has shown the competitiveness of Korean animation production. Thanks to its success, the Korean animation industry has rejuvenated and regained its pride. The industry now looks forward to playing an important part in spreading Korean culture to other parts of the world.