Swimming to Sea

A mackerel from the ocean is placed in the fish tank of a sushi restaurant in a Korean fishing village. She is driven to escape after witnessing another mackerel being prepared as food. Her tank is co-inhabited by a group of farm fish consisting of a striped beakfish, a snapper, a sea bass, a saltwater eel and the youthful greenling Spotty. They are ruled by a flatfish who hides underneath a grate and instructs the tank's fish to prolong their survival by playing dead when humans approach the restaurant. The fish derive sustenance from dead and dying fish that are periodically dropped into their tank. After witnessing the mackerel leap out of the tank in an unsuccessful escape attempt, the shocked farm fish christen her with the nickname "Padak Padak" (or "Flappy"). Each night, the flatfish, who falsely claims to also be from the ocean, gives riddles to the farm fish loosely based on stories of the ocean told to him by a mate who had been eaten before him.

Following a violent confrontation between Flappy and the flatfish, the eel grants Flappy permission to provide the night's riddle. Flappy uses the opportunity to encourage the group to ponder a means of escape. The sea bass proposes that the king crabs in the tank below theirs are able to break the glass walls, and can be convinced to do so by Flappy, who can speak their language. The night's meeting ends with Flappy being beaten by the group after she questions the flatfish's authority. The next day, as the restaurant's tanks are being cleaned, Flappy and Spotty make another unsuccessful escape attempt, in which Flappy abandons her own effort when Spotty's progress is impeded. That night, Flappy, in spite of her hunger and out of stubborn pride against the flatfish, declines to join in devouring a dying halibut, who mocks the flatfish's cowardice before his death. Flappy leaps into the king crab tank, where she is nearly killed until a young boy mischievously scoops her out of the tank and places her in the restaurant's aquarium. The starved Flappy devours all but one of the aquarium's clownfish before injuring herself on a knight decoration's sword and losing consciousness.

Spotty's own attempt to speak to the king crabs in their tank results in his death, and his body is placed in the farm fish's tank. As the flatfish suddenly defends Spotty's body from being devoured by the eel, Flappy is returned to the tank as well, and she attacks the flatfish after seeing him over Spotty's mutilated corpse. Their struggle is cut short when the flatfish is scooped by the restaurant chef and placed on his counter. As the chef prepares other dishes, the flatfish witnesses the happenings within the restaurant and begins fearing for his life, only to be spared when the customer changes his order to mackerel. When the flatfish is returned to the tank, Flappy apologizes to the flatfish for her misunderstanding and encourages him to move forward before she is taken and served ikizukuri-style. The next morning, the flatfish makes his own leap outside the tank, and with the aid of the sword fragment that had been embedded into Flappy, he escapes the chef's clutch and successfully reaches the sea as the rest of the fish watch from the tank.

• Hyen-jee Kim as Padak Padak / Flappy
• Young-jun Si as the Flatfish
• Kyeng-soo Hyen as Bream
• Young-mi Ahn as Spotty and the Snapper
• Ho-san Lee as the Eel and the Sea Bass

• Swimming to Sea at IMDb