One of the most striking visual elements of Gene Kim’s animated short One Last Monster, currently touring festivals, is the giant turtle tanks. The kingdom of Adin is led into war by enormous, stocky chelonians with cannons mounted on their backs. They are a formidable defense, extremely cute—and rooted in one of the favorite tales of Korean history.
Kim told me that the turtles were inspired in part by Korean vessels called turtle ships that famously repelled Japanese invaders during the Imjin War between 1592 and 1598. The ships remain a great source of national pride, because they were among the first armored vessels in the world. But the turtle tanks also lumbered into being when Kim saw someone walking three turtles in New York’s Central Park. “I saw them and thought, what if we scaled these guys up to kaiju size?” he said, referring to the giant monsters of Japanese cinema.
