Okja (2017)

The friendship between a girl and a giant pig. On its plot alone it sounds like a warm fairy tale, but Okja hides sharp claws inside that gentle exterior. In this film Bong Joon-ho blends a family adventure, a critique of capitalism, and an animal-rights fable, then finally thrusts the true identity of the meat that ends up on the table right in front of us. The experience of laughing happily then feeling a chill at the end, that is the precise effect Okja aimed for.

What it’s about — A mountain girl who sets out to reclaim her super pig

Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun), a girl who lives with her grandfather in the mountains of Gangwon Province, has a one-of-a-kind friend named Okja. Okja is a genetically modified “super pig” created by the giant corporation Mirando under the pretext of solving food shortages. Mija and Okja grow up like family, roaming mountains and fields together for ten years. But Mirando takes Okja to New York under the pretext of selecting the best-grown super pig, and Mija heads for the city on impulse to reclaim her friend. On that journey, Mija becomes caught up between an organization called the Animal Liberation Front and the brutal reality of Mirando.

Direction — From mountain fairy tale to facing the slaughterhouse

Bong Joon-ho’s direction shines in freely crossing genres. The first-half Gangwon mountain scenes are pastoral and warm enough to recall Hayao Miyazaki’s animation. The scenes where Mija and Okja roll down cliffs and catch fish together convince us of the bond between the two beings without words. Then when the stage shifts to the city, the film suddenly transforms into a fast-paced chase, and by the second half becomes a weighty drama that faces the gruesome reality of the slaughterhouse.

This abrupt shift in tone risks becoming scattered, but Bong Joon-ho consistently holds onto the gaze of the character Mija to bind the film into one. The CG-rendered Okja feels not like a mere spectacle but like a being that truly lives and breathes. Thanks to the technical completeness that breathes emotion into Okja’s eyes and gestures, the audience comes to genuinely fret over the fate of a single animal.

Performance — Ahn Seo-hyun’s innocence and Swinton’s hypocrisy

Ahn Seo-hyun, young at the time, shows astonishing composure as the lead who carries the entire film. She portrays Mija’s desperation and innocence toward Okja without exaggeration, making the audience accompany this journey to the end. Even in an environment moving between Korean and English, her performance never wavers.

By contrast, Tilda Swinton, who plays Mirando Group CEO Lucy, satirizes the hypocrisy of capitalism through exaggeration and caricature. She reveals the contradiction of an entrepreneur who puts forward an eco-friendly image while running a brutal factory behind the scenes, through a peculiar smile and flamboyant stage acting. Jake Gyllenhaal’s animal-documentary host, too, is a ridiculous and exaggerated character who satirizes how the media consumes animals.

What the film says — Where does the meat we eat come from?

The question Okja poses is simple yet hard to dodge. Where does the meat we eat every day come from? The film collides head-on the industrial system that treats animals as the abstract unit of “food” with Mija’s gaze, which regards a single animal as a friend. Caught between them, the audience comes to face an uncomfortable truth they’ve usually averted their eyes from. That said, Bong Joon-ho does not force vegetarianism or offer an easy moral. He merely shows quietly, through Mija’s final choice, what an individual can do in the face of an enormous system.

Ratings and reception

By OMDb, the IMDb rating is 7.3. The Rotten Tomatoes freshness is 87% and the Metacritic score is 75, indicating high critical regard. It made the competition section of the Cannes Film Festival and even stood at the center of debate over theatrical screening of Netflix films. Critics highly praised Bong Joon-ho’s signature genre-blending and social critique, and the emotional persuasiveness of the character Okja. Opinion split over the abrupt shift in tone, but the power of its message was widely recognized.

Verdict

Okja is a film that starts as a fun adventure and ends with a weighty question. The sharp critical awareness seated behind the dazzling spectacle and warm friendship lifts this work beyond a simple family film. I give four stars to this film that makes you laugh, then cry, and finally look at the dinner table again. It’s a fable both tender and cruel, made in Bong Joon-ho’s most Bong Joon-ho way.

Recommended for

• Those who like films that carry both entertainment and a social message
• Those who enjoy Bong Joon-ho’s signature genre-blending and satire
• Those who want to rethink, just once, what we eat