Bong Joon-ho's American co productions are always fascinating for how he takes these concepts that Hollywood would eagerly want and remains true to his style, heart, and vision. Snowpiercer took what many would use as a setpiece action blockbuster and used it for a searing drama on class and the limits of compromise. And Okja took the classic 'A girl and her animal' framework and delivers a sobering, unyielding experience. It's no feel good movie, but one that absolutely makes you feel. Everyone is cast and directed to perfection. The lingering on Dano's soulful eyes... Perfectly harnessing Glyeenhaal's paradoxical pathetic charisma... Swinton embodying two different but equally perverse faces of capitalism, each uniquely rotten to the core... And Ahn Seo-hyun keeping pace with all of them. Bong Joon-ho is so thoughtful and precise with everything he's aiming for, and so uncompromisingly himself. There's police brutality, animal exploitation, using an actual resistance movement with all its weighed history. Not idealized but not demonized, and unabashedly a force of good.
It has the strength to resist both an easy, big win ending, and a despairing one. There is no single victory. There's many small ones, and you eke out what you can, making things better even fractionally. You can't erase the cruelties, and you shouldn't, but you can love and hope, you can bring a little girl back home to her best friend and you can fight. The fight goes on. Like Snowpiercer, it's hard not to see the lessons learned from this film that Bong Joon-ho would go on to apply to Parasite, but Okja more than stands on its own. Parasite was a cathartic recognition of what we all endure, and the tragedy the system leaves. Okja sees the tools we can use to fight it. This film was just a damn pleasant surprise from a movie I already expected to be good and a director I want to see more and more of.
Review by JCVIP 5BlockedParent2021-05-30T06:48:04Z
Bong Joon-ho's American co productions are always fascinating for how he takes these concepts that Hollywood would eagerly want and remains true to his style, heart, and vision. Snowpiercer took what many would use as a setpiece action blockbuster and used it for a searing drama on class and the limits of compromise. And Okja took the classic 'A girl and her animal' framework and delivers a sobering, unyielding experience. It's no feel good movie, but one that absolutely makes you feel. Everyone is cast and directed to perfection. The lingering on Dano's soulful eyes... Perfectly harnessing Glyeenhaal's paradoxical pathetic charisma... Swinton embodying two different but equally perverse faces of capitalism, each uniquely rotten to the core... And Ahn Seo-hyun keeping pace with all of them. Bong Joon-ho is so thoughtful and precise with everything he's aiming for, and so uncompromisingly himself. There's police brutality, animal exploitation, using an actual resistance movement with all its weighed history. Not idealized but not demonized, and unabashedly a force of good.
It has the strength to resist both an easy, big win ending, and a despairing one. There is no single victory. There's many small ones, and you eke out what you can, making things better even fractionally. You can't erase the cruelties, and you shouldn't, but you can love and hope, you can bring a little girl back home to her best friend and you can fight. The fight goes on. Like Snowpiercer, it's hard not to see the lessons learned from this film that Bong Joon-ho would go on to apply to Parasite, but Okja more than stands on its own. Parasite was a cathartic recognition of what we all endure, and the tragedy the system leaves. Okja sees the tools we can use to fight it. This film was just a damn pleasant surprise from a movie I already expected to be good and a director I want to see more and more of.