From the film poster to performances, and from cinematography to characters, the film is brilliant. Then there is Paul Dano. He is just a pleasure to watch. Okja left a lasting impact on me as a moviegoer.
An American MNC starts a 10-year project to develop a perfect pig. They have given the piglets to farmers all over the world and created a competition out of this. The winning animal they can mass produce and rake in profits. Your usual capitalist nightmare. One such pig is Okja from Korea. She is being raised by a mountain-dwelling farmer and his granddaughter Mija. Naturally Mija and Okja and close to each other. 10 years pass and it's time to examine and surrender the pigs back to the company. It is officially still their property. But not without a fight.
It is not a creature feature. Okja has very little to do in the film. The film is about Mija, the capitalist corporate suits i.e. Tilda Swinton and the Animal Liberation Front or the ALF i.e. Paul Dano. The ALF are very serious about non-violent ways. And even assault and kidnapping are very graciously executed. That is the moment Bong Joon-ho gets hold of you and then never lets go till the very end.
The movie starts a bit slow to establish the relationship between Mija and Okja and even goes on to show how Okja is an intelligent animal. With that much establishment, you would expect a bit more from the pig, but that does not come. Agreed that there is so much else happening that you don't miss it very much until after the movie is finished.
Darius Khondji's camera work is really good. From a mountain village and jungles to urban glass structures, his camera accentuates all the details. It tugs at your heartstrings towards the very end. The end is realistic, and not entirely tragic, but it keeps you thinking about the world. You keep imagining if any other non-idealistic utopian ending was even possible. When you are thinking about this, the story takes us back to Korea and the sombre mood intensifies with Darius's camera. No words are spoken for a long time which gives you time to process and recover.
This genre-bending tale is worth watching for many reasons. It has a friendship between a girl and a super-pig, and it also has themes of capitalism, industrialisation and veganism.
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 FLYVIP 2BlockedParent2020-11-10T00:35:44Z
Not half as interesting as the hype made it out to be but mainly because of the story that is definitely not at the level of other parts of the movie, otherwise Bong Joon-Ho's talent is undeniable. It shows a lot of attention to every part of the movie, everything looks good.
Initial concept of the animals is pretty good, clearly the visual effects are top level, the creatures feel just perfectly natural in the image. But my main issue is that there more interesting aspect is never ever used. It's shown plainly in the introduction sequence when Mina falls, it's shown at the end when the super pig couple let their kid escape with Okja,and it's basically entirely forgotten in the whole rest of the movie. These super pigs are extremely intelligent ! And absolutely nothing is done with that. I mean it's not just smart dog level or "they seem to understand what I say". They are able to understand complex phenomenon of their environment, anticipate future actions, plan a strategy and execute it. So I kept waiting for it to come into action, and... nothing. Neither in Okja's actions or in the farm.
In the end it's just an slight improvement over the classic pet story. Little girl has a pet that she loves very much and it is special. Bad people want to do something bad with the pet. Some adventures and running around. Pet is rescued. Hurray. Basically 101 dalmatians. But taken with a more serious vibe maybe.
Tilda Swinton is, well, weird as usual, so even if her performance is obviously good, you mostly see Tilda Swinton being weird instead of a real character. Jake Gyllenhaal has quite a different character from what he is used too, and that's great to see. The character itself is not that great or original, but it's nice to see he can pull it off. I guess the girl playing Mija is not bad, but her character is pretty uninteresting. Several minor characters are very good too.
And thankfully the ALF guys offer a little more texture. Even if not the main protagonists, they are by far the more interesting and developed characters, they bring some fun and depth to the otherwise basic story. The moral compass and genuine empathy of Jay, the motivation, betrayal and redemption of K, they feel more like main characters while the other around, while still good, feel more like being based on just a simple concept or cliché.
The societal commentary is obvious and not even controversial anymore, so yeah, ok.
The design is also a major success. From the luxurious initial jungle, through the city celebration extravaganza, to the perfectly bleak farm and slaughterhouse. Those are really amazing.
Globally everything is very good, this is great art and cinema, but the story is very sub par and really hurts the final result. It feels like going to a great restaurant and having mac n cheese. A lot of efforts and great work that managed to show the talent of the one who made it, the final result is pretty good, but it still feels like a waste of time and talent to put so much to embellish something so basic.