Okja (2017)

Genres

Action, Adventure, Drama

Director

Bong Joon-ho

Country

South Korea, USA

Cast

Ahn Seo-hyun, Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Jake Gyllenhaal, Byun Hee-bong, Steven Yeun, Lily Collins, Yoon Je-moon, Shirley Henderson, Daniel Henshall, Devon Bostick, Choi Woo-shik, Giancarlo Esposito

Storyline

It follows Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun), a young girl from South Korea who risks everything to prevent a powerful multinational company to take away from her Okja, a gigantic pig as well as her best friend.

Opinion

I spend way too much time on Netflix and their original series and movies are my favourite things to watch. So I was pretty excited when Okja finally came online - also because it's from the same director of Snowpiercer which I loved - but didn't watch it because it seemed like a pretty heavy film and you have to be in the mood for it. But I was wrong. It isn't that heavy. Actually, it has the perfect balance between comedy and drama. It's plenty of happy and funny moments but it also has a lot of deeper and emotional ones and chances are you'll laugh one minute and cry the next one only to laugh again the next one.

One of Okja's greatest strengths is Bong Joon-ho's original story. It is very simple and yet very interesting and exciting, but most of all it's really effective in engaging you in the wonderful journey of the young girl and her wonderful relationship with an animal. It is a pretty familiar story and yet it will surprise you with some very unexpected turns.

Other than being engaging, exciting and entertaining, the story also carries an important message. While (successfully) attempting at making us sympathise with animal-rights advocates and environmentalists, it shows how the meat industry works, and the things we, humans, are willing to do in order to keep feeding ourselves with animals. It is pretty accurate and sad picture of what the world has become. Some may say it's too preachy to be entertaining, or that it tries to make people go vegetarian/vegan, what I think is that it raises awareness towards this problem, from animals rights to GMO foods. 

But enough with the heavy stuff. Let's talk about the visual aspect of the film. Simply amazing. It isn't the photography nor the colours nor the costumes - although they all are pretty amazing. No, I'm talking about Okja, the GMO pig. She is so beautifully done, she looks real. It's the proper use of CGI that makes the film so emotional and gives to it so much soul.

Still, the pig wouldn't be anything without the young Ahn Seo-hyun who gives a strong performance as Mija and whose chemistry with the fake animal is truly astonishing. The rest of the cast is also very strong, with a special mention for Tilda Swinton and Jake Gyllenhaal.