Okja (2017)
Directed by Bong Joon Ho
A young girl named Mija risks everything to prevent a powerful, multi-national company from kidnapping her best friend - a massive animal named Okja.
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The story, like its titular gigantic pig-hippo, is a hybrid, nodding to kid-creature teams from E.T. to My Neighbor Totoro, while also dabbling in both farcical and sincere ecodrama.
These are charming scenes, reminiscent of “Pete’s Dragon” (as she tosses real fruit to the animated creature) and “My Neighbor Totoro” (right down to the way Mija naps on the giant beast’s belly), featuring great visual effects work on the creature, designed to look adorably dog-like.
In a first act that is strongly reminiscent of Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro, Bong charmingly portrays the loving bond between Mija and Okja as they cavort about the forest, pick persimmons, of which Okja is particularly fond, and take naps in the shade with Mija cozily stretched out atop Okja’s massive stomach.
In many ways the film comes on like a children’s story, with scenes of Mija and Okja in an idyllic forest capturing in live-action the same sense of wonder as Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki (“Spirited Away,” “My Neighbor Totoro”), whom Bong has acknowledged as an influence, before the action takes increasingly ominous, darker turns.
It could be called either audacious or misjudged when the final act takes us to a factory farm for giant pigs, where the film startlingly turns into something between My Neighbor Totoro and Le Sang des Bêtes.
The first half is weird and tough; until you realised you have to read the film like a fable; it’s like a live-action version of Spirited Away where a tough, innocent child goes on a wondrous, painful journey.
If Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation studio responsible for Spirited Away, were to branch out into live action, the result might be something like Okja – at least in part.
In many ways the film comes on like a children’s story, with scenes of Mija and Okja in an idyllic forest capturing in live-action the same sense of wonder as Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki (“Spirited Away,” “My Neighbor Totoro”), whom Bong has acknowledged as an influence, before the action takes increasingly ominous, darker turns.
It’s also because it’s a relationship we recognize from the other children’s classics to which it easily compares (“E.T.” being the obvious touchpoint), and possibly even, if we were very lucky kids, from our actual childhoods.
The very notion of blending an ET-style heart-warmer with a sometimes graphic exploration of industrial-scale food production practices might be a challenge too far for most tastes.
Some might say that “Okja” is a mash up of moments from such films as “Lassie,” “King Kong,” “Mighty Joe Young,” “Soylent Green” and, even “E.T.” And, in a way, it is.
On the one hand, it is a film that is clearly trying to hit the same sweet spot that “E.T.” did 35 years ago and there are a number of moments here that are indeed as magical, both technologically and emotionally, as anything that Spielberg whipped up back in the day.
The movie’s underlying premise — child bonds with otherworldly beast and defends it from cruel adults — easily calls to mind “E.T.” or “Pete’s Dragon,” but Bong bends the formula into his own agenda.
In one scene reminiscent of Dr. Alan Grant resting on the heaving chest of a dinosaur in Jurassic Park, a gobsmacked Dr. Johnny runs his hand over Okja’s thickly textured and hair-bristled hide.
The gloomy concrete-and-ironwork facility where Okja's brothers and sisters are held suggests a concentration camp for animals; when key characters trek away from its main gates, Bong's compositions and texture palette evoke " Schindler's List " as well as George Miller's " Babe: Pig in the City ."
Weaving together an animal-rights message as well as cautionary warnings about corporate greed, the movie becomes an awkward hybrid blending old-fashioned movies like "Babe" or "The Black Stallion" with the surrealism of Terry Gilliam's "Brazil."
There are also visual and thematic nods to cartoonist turned director Terry Gilliam , who made films that were childlike and sometimes childish but never strictly for kids—in particular the 1985 anti-fascist fable " Brazil ," which appears to have inspired the derring-do of ALF's membership, chivalrous rebels who evade police by diving off bridges.
There are a couple of weak links with some over-enthusiastic performances (especially with Jake Gyllenhaal who appears to be doing an impression of Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) but mostly Bong Joon-ho’s film keeps up a rowdy momentum throughout.
His expert blend of dark humor and horrifying drama can be seen in such early classics as Barking Dogs Never Bite and Memories of Murder.
Fans of Memories of Murder (2003) and Mother (2009) will be pining with me for those films’ acidic nastiness, lyrical ambivalence and CGI-free scenery, and mourning how the Korean New Wave, of which Bong was an integral figure, devolved so quickly into a mini-Hollywood, complete with hard drives doing most of the heavy lifting.
“Memories of Murder” (2003) was a serial-killer detective flick that unraveled from deadpan entropy; “The Host” (2006) was a Godzilla movie that made a left turn into political parody and family slapstick.
A choppy mix of anti-corporate farce and Spielbergian fantasy, Bong Joon-Ho’s bilingual Okja veers wildly, but never stalls; if Bong, the South Korean writer-director behind The Host , Memories Of Murder , and Snowpiercer , never squares the film’s satirical means with its sentimental ends, he at least throws the weight of his considerable filmmaking talent behind both.
Cowriter (with Jon Ronson, "Frank")/director Bong Joon Ho's ("Memories of Murder," "Snowpiercer") latest was compared to "E.T." after its premiere at Cannes, but be warned, this is not a movie for children.
Genre fans will of course know Bong Joon-ho from the consistently intense Memories of Murder (2003), the wonderfully weird The Host (2006), the subtly disturbing Mother (2009), and the twisted sci-fi masterpiece Snowpiercer (2013) — and if you don’t know these films yet, well, you’re in for a good time someday.
Fans of Memories of Murder (2003) and Mother (2009) will be pining with me for those films’ acidic nastiness, lyrical ambivalence and CGI-free scenery, and mourning how the Korean New Wave, of which Bong was an integral figure, devolved so quickly into a mini-Hollywood, complete with hard drives doing most of the heavy lifting.
The next day, Uncle Mundo (Yoon Je Moon, "Mother") struggles up the hill and is greeted warmly, but he's the first to arrive of a team there to 'check on' Okja, a team which includes Mirando spokesman Dr. Johnny Wilcox (Jake Gyllenhaal), the TV host of 'Magical Animals.' Heebong takes Mija to visit her parents' graves and presents her with a golden pig, but Mija learns it's a ruse and when she runs back to their home, Okja and the Mirando contingent are gone.
Genre fans will of course know Bong Joon-ho from the consistently intense Memories of Murder (2003), the wonderfully weird The Host (2006), the subtly disturbing Mother (2009), and the twisted sci-fi masterpiece Snowpiercer (2013) — and if you don’t know these films yet, well, you’re in for a good time someday.
He established his tonal aesthetic in three previous films, “The Host” (2006), “Mother” (2009) and “Snowpiercer” (2014) , which remarkably blend cartoonish comedy, crisp action and considerable pathos for his characters.
Since 2003 with his “Memories of Murder” and onto his absolutely gut-wrenching drama “Mother” in 2009, serving as both writer and director he constantly challenges us in unique and artful ways.
In 2006 Bong released The Host, his eco-horror film which is considered one of the best monster movies of the new millennium.
Before that, 2006’s The Host—possibly the best giant-rubber-monster movie ever made—generated its creature out of industrial pollution, the first sci-fi movie to explicitly villainize toxic dumping since Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster (1972).
“Memories of Murder” (2003) was a serial-killer detective flick that unraveled from deadpan entropy; “The Host” (2006) was a Godzilla movie that made a left turn into political parody and family slapstick.
Bong — whose breakthrough 2006 creature-feature/family-melodrama “The Host” followed a giant lizard rising from toxic pollutants dumped into the Han River by an American army base — isn’t exactly coy when he’s got an ax to grind.
As with his fantastic 2006 monster mash-up The Host, Bong knows how to sneak a bigger allegorical message into his manic whirligig celluloid contraption—Okja feels like Fast Food Nation as directed by Terry Gilliam with The Smiths’ Meat is Murder playing on the soundtrack.
The primary difference between Okja and The Host is that the creature in this film is the victim rather than the aggressor, which sets up a much more traditional emotional dynamic at the center, as Mija goes on a globe-trotting mission to save her best friend.
His expert blend of dark humor and horrifying drama can be seen in such early classics as Barking Dogs Never Bite and Memories of Murder.
He’ll be available by Skype for a Q&A session immediately after Okja, which will in turn be followed by the filmmaker’s 2000 feature Barking Dogs Never Bite.
Bong’s last effort, Snowpiercer, was also a stunning action-adventure that housed a bracing political message.
Unlike his previous American-made film Snowpiercer, Okja really does feel like a true Korean film.
Okja, Bong’s Netflix-produced, environmentalist-themed adventure fantasy, also draws from 2013’s Snowpiercer , the filmmaker’s first English-language effort, specifically in its clear contempt for dehumanizing capitalism.
Incluso, la película puede ser percibida como el resultado de la desagradable experiencia de Joon-Ho con el magnate mediático Harvey Weinstein en el manejo de su película anterior: Snowpiercer .
(Think back to The Host, his monster movie–turned–family drama–turned–anti-imperialist screed; or Snowpiercer’s literalization of class conflict on board a sci-fi super-train.)
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As with his fantastic 2006 monster mash-up The Host, Bong knows how to sneak a bigger allegorical message into his manic whirligig celluloid contraption—Okja feels like Fast Food Nation as directed by Terry Gilliam with The Smiths’ Meat is Murder playing on the soundtrack.
Okja is basically an R-rated kids' movie that remains exciting and engaging enough throughout, with brutal images of animal slaughtering that will both remind the audience of Fast Food Nation and perhaps even convince them to turn vegetarian.
What begins as a tranquil buddy movie finishes up in the blood-soaked slaughterhouse where Okja is due to end her days; it’s as though My Neighbour Totoro had morphed into Fast Food Nation.
While it starts with the gentle human-animal dynamics of “Babe,” it eventually arrives at the polemics of “Fast Food Nation,” revealing a movie eager to please and editorialize at the same time.
The climactic slaughterhouse scene reaches beyond the urgency of Upton Sinclairs The Jungle and Eric Schlossers Fast Food Nation .
The gloomy concrete-and-ironwork facility where Okja's brothers and sisters are held suggests a concentration camp for animals; when key characters trek away from its main gates, Bong's compositions and texture palette evoke " Schindler's List " as well as George Miller's " Babe: Pig in the City ."
Okja the character is a digital creation, thanks to the work of visual effects supervisor Erik-Jan De Boer, whose previous work includes “Life of Pi” and “Babe: Pig in the City.”
Combining puppetry, hydraulics and CG visuals, Bong fleshed out his voluptuous leading lady with help from conceptual artist Hee Chul Jang, who also designed the monster in The Host, plus visual effects supervisor De Boer, who won an Academy Award for creating the tiger in Ang Lee's Life of Pi.
One of them, the gentle, galumphing sow Okja (impressively created through puppetry and CGI by Life of Pi FX wizard Erik-Jan De Boer), has peacefully bonded with farmer's granddaughter Mija (An Seo-hyun) and when earmarked for culling becomes a cause célèbre for Paul Dano's comically pacifist liberationists.
It is remarkable, really, how Joon Ho paints the horrific reality of factory farming with creatures created with CGI and a puppet rig (visual effects supervisor Erik-Jan De Boer,"Life of Pi").
Okja the character is a digital creation, thanks to the work of visual effects supervisor Erik-Jan De Boer, whose previous work includes “Life of Pi” and “Babe: Pig in the City.”
Plaudits to visual effects supervisor Erik-Jan de Boer, who won an Oscar for his work on Ang Lee’s Life of Pi and here brings creature-designer Hee Chul Jang’s beast to life in a manner that combines massive physical heft with cute and cuddly charm.
From the anthropomorphic sentimentality of Babe to the slaughterhouse realities of Shaun Monson’s 2005 documentary Earthlings, Okja combines the holistic man-and-nature themes of a Studio Ghibli animation with the alarming food-industry revelations of Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret.
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As you’d expect, he pushes the boundaries in every frame, occasionally going too far, as is the case with Gyllenhaal’s shameless overacting in a get up – topped by a pith helmet – that recalls Groucho Marx in “Animal Crackers.”
Weaving together an animal-rights message as well as cautionary warnings about corporate greed, the movie becomes an awkward hybrid blending old-fashioned movies like "Babe" or "The Black Stallion" with the surrealism of Terry Gilliam's "Brazil."