Directed by: Bong Joon-ho
Written by: Bong Joon-ho, Jon Ronson
Starring: Tilda Swinton, Ahn Seo-Hyun, Paul Dano
IMDb Link
At the start of this year I made a resolution to review every movie I saw at the cinema. At the time I didn't account for a few things, including Netflix stepping up their film production. Okja is a Netflix original/exclusive, so you'll have to go there to watch it.
With that out of the way, I loved Okja as much as Joon-ho's other works (The Host, Snowpiercer); Okja has the same style, the mixture of genuine but messy social commentary, the excellent tonal control and clever use of colour, the plot ideas that have clear derivation but manage to be original in how they're told. It's a movie that, like Joon-ho's others, is weird enough for people to notice, but heartfelt enough in its intentions that it's difficult to not find it appealing, even when it stumbles.
*Warning: Potential Spoilers Ahead*
Like his earlier works, Joon-ho's Okja is as much a social commentary as it is a movie. Where something like The Host tackled issues that were distinctly Korean and Snowpiercer dealt with, in a word, class, Okja concerns itself with issues of mass meat production and animal exploitation, as well as a little bit on GMOs. The story is focused on Okja, a genetically-modified Super-Pig, publicly touted as naturally bred, and sent to Korea as part of a promotional stunt by the Mirando Corporation, which is trying to build its outward image by pushing how "eco-friendly" and "non-GMO" it is. Okja spends ten years in the remote countryside of South Korea with a girl, Mija (Seo-Hyun), and Mija's grandfather. As the final part of the Mirando Corporation's propaganda, Okja is taken to be prepared for display in New York as the culmination of Mirando's work. From here, we get a perspective on the issues surrounding the topics of animal exploitation and GMOs while Mija does everything she can to get back to Okja and get her home.
As seems to be consistently the way with Joon-ho's films, Okja is a film that shows his skill with tone. The movie is consistently inconsistent, as the film can switch gears at the drop of a hat and only holds on to an emotion if the scene demands it. In another director's hands this could be frustrating or even infuriating, but Joon-ho tells stories with this style in a way that feels natural. Watching a film like Okja, you can go from laughing to biting your nails to sobbing in the space of a few minutes without it being forced, which seems to be because of a combination of colour palette and little character choices. You could be worried for Okja and Mija's safety as they run from Mirando but momentarily giggling because a bystander, witnessing this incredible spectacle, takes a moment to run alongside the two and take a quick video selfie. It's a believably stupid moment in the film that's gone almost as soon as it arrives, and acts as an example of how the movie can shift in tone from moment to moment without missing a beat. The colour in the film helps keep tempo by reinforcing the overall emotion behind the scene as the tone shifts. Early scenes in the seclusion of the Korean countryside use natural colours, especially a lot of soft greens, to create a sense of serenity when mixed with the mist that covers the mountains, so even as a scene here gets tense or threatening the place is given a sense of home. Likewise, a pastel colour palette is used during the big Mirando Corporation presentation to help push the idea that the whole thing is fake and unnatural, so when mixed with the joy the Mirando Corporation is trying to build it creates a disgust in the audience. The film showcases Joon-ho's ability to juggle tone without losing emotional impact.
What is sometimes lost, however, is the message behind the film's heartfelt work. While the film is often confronting, and effective when it is, there are times where social commentary is rolled in to the dialogue of the characters rather than their actions, and it seems to suggest that Joon-ho wanted to hit every possible nail regarding the issues at hand without needing them to all be hit on the head. Points such as GMO public image being overblown are thrown in to dialogue in between more natural-sounding lines and then promptly forgotten about, as if the topic wanted to be discussed but they didn't have enough time to flesh it out. It's not common, but those moments do trip up the film's natural flow a bit, while so often the film simply shows you the cruel nature of what the Mirando Corporation is doing, which is more than effective enough to challenge people about the topics of mass meat production and animal exploitation, while the discussion of GMOs seems to be a byproduct of this discussion that doesn't get nearly as much of a look, despite it being such a big part of Mirando's reasoning for their schemes.
The Verdict: Okja is excellent. Joon-ho is as effective as ever at handling shifts in tone without missing a beat while telling a story with real-life implications, which means that you could be laughing in one moment and on the edge of your seat in the next, while the social commentary varies between fruitful and worthy of rolling your eyes at. The film has true heart; even if you're not concerned with issues of animal exploitation, mass food production or GMOs, the film still offers a beautiful story that manages to get you to care about a CGI Super-Pig. Watch it the next time you're on Netflix.
Rating: 8/10
Published July 2nd, 2017
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