Review of Okja (2017) by Ken C — 29 Jun 2017

Korean director Bong Joon Ho reuniting with Tilda Swinton after Snowpiercer in a cautionary tale of genetically modified meat from superpig created by the agrichemical corporation Mirando as a potential solution to global hunger. These superpig "consume less feed, produce less excretions", but (most importantly) to "taste fucking good".

Okja is one of a batch of "super-piglets" for the best superpig competition span over a decade, raised in the remote mountains of South Korea bonded with young Mija (An Seo Hyun). She's intelligent and empathetic creature, but Mirando's CEO wouldn't care less and wants her prize product to take part in a porcine beauty pageant in the US, intent on serving her up on a plate. Desperate to save her companion, Mija heads to New York, crossing paths with the chaotically idealistic Animal Liberation Front, led by Paul Dano's Jay, who plans to use Okja as a mole in Mirando's hellish labs and slaughterhouses. Also feature Jake Gyllenhaal's zoologist/veterinarian TV personality Dr Johnny Wilcox, a public face of carnivorous corporate greed character.

Bong structure his narrative from an alarming food-industry revelations and "caring capitalism" - of profit-driven imperatives cloaked in the crowd-pleasing garb of eco-awareness with dystopian slapstick humour, poignantly chilling atrocity and horror in this cross-generic incredible journey. Mija is smart and resourceful, and we believe in the tears she sheds for Okja, and her determination to rescue her companion and take her back to their Eden-like mountain home.