Hippo-sized pig offers lots to chew on
Bong Joo-ho’s Okja is an unwieldy hybrid, bursting with creative performances and sets
Back in 2013, Korean director Bong Joo-ho made Snowpiercer, a throw-everything-at-the-screen masterpiece featuring Tilda Swinton, Chris Evans and a society teetering on the brink of collapse aboard a train that perpetually circles a world that has been plunged into a new ice age. Purchased by the Weinstein brothers, it was almost released direct-tovideo before they decided on a fairly narrow theatrical release.
Bong’s newest, Okja, also stars Tilda Swinton (two of her, in fact) and focuses on some modern fears — this time, factory farming and global food supply versus environmental concerns. It too will barely hit theatres, playing at Toronto’s Lightbox, as well as scattered cinemas in New York, Los Angeles and Korea. Most viewers will see it on Netflix. Like Snowpiercer, it’s a busy picture, bursting with creative performances and intense set designs.
Unlike Bong’s previous film, this one goes off the rails. Maybe it’s Jake Gyllenhaal’s turn as Johnny Wilcox, a TV zoologist. In a rare misfire for the actor, he seems to be auditioning to play the Joker’s crazier brother. Maybe it’s Paul Dano as an animal activist whose split personality is never quite explained. Perhaps it’s Okja itself: is the hippo-sized porcine creature meant to be intelligent or merely adorable? And will it look more believable on tablet-sized screens than it did at its Cannes premiere this year?
It’s not all bad news. Teenager Ahn SeoHyun appears in almost every scene and shines as Mija, Okja’s protector. A little background: Lucy Mirando (Swinton) and the Mirando Corporation (whose name and logo recalls agri-bio-tech giant Monsanto) have developed a super-pig that they hope will revolutionize food production. Test piglets were sent around the world to be raised in various environments — not sure why, as Mirando seems to have its own facility in the U.S. Now the pigs are being called home, and Mija doesn’t want to lose hers.
A girl-and-her-pig movie sounds like a great kid’s romp, and there are early scenes with Mija and Okja that recall the fantastic worlds of Hayao Miyazaki. But be warned that there’s a fair bit of language as the film progresses, as well as a scene of forced animal mating that even this seasoned critic found disturbing. These are just a couple of examples of Okja’s weird shifts in tone — the movie is as much a hybrid as the title character.
Still, there’s much to enjoy in the tale and a lot of interesting ideas rattling around in Bong’s overstuffed screenplay. But ultimately, Okja operates on too fantastical a level to function as a call to arms against the factory farm system, and its hot-andcold tone may scald younger viewers while leaving older ones feeling cold.