Growing a GMO pig from page to screen

Now streaming, Netflix

The giant genetically modified pig of Bong Joon-ho’s Okja is eight feet tall, 13 feet long and would, if real, weigh six tons. It looks similar to a hippo, but it has big floppy dog ears and moves a little like an elephant.

It’s a hybrid creature for a hybrid movie. Like the South Korean director’s previous films (Snowpiercer, The Host), Okja is a mishmash of genres: magical fantasy and grotesque political satire. It’s a cross between Spielberg and slaughterhouse.

Since its debut at the Cannes Film Festival, Okja has been thrust into debates over Netflix’s impact on traditional movie-going. Most large movie theatre chains in North America and Bong’s native South Korea have refused to screen a film that will simultaneously hit Netflix’s streaming service.

But on screens large or small, the animal named Okja is a wonder to behold. Up until now, Netflix original films have been largely lower budget affairs or documentaries. The giant pig of Okja is Netflix’s first special-effect marvel.

The largely English-language, international film, made for US$50 million, boasts a cast of Tilda Swinton, Jake Gyllenhaal and Paul Dano. But the heart of it is a young Korean girl named Mija (An Seo Hyun) and her loyal pig companion. a melancholy look. The image stuck with him.

“The very beginning was from the image of the animal,” says Bong.

“The face of the animal looked quite sad in my imagination. Sad and shy and a little bit in pain.

“So I was thinking of why? What’s the reason she has such a sad face? What’s the origin and destiny of that animal?

“Naturally, those industry things come in.”

Bong began sketching the animal that would become Okja.

To flesh out his own sketches, Bong turned to Jang Hee-chul, the conceptual artist who designed the monster of the director’s 2007 thriller The Host. Bong calls Jang, whose monster for The Host looked like a bottom-feeding fish but with legs, “a young genius.”

He’s no less effusive about visual effects supervisor Erik-Jan De Boer, the Oscar-winning animator who crafted the tiger Richard Parker in Ang Lee’s Life of Pi.

“He’s crazy about animals,” says Bong. “He goes into the butcher shop and he studies the cuts and the crevices of animal parts. Others usually just look at the outer exterior, but Erik conceived Okja with not just the skin but the arteries, the blood, the fat and the bone structure.”

De Boer quickly began riffling through YouTube videos to study different animal behaviours, but some of his research was more hands on. Swinton’s springer spaniel Rosie (one of her four) was an inspiration. A beagle also largely informed Okja’s ears and hangdog look.

“For ears, we looked at canines and elephants. For the skin, we looked at hippos and manatees and also elephants a little bit. For behaviour and some of the intelligence and connection with the owner, we looked again at canines and Labradors and beagles, especially,” De Boer said. “It’s a hybrid of references we used to make this hybrid of an animal.”

Bong was particularly fond of a YouTube video about a hippo named Jessica living in a house. They also photographed hippos to get a more sinewy skin. Pigs, ironically, were less of an influence because of Okja’s size.