Okja a thrilling, gleeful boy-with-a-dog classic
The movie: Okja The moment: The mall chase
Two trucks race through a Seoul tunnel. One holds Animal Liberation Front members, led by Jay (Paul Dano).
The other holds Okja, a genetically modified super-pig, plus goons from the amoral, U.S.-based multinational that made her. Hanging off the back of Okja’s truck is Mija (Ahn Seo-Hyun), her best friend, determined to save her.
The trucks crash. The ALF frees Okja. Okja flips Mija onto her back and bolts.
They skid into an underground mall. Pedestrians and products fly. Okja barrels along, aided by the ALF, pursued by the goons. As Okja plows into a knick-knack store, the sound drops out and the action goes to slo-mo. John Denver’s “Annie’s Song” begins to play.
The goons shoot darts at Okja. ALF members stop them with bright umbrellas. Okja and Mija make it to an underground garage and clamber into a moving truck. The ALF scatters marbles. The pursuing goons fall.
This is a classic boy-and-his-dog story, only the boy is a kick-ass girl and the dog is a CGI pig the size of some dinosaurs.
Director Bong Joon Ho gleefully mashes genres to create a bravura eco-thriller on a continuum with his earlier films The Host and Snowpiercer.
Along for the ride are Tilda Swinton, as scenery-chomping twin villains; Jake Gyllenhaal as a kids’ show host gone to seed; and Toronto-born Devon Bostick as an earth warrior so committed he can barely eat a stalk of asparagus. The slaughterhouse scenes might not turn you vegetarian, but you won’t be craving bacon for a while. Okja streams on Netflix.