Don’t be duped by cute pig: ‘Okja’ takes a dark turn
While watching the heartfelt
Okja, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you’ll definitely rethink that next piece of bacon.
A Korean girl and her lovable super-pig are the focal points of the corporate satire by director Bong Joon-Ho ( Snowpierc
er) that completely unloads on the American livestock industry and consumerism in general. Though ultimately gratifying, the ambitious Okja ( out of four; unrated; eegE streaming on Netflix Wednesday) struggles throughout with its pinballing tonal structure, beginning as a family-friendly adventure, then shifting to screwball farce and concluding with an emotional drama involving animal cruelty and slaughterhouse horror.
Led by truly wacko CEO Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton), the Mirando Corp. is a conglomerate in serious need of PR help. In trying to become more environmentally friendly, and get the public on its side after a toxic past, the company kicks off a competition where 26 genetically engineered superpiglets are sent all over the world to be raised by farmers. In 10 years time, a “best super-pig ” will be crowned.
A decade later in South Korea, young Mija (newcomer Ahn SeoHyun) is living a quiet life and romping through the forest with her massive super pig friend, Okja, when representatives from Mirando, including has-been celebrity zoologist Johnny Wilcox (Jake Gyllenhaal), show up to take her pet back to America. Mija follows her captured friend first to Seoul, where she gets involved with a failed breakout ignited by an Animal Liberation Front group led by the goodhearted Jay (Paul Dano), and then to New York, where Mirando wants to use Mija and Okja as a cute distraction from the company’s real plans for the super-pigs.
Okja is a completely computergenerated animal, though you wouldn’t know; her interactions with humans and other superpigs are impressively real. The only hint that it’s a faux creature is, honestly, it doesn’t really seem like a pig. The lovable beast looks more like a manatee with cute canine features (including adorably floppy ears) and a tendency to purr like a cat when happy. (That alone may lure in kids, but be warned of the movie’s lack of rating: Parents should consider it a hard PG-13, as it does contain fbombs and animal abuse potentially distressing for youngsters.)
Lucy Mirando is yet another transformative role for Swinton, who brandishes an overbite and a gradually unhinged demeanor as the embattled executive. (The actress also plays Lucy’s mysterious sister Nancy.) Lucy’s fellow business folks are an odd bunch: Giancarlo Esposito oozes cool as her right-hand man, Frank, while Gyllenhaal is completely out of his mind as the flamboyant Dr. Johnny, a rubbery nut to his adoring public but a seriously deranged dude in private.
Impressively, the movie manages to create real moments in its most over-the-top circumstances: During an escape sequence, Okja rains down poop pellets on a pursuer as John Denver’s Annie’s
Song inexplicably plays. Yet for animal lovers, a good amount of the second half of the movie is just hard to watch, especially after having fallen in love with the monstrous title star within minutes of her lumbering onscreen.
You’ll be aching for those early scenes of hog heaven during the hellish parts later. Though if you put down the pork next time, then perhaps Okja has done its job.