Review: Okja

Fairy tales may be made for children but they often recount the darker corners of human nature and the moral morass that surrounds even the pure-hearted. Korean director Bong Joon-ho weaves one such fairy tale in his latest film Okja, a heart-tugging sure-to-be classic tale of a girl and her superpig that also serves as a commentary on the cruelty of consumerism.

It is 2007 and the world is running out of food, but there's a miracle around the corner courtesy of the Mirando Corporation, a bioengineering company whose reputation has been tainted by ethically corrupt leadership. Assuming the role of CEO from her controversial father and twin sister, Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton) announces that they have not only successfully bred a superpig, but managed to reproduce 26 piglets, each of which will be sent to 26 different farmers to raise. The best superpig will then be crowned in a beauty pageant in a decade's time during a live telecast hosted by Dr. Johnny Wilcox (Jake Gyllenhaal), a celebrity zoologist turned corporate shill.

The film fast-forwards 10 years later to the Korean mountainside where Bong introduces audiences to 14-year-old Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun) and Okja, who is one of the piglets now fully grown. Resembling less a pig than a hippopotamus crossed with a dog, Okja is an entirely adorable Totoro-like creature brought to convincing life via a combination of hydraulics, puppetry, and CG visuals. The bond between Mija and Okja is evident from the start - only the stoniest of hearts could resist the scenes of them wandering about the forest and Mija napping on Okja's belly - and it makes the heartbreak more piercing when Mija discovers that Okja is about to be taken away and turned into super meat for the masses.

Mija's attempts to recover Okja comprise the bulk of the film, taking the girl from the mountains of Korea to the cities of Seoul and New York. Along the way, she encounters the Animal Liberation Front, a pacifist animal activist group led by Jay (Paul Dano), who want to use Okja to expose Mirando's still-horrible breeding methods by planting a recording device in Okja's ear. Meanwhile, Lucy is determined to do damage control caused by Mirando's security guards manhandling Mija during her rescue attempt of Okja by convincing Mija to reunite with Okja during the live telecast.

There are so many moving parts and tonal and genre shifts that it's a credit to Bong's skill as a director that Okja is as fluid as it is. The bucolic scenes in the countryside contrast nicely with the urban jungles of both Seoul and New York, which are the settings for some excellently crafted set pieces. The sequence in Seoul is a particular highlight with Okja barrelling through the crowded streets and then through the stores in the underground station like a bull in a china shop. The vibrancy of these scenes give way to gloomier ones set in Mirando's lab and factory; Bong does not shy away from the horrors that Okja and the rest of her ilk undergo, yet he doesn't overstate it either. By this time, audiences are so invested in Okja that any harm, minor or otherwise, is already too much to bear.

Perhaps Bong's greatest achievement is in maintaining a fairy tale-like quality throughout the film and marrying it to such serious content. There's a childlike innocence that runs throughout the film - a sort of reductive philosophy that nevertheless is made layered and resonant under Bong's direction. The unhinged playing of Swinton and Gyllenhaal may clash with Ahn and Dano's pure yet grave portrayals on paper, but it all works within the universe that Bong has created. Beautiful and bittersweet, Okja is further proof that there is no other filmmaker working today who possesses Bong's idiosyncratic genius.

Okja

Directed by: Bong Joon-ho

Written by: Bong Joon-ho

Starring: Ahn Seo-hyun, Tilda Swinton, Jake Gyllenhaal, Lily Collins, Paul Dano, Giancarlo Esposito, Devon Bostick, Shirley Henderson