There are many cases regarding animal abuse and how animals are treated before they are transported onto a machine to become produce for many people around the world. Yes, it is a turn-off but unfortunately, no matter, how much we love certain animals (pigs, cows, chickens), it is the circle of life. However, it provides us social commentary and probably an allegorical commentary about how meat businesses operated in the real world. Because of this movie and a couple of documentaries I've watched (watch Food, Inc.), it made me realize how sad I was feeling before I eat my meals (come on, I am human) because of maybe how animals were treated in the factories before they meet their fate. However, this movie places that commentary to incorporate with a sweet story between a pet and her owner and also a satire of corporate evil that jumbles a lot of tonal shifts that becomes entertaining but wacky.
In 2007, Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton) is the CEO of the Mirando Corporation, succeeding her father and her sister, Nancy. She announces that they are breeding a super pig. 26 of the best pigs will be sent around the world and one will be declared the winner. Ten years later, a girl named Mija (Aho Seo-hyun) lives in the peaceful countryside outside of South Korea living with her grandfather and her pet super pig, Okja. One day, they are visited by Mirando spokesperson and scientist, Dr. Johnny Wilcox (Jake Gyllenhaal). Mija and her grandfather visit her parents' grave (we do not know what happened to them) but his grandfather gives her a little golden pig and rather than buy Okja, which was not allowed, he saved the money to buy the gold pig. Mija runs back and discovers they have taken Okja away.
Desperate, Mija goes to Seoul to find Okja and its headquarters and she notices her being loaded onto a truck. Mija chases after the truck and Okja recognizes her tone as she is calling for her. But, suddenly the truck is being intercepted by another truck that is compiled of people with masks that represent an activist group called the Animal Liberation Front. As both Mija and Okja are being loaded onto that truck, Jay's (Paul Dano), the leader of the group, plan is to plant a recording device in her ear to record the footage going on inside the factory to show to the world and then rescue her. K (Steven Yeun) translates for Mija but he lies as she says she want to take her back to the mountains. Instead, they go on with Jay's plan.
This movie is something tonally different but the director Bong Joon-Ho, who made one of 2014's underrated films, Snowpiercer, has provided us not solely a sweet "owner-pet" relationship but it is twisted with the juggling acts of characters that have different personalities but live in a greedy, corporate world that only cares about selling the product. For example, we see a marketing tactic which three people of different ages are trying out samples of the genetically modified organic food (GMO) from the pig. They do not care about Mija's emotions about claiming her pig back. However, even though its narrative is straight forward, the movie becomes uneven as they do not what sort of audience they are aiming for given a fantastic and colorful chase scene, a long business strategy scene and the animals being tortured. It seems Joon-Ho knows what he is saying to us but his artistic vision gets lost in the second act.
Ahn Seo-Hyun is fantastic as she pursues her pet, which is her only mission, but has that quality that represents us, the audience, of what we are watching. We are horrified, yes, but we naive as to what they are going with her pet. However, even though I was having fun during the chase scene, there were moments of disbelief where I thought, "Yeah, in reality, her character should have been critically injured and should have gone to the hospital." Tilda Swinton is chameleonic and is still great as the CEO. Paul Dano again gives a restrained performance that supplies a little bit of tension. Lily Collins and Steven Yeun (Glenn from the Walking Dead) are also terrific in their roles. Jake Gyllenhaal, who has a small supporting performance, is one of the most underrated and best actors out there right now but I have no idea what kind of direction he was given because his wackiness, over-the-top character becomes more confusing as he represents something good in the media but is in the midst of corporate evil. And, I do believe his wacky character evokes the confusion of what scientists and other employees behind-the-scenes are doing. However, he gave a weird performance.
Its journey is quite interesting and fascinating as it is addressing a PETA statement to the audience that animals are being tortured as they are about to be packaged. And, the statement is very clear that corporate greed blinds their nature of human care for these animals. It's business. Its "owner and her pet" arc is predictable and you can guess from minute 5 as to what will happen with Okja but there was another favor near the end which was unexpected that was quite nice. Even though, according to the director, Okja is represented as an "introverted" animal, it means that we are introverted, opening the doors as to what the Mirando corporation is being up to and that execution was well-done. This movie has moments of juggling and confusing tones, some moments of disbelief and a predictable end, Okja is a visually stunning and well-crafted product of a clear message and a sweet storyline underneath it all.
(It is available on Netflix. This is rated TV-MA. It is for language and disturbing violent content involving animals. I would not show it to children.)
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