The super pig at the heart of Okja (it looks like a larger hippopotamus with flappier ears) is a cute and lovable animal, and the only thing that raced through my mind as I watched it fill up nearly every frame of Bong Joon-ho's (Mother, Snowpiercer) film is, "How much food does that thing eat?" Created through a scientific lab project by the ambitious Mirando Corporation and its CEO Lucy (Tilda Newton, doing her best animated human these days only in Joon-ho's films), Okja, raised in rural South Korea by young Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun) and her grandfather, is one of 26 super pigs lent to farmers around the world who are about to be re-possessed by Mirando a decade later in order to cash in on the animals' plumb and juicy meat. I suppose everything that moves on this Earth is at some point edible.
The creatively bold director assembles a unique movie that is simultaneously two films at once: a marvelous children's adventure about a girl and her pet, and a socio-political dramedy about corporate greed and animal cruelty. Its characters are also vast: Dr. Johnny Wilcox (Jake Gyllenhaal), a cooky shorts-wearing scientist whose ego has been bruised by his boss; an animal-rights activist leader, Jay (Paul Dano), whose principles are "to cherish every living thing" (but there are exceptions); and last but not least, K (Steven Yeun), another activist whose morality line isn't quite in sync with his boss. Everyone in Okja has motivation, depth and sympathy, regardless of how few lines they speak. It's another testament to Joon-ho's talent, whose vision isn't limited just by what we see.
Okja is further proof that some of the most original and compelling cinema in the world consistently comes out of South Korea, and I, for one, can not wait to see what Joon-ho does next.
B+
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