If one of Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli parables met the 2014 documentary Cowspiracy, you’d have Bong Joon-ho’s environmental cautionary tale, Okja — Netflix’s multi-cast behemoth, sure to further divide the streaming giant’s already polarised detractors and supporters. One of Netflix’s better original movies in recent times (can we please forget War Machine ever happened?), Okja’s bilingual cast crosses genres and physical terrain seamlessly to make a scathing indictment of the multibillion genetically modified food industry and, indirectly, the gaping class divide brought on by the evils of unchecked capitalism and neoliberalism. Think Monsanto, if you will.
If it sounds like a tall task, that’s because it is, but Bong (of The Host and Snowpiercer fame) skilfully combines the sweetness of a buddy movie with the horrors of a typical creature feature with the sensibilities of a heist movie, and a cast that boasts the likes of Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano and Jake Gyllenhaal, to pull it all off and then some.
The film opens with Lucy Mirando (Swinton, reuniting with Bong after Snowpiercer), the newly-appointed CEO of Mirando Corporation, fashioned to satire the young tech CEO’s of today with their psychobabble and millennial lingo, announcing the arrival of a new super-breed, sure to end world hunger in a sustainable fashion. In a bid to promote this farce, the company sends ten creatures to ten different farmers across the globe, who will enter a competition to see who can rear the biggest and best super-pig. One little creature, Okja, heads to the mountains of South Korea, where Mija (the talented Ahn Seo-hyun) and her grandfather help her grow into a gentle giant, who looks like an adorable cross between a hippo and a beagle — a CGI marvel of the best kind.
Tragedy strikes, as it must, when Mirando officials, led by hack TV zoologist Dr Johnny Wilcox (a transformative Gyllenhaal), pick Okja as winner of this ten-years-in-the-making competition, and come to collect. This sets off a chain of events that leads Mija from the real jungles to the overpopulated grey jungle of Seoul and then New Jersey, where she comes in contact with ALF (Animal Liberation Front), a group of pacifist vegans intent on bringing down Mirando and animal cruelty, led by Jay (Paul Dano, who makes suits look sexy again).
Bong, who will probably have to live with Spielberg comparisons for the rest of his cinematic career, outdoes himself as far as visuals are concerned. From the idyllic pastures of South Korea to the grey industrial lines of Manhattan and the blood-splattered insides of a slaughterhouse, his mise-en-scenes overflow with artful detail and a throbbing morality that’s compounded by its inherent humour. A particularly brilliant set-piece sees Mirando cronies face-off against ALF neo-vegans in a violent slow-motion clash, all set to John Denver’s Annie’s Song.
There is little chance that you’ll come away watching this movie and not feel guilty about eating meat. Some of the slaughterhouse scenes have been made intentionally excruciating and painful to do just that, definitely not child-friendly material. The film’s biggest triumph is its ability to make the transition from a touching tale of friendship between a girl and her pet pig to a horror story of the dangers of the agro-chemical industry and then back again, without seeming like it’s trying too hard to cushion its viewers from the harsh realities of the world.
But that’s not to say that the film doesn’t get messy. Ham-fisted in some crucial scenes, Okja swings in tone and mood so swiftly, it sometimes gets a little jarring. Although no one’s criticising cross-genre experimentation, a light touch would have lent the film more poignancy.
Movies such as Okja make paying Dh30 every month to Netflix feel like a pittance. And while Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his troop might rage against the dying light for many years to come over their theatrical release spat with theatre owners and traditional production houses, Okja will go a long way in solidifying the streaming service’s case (at least among the vegans, if nobody else). Don’t miss this one.
Don’t miss it
Okja premieres on Netflix on June 28.
