Okja (2017)

This pre-Parasite Bong Joon Ho hit had been sitting on my list for some time. Every once in a while, someone would either praise it or, less often, diss it. Neither the title nor the poster appealed to me, but eventually, I decided to know for sure how to feel about it.

The fictitious Mirando Corporation, under new CEO Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton), has been breeding "super pigs" larger in adulthood than hippos and with exceptionally efficient metabolism. The plan, of course, is to combat human hunger. A rural South Korean farmer (Byun Hee-bong) has raised reputedly the most magnificent super pig, Okja. But But Mija (Seo-hyun Ahn), his early teen granddaughter, has grown too attached and doesn't want her taken to Mirando HQ in New York City. Being more headstrong than smart, Mija sets out for the Mirando station in Seoul without a plan....

Fortunately, Mija isn't the only one opposed to Mirando's plans: Several, mostly American members of the Animal Liberation Front come to the rescue. But they're not entirely in her court, because their plot to expose Mirando's unethical practices requires that Okja be subjected to some of them. Indeed, there's a fair bit of disunity even within the troop, tho leader Jay (Paul Dano) refuses to compromise ALF founding principles.

Mirando has its own internal conflicts. Lucy has a harsh rivalry with her twin, ex-CEO Nancy (still Swinton), who's still favored by Lucy's right-hand man, Frank (Giancarlo Esposito). The sisters agree that their father was quite wicked, but it's hard to say which of them is worse than the other. The other villain of note is Dr. Johnny Wilcox (Jake Gyllenhaal), a famous yet slightly washed-up TV zoologist who's been shilling for Mirando but proves to be quite peeved in private. Lucy, Nancy, and especially Johnny are exaggerated enough to be kinda funny -- if you disregard the tragedies that they inflict upon the super pigs.

Is there a word for the sci-fi equivalent of magical realism? The super pigs are really the only not-yet-possible aspect of the picture. It's not even set in the future, just an alternate present. As such, it's easy to draw parallels to real-world food corporations, whose open-secret practices I understand to be not much different. Whether they also lie about avoiding genetic modification, I can't say.

And yes, the super pigs are pretty charming. Well, Okja is, anyway; we don't know the rest well. Despite her size, she poses little danger even when agitated. She appears to exhibit a little more intelligence than a real pig, and that's considerable. Her eyes look especially "soulful" by human standards.

My one complaint about the movie is that it missed an easy chance to be family-friendly. There's some violence in the clashes, but no humans die. There's a sordid mating scene, but we don't get a lot of details. No, the key reason for an R rating is gratuitous use of the F-word among English speakers. (Mija learns a modicum of English but thankfully doesn't join in that.)

I think the people who don't like Okja either find it too disturbing or disdain the preachy message. Let me tell you: It's not PETA propaganda. It's a respectable if simple story with good production values. It manipulates emotions only in the way that cinema should. Personally, I might just favor it over Parasite.