A young girl risks everything to prevent a powerful, multinational company from kidnapping her best friend - a fascinating beast named Okja. For 10 idyllic years, young Mija (An Seo Hyun) has been caretaker and constant companion to Okja-a massive animal and an even bigger friend-at her home in the mountains of South Korea. But that changes when a family-owned multinational conglomerate Mirando Corporation takes Okja for themselves and transports her to New York, where image obsessed and self-promoting CEO Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton) has big plans for Mija's dearest friend. With no particular plan but single-minded in intent, Mija sets out on a rescue mission, but her already daunting journey quickly becomes more complicated when she crosses paths with disparate groups of capitalists, demonstrators and consumers, each battling to control the fate of Okja…while all Mija wants to do is bring her friend home. Deftly blending genres, humor, poignancy and drama, Bong Joon Ho (Snowpiercer, The Host) begins with the gentlest of premises-the bond between man and animal-and ultimately creates a distinct and layered vision of the world that addresses the animal inside us all. Okja is a Plan B Entertainment, Lewis Pictures and Kate Street Picture Company production in association with Netflix. I highly recommend Okja, a new film by the visionary director Bong Joon-ho. It is a quirky parable, original, bold and affecting, complemented with delectable plot points and biting satire on corporate greed. The first hour, especially, is downright delightful, managing to be beautiful, hilarious, insane, and poignant all at the same time. And the acting is sublime: Ahn Seo-hyun, who plays the protagonist, and Paul Dano should be nominated for awards. (FYI, Tilda Swinton and Jake Gyllenhaal's animated performances, panned by some of the reviewers here as over-the-top annoyance, were intentional, to parody the ridiculousness of corporate world and the phonies who inhabit that space.) Even the seemingly-random employment of John Denver's ultimate love song "You Fill Up My Senses," which he wrote to convey his immense love for his wife, in the crazy chase scene was a stroke of genius. A caveat: If you are a meat lover, you may want to skip this movie. It's upsetting on the level that documentaries about live stock and animal abuse are upsetting, yet it is not only fictional; it is fantasy. Thus you will leave this movie highly distressed about "facts" that are not facts but fantasy. Of course I understand the social commentary this movie makes and completely agree, but if you want to do something about the overproduction of meat make a docci about that. Don't create a beatiful mythical creature with human qualities no dog, cat, dolphin or elephant could dream to have and portray it as live stock. Okja is plenty of fun, and smart around the edges, but the girl-and-her-pig stuff can drag, and it feels like it’s pressing for resonance more than properly achieving it.
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354 weeks ago