Okja (2017)

 

Okja (2017)

 

South Korea (SK) has a weird relationship with the USA. The USA seems to think SK owes us something, after all, we saved them, at great cost, from the worse-than-merely Communist Lunacy of the Kim Dynasty in North Korea (NK) in the first significant Hot War of the Cold War (the Korean War dragged on from 1950-1953) and we have secured the border between the two Nations ever since (the Korean War, long-over, didn’t have a Peace Treaty till 2018 and things still remain less-than-honkey-dory). This is true, but the USA also propped up the brutal Authoritarian and/or Military Dictatorships in SK starting with Syngman Rhee, then his ideological descendants, from 1950 through 1987 (or maybe 1997, the emergence of an actual Democracy in SK is a dizzyingly complex story). True, SK was clearly better off under Syngman Rhee and his ilk than the Kims, both in terms of Human Rights and Economic Improvements (note: the Economic Improvements would have to wait till the 1960s with another Authoritarian, General Park Chung Hee), but all Politics are always more based on immediately Tangible and Local Effects than Hypotheticals, and those who wanted Democracy in SK were long treated by their own Government and the USA as an Enemy, so many in SK don’t think they owe the USA nearly as much as many in the USA think they should.

 

Writer/Director Bong Joon Ho’s SF,F&H films are perfect representations of this Ideological and Emotional Schism. In his youth he was part of the Radical, pro-Democracy movement, he’s obviously still pissed off at the USA, cynical of Capitalism, but it’s just as obvious he prefers his SK to the Kims’ NK. He’s benefited from the Capitalism that seems to dig at his craw. He actively reaches out to the West, not only to scold (which he does), but find greater personal success, and make his case for a better relationship in the Future he would look to see. I suspect that the messiness of his films, his insistence of radical Tonal switches and free mixing of Genres, reflect how confused many in SK feel: It’s well-positioned as a Democracy and Economic Powerhouse, constantly under threat from their NK brothers, and still deeply in the embrace of their recent, more direct, Oppressors who are also, always, their Defenders. I’ve only seen three of Ho’s films, “The Host” (2006), “Snow Piercer” (2017), and “Okja,” and though “Snowpiercer” isn’t shy in its condemnation of the Malthusian Savagery of a Centralized Economy, all three speak bluntly of SK’s uncertain relationship with the West and Capitalism and the Corruption that that it can represent.

 

With “Okja,” Writer/Director Bong  (he co-wrote with Jon Ronson) gives us almost perfect Children’s Movie, but, even in the first scene, he tells us it’s not for kids: People say “fuck”; the dialogue happily switches back-and-forth between Korean and English, so it requires reading subtitles no matter what Country you’re in because dubbing would confuse some essential plot points and there is some significance in the fact that Okji is pronounced depending on the language of the speaker; it doesn’t apologize for, or sugar coat, some Radical Ideological positions; and the climax is quite Dark and Violent.

 

The first scene is in NYC in 2007, with a news conference you might have missed at the time, mostly because it never actually happened. Mirando Corporation, an obvious parody of Real-World Monsanto Corporation, is trying to drag itself out of a decades-long PR nightmare created by its patriarch “Grandfather” Mirando, then his son (neither Character appears in the film), and then granddaughter Nancy (Tilda Swinton). The Corporation is universally despised so another granddaughter, Lucy (also Swinton) is trying to change its image. Lucy is the first Character to speak, and though the film does allow her to be the least-Evil member of the Dynasty, she’s still absurd, narcissistic, has more PR plans than Business-Sense, and we know from the get-go that every word she says is a lie.

 

Lucy unveils a Super-Pig that has just been “discovered” in Chile. It leaves a minimal Carbon Footprint, require less feed, heralding a revolution in the Livestock Industry, and the end of World Hunger. It’s not ready for market, but to prove it’s Eco-Friendly, there will be a Global Contest in which 23 farmers around the world will raise a piglet each in free-range conditions for a decade (one reporter moans, “Jesus Christ—I’ll be dead by then!”). The one will be crowned the best based on a complex criterion, but mainly, it “needs to taste fucking good.”

 

Lucy hits every Buzz Word of Socially Responsible Corporate Behavior, but these Super-Pigs weren’t discovered, they were Lab-Created (in other words, GMO, which is a dirty word) and it’s not even a pig, it looks more like a giant hippo with puppy-dog eyes. But through the lies a nonsense, there’s real issues: A looming World-Wide Food Crisis driven by increased wealth and population pressure; conventional Livestock Breeding has such a huge Environmental Footprint it impacts Climate Change; and GMOs, at least in Plant Agriculture, will inevitably part of the solution. The film touches on these things so lightly you probably won’t notice, perhaps because they would demand huge chunks of exposition and distract from what gives this film power, the relationship between a little girl, Mija (Ahn Seo-hyn), and her pig(ish) thing.

 

Mija is an orphan who lives with her grandfather Heebong (Byun Hee-bong) in a mountainous stretch of the SK rainforest and Okja the Super Pig is her best, maybe only, friend. Life there is idyllic, but she knows nothing of Heebong’s obligation to return Okja to Mirando in the then-future year 2017.  When the appointed time comes, Heebong lies to his granddaughter, and offers her a fist-sized gold pig statuette as compensation for losing the being she loves most in the entire world. It’s Mija’s first experience with betrayal, and her rebellion against it sets the plot in motion. Across the film, the plot is built on over-lapping betrayals, all committed by adults, all for clearly defined reasons, some more forgivable than others. Only two souls are above these Corruptions, Mija and the Childish Terrorist Jay (Paul Dano), and though Jay is an actual adult, in his refusal to Compromise any Belief, he keeps screwing up almost everything, though guided by Virtue, eventually manages some Good (I’ll get to him later).

 

The CGI FX are extra-ordinary; done by Method Studios and was part of a $50 million-dollar over-all budget, it looks better than most $100 million-dollar films. It’s the newest landmark, as transporting to the Audience as “King Kong” (1933), “E.T. the Extraterrestrial” (1982), “Jurassic Park” (1993), and “Avatar” (2009). Akin to “Avatar,” there is a Motion-Capture aspect to it (Actress Ahn interacts with Puppeteer Stephen Clee wrapped in foam padding on-set) but the conversion from Motion-Capture is in a manner more convincing than I’ve ever seen before. The digital skin is convincingly soft as it yields beneath real fingertips, the shadows cast by those fingers and subtle and supple. The CGI is grafted onto foam forms without requiring Chromo-key, allowing more diverse settings than other CGI films, including extensive location work in rural SK.

 

Okja eyes would melt even the coldest heart, and there’s wonderfully funny stuff regarding her being slobbery, flatulent, and defecating at inappropriate times. When Character Mija whispers in Okja’s floppy ear to calm the scared beast down, we need not understand a word, because it speaks of love being a Universal Language. Okja is also gentle, brave, and as devoted to Mija as Mija is to her. The story is in the tradition of “Old Yeller” (novel 1956, film 1957) and knowing that tradition, we should be prepared for a less-than-perfectly-happy ending.

 

During a string of stunningly executed chase scenes through the streets and shopping centers of Soeul, SK, climaxing in, of all things, a John Denver song, we’re introduced to the most ridiculously polite Terrorists in history, the members of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). As they are a Real-World group, I should pause here to explain.

 

ALF is a Radical Animal Rights Group, formed in England in 1976 and spread to other Nations. Sometimes called the most prolific Terrorist Group in the USA, but don’t get the Press as other Terrorist Organizations because they don’t kill people. They are also devilishly hard to prosecute because they lack any conventional Organizational Structure, instead Leadership, they consider themselves “Leaderful,” each Cell seemingly Autonomous, living up to the ideal of the “Idea and the Deed” of early 20^th c. Anarchists. They are focused on Arson and other Vandalism, they use of Intimidation and are not above Violent Threats, but I know not of a single Murder Victim attributed to them. Writer/Director Bong’s made them so cute, he may  have led himself astray from some of his own goals, but Character Jay, the Cell Leader in this film, is enormous fun. Actor Dano provides one the film’s brightest performances as the Man-Child in a conservative suit who is immensely skilled at launching tech-heavy, “Mission Impossible” style operations (TV and film Franchise, beginning in 1966). Critic Bilge Ebiri called Jay “the most sensitive, beta-male revolutionary leader in the history of cinema.”

 

Like the other films from Writer/Director Bong I’ve seen, the Characterization veers from the grounded to the absurd, and Casting for both is damned near flawless. As good as Actor Dano is, young Actress Ahn as Character Mija is better. Only eleven-years-old, she carries the film on her shoulders and is the main reason we believe Okja is real. She completely convincing in her fearlessness and love. Bong is clearly drawn to this kinda little girl; Mija reminded me of Character Park Hyun-seo in Bong’s Monster Movie “Host.”

 

Bong also likes to use the same people over-and-over. Character Park Hyun-seo’s Actress, Go Ah-sung, was too-old to play Mija, but has been other Bong films like “Snowpiercer.” Actress Swinton was also in “Snowpiercer” and is equally, flawlessly, OTT in both films. Actor Byun was in “The Host.”

 

Others of note are Actress Shirley Henderson playing Character Jennifer, a grating Corporate “Yes” Person who is deliciously Vile. Giancarlo Esposito is more subtle as Frank Dawson, a more deceptive Corporate “Yes” Man, and the only one in the Board Room with any Intelligence. The only Casting mistake was Jake Gyllenhaal as Johnny Wilcox, a fidgety, hypocritical, TV Celeb; Gyllenhaal’s OTT-ness is against type and not successful.

 

Here, like with “Host,” and maybe even “Snowpiercer,” Writer/Director Bong evokes Producer/Director Steven Spielberg. Bong is rooted in a Popular Cinema that pursues the goal of being engrossing from start to finish, while avoiding being stupid. This maybe not the best platform to launch a Political Argument, but certainly a better foundation than Producer/Director Roger Corman’s attempts to evoke Liberal Ideas and Feminist Leanings in Explicit Exploitation Films. Both Bong and Spielberg get Emotional Core of Storytelling is not in the Action scenes, though the Action scenes are required to be marvelous, both are willing to allow the Social Message to be in second or third place behind the Personal Meaning as they endeavor for the widest possible Audience, trusting the Audience to get the point on their own.

 

This film is more heavy-handed that any Spielberg, and its strong Meat-is-Murder message was not entirely intended. For example, Writer/Director Bong is not a Vegetarian and Character Mija likes fish and chicken soup. Bong’s real targets are Capitalism, specifically the Food Industrial Complex, and how the USA Corporate Power muscles its way throughout the World. In one scene, Bong recreates a famous photo of the White House Situation Room during the Bin Laden Raid (2011), with Character Lucy looking like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Character Frank looking like President Barack Obama (it also hints of hidden power relationships within Mirando Corporation).

 

Bong visited a Slaughterhouse as he prepared the script, “First and foremost you're in awe and shocked by the scale and size of the plant. It's five times bigger than a soccer stadium. You witness the pipelines and mechanics developed just for this slaughterhouse and it's nothing short of an automated metallic empire that they've created and you can't help but think that this relationship between man and animal hasn't been like this, this must have been a very recent endeavour where only under the capitalist regime, we put animals through all this.”

 

Separately, speaking before an audience, he said, “When you’re finally there, there’s this smell. There is no smell in the films,” and he temporarily became Vegan, but it didn’t stick. “Then I flew back to South Korea, and you know, Korea is a BBQ paradise. Every street on every corner is burning meat. I slowly, slowly came back to being a meat eater. Now I’m gradually becoming a pescatarian [meaning only fish and fowl, not red meat].”

 

Co-Scriptwriter Ronson, “Bong decided that it would be a disservice [to the movie] if the slaughterhouse weren’t disturbing … I think the movie will turn people vegetarian. I think there’s a whole load of 16-year-olds who don’t realize where their food comes from or don’t realize that within five weeks time they’re going to be vegetarian. I think that is going to happen. But I really don’t think that was my intention or Bong’s intention.”

 

Critic Amil Niaz noted, “I also stopped eating meat (for a couple of days) after seeing ‘Okja,’ so the impact is real.”

 

Trailer:

Okja Official Trailer #1 (2017) Steven Yeun, Jake Gyllenhaal Netflix Movie HD