OKJAAAAAAAAA: Another Movie Review

I had read and heard about this new Netflix movie Okja.  I really had no idea what it was about only that it had a couple known actors and it was coming from the Snowpiercer director Bong Joon Ho.  I put it in my Remember to Watch This database in the back of my head.  Last night some friends and I were talking about new Netflix stuff and Okja came up.  We ended up streaming it last night and I have a couple things to say about it.  POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD.  not that it's got any big twists... just incase.

Basic premise:  A company supposedly discovers a new species of mammal they call Superpigs. In an ad campaign to promote this as a way to feed the world in the future, they send a baby Superpig to a handful of farmers around the world to compete in raising the best one. The "Best Superpig" is to be chosen in 10 years time. The story takes place after the 10 years has passed. It follows a young Korean girl who's spent most of her life, with her Grandfather raising and befriending Okja, the Superpig in a remote mountain village in Korea.  Representatives from the company come to take Okja back to America but Mija isnt having it. Along the way Mija and Okja cross paths with a group called Animal Liberation Front.  You can probably figure out the rest from there.

As I said before  this movie was well hyped to me. First I'll say that it was pretty good but damn what a downer.  I mean, I get it, the meat industry sucks but fuck man I like steak and bacon.  I was thinking lab-grown meat was the answer but now I don't want them to kill Okja.

Tilda Swinton was creepy as ever as the leader of the family run GMO company while her character was trying to be the non-creepy one in her family.  Her plan to make everyone love the Superpigs was the main reason in my opinion that it would turn people off from eating them.

Jake Gyllenhaal's character was a total weirdo too. Washed up wild animal TV show host guy, turned spokesperson for the Superpig project.    I dont even know what to say about his character but I think he played the roll slightly creepier than maybe they had written it.  It works I guess. I worry that Jake may have gotten into it way more than he needed to.

It had good action sequences while keeping a general weird vibe throughout most of the of the movie.  Mija was cute and a total badass.  The one thing that bummed me out was the pretty down-your-throat PSA about the meat industry.  I felt it cast a shadow over the rest of the movie as too much of a focal plot point for me.

Try to not say "Okjaaaaa!!!!"  over and over after you see it.