Okja
2017
***½
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Ahn Seo-hyun, Byun Hee-bong, Steven Yeun, Lily Collins, Yoon Je-moon, Shirley Henderson, Daniel Henshall, Devon Bostick, Choi Woo-shik, Giancarlo Esposito, Jake Gyllenhaal
Ten years ago, Mirando Corporation gave a batch of super pigs to farmers across the world, and now the largest specimen is about to be crowned winner in New York. Mija, a young South Korean girl, has developed a close bond to her super pig, Okja, and refuses to give her up. Bong Joon-ho's impressive fantasy film is firmly rooted in reality. It starts as a light-hearted adventure about a girl and her best friends, but ends as a brutally frank drama that deals with GMO food, industrial meat production, and animal rights. Okja is beautifully and believably created with digital effects, but some of the human performances are distractingly awful, particularly Tilda Swinton and Jake Gyllenhaal.
