Okja(2017)
dir. Bong Joon-ho
A girl, a giant pig, and Big Food's PR machine.
Where to watch: Netflix (FlixPatrol US)Letterboxd ↗
Mija, a girl in the Korean mountains, has raised a giant pig named Okja for ten years. Then the Mirando Corporation, which engineered the 'super pigs,' comes to take her back to New York for a PR contest. Bong Joon-ho mixes a children's fable, a corporate satire and a rescue chase, and Tilda Swinton and Jake Gyllenhaal play it all the way over the top.
Why it’s here
The film is a kid-and-animal story with a corporate-capitalism argument hiding in the middle. What's punk is that the activists are flawed too. What's pedagogical is how clearly it shows the marketing that makes a factory sound like a farm. Pairs with The Corporation and Parasite. Contains slaughterhouse scenes, so check it before a kid watches.
Where This Film Lives
- Setting
- South Korea
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