1133 Okja

[domino harvey]

Okja



Master genre exploder Bong Joon Ho swirls pathos, dark satire, action, and horror into an exhilarating twenty-first-century fairy tale. An all-star cast including Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Steven Yeun, and Jake Gyllenhaal is led by An Seo Hyun as Mija, a South Korean girl growing up on an Edenic mountainside with her grandfather and best friend: Okja, a giant, empathetic "superpig" created as part of a secret GMO experiment. When Okja is abruptly torn away from her, Mija embarks on a perilous rescue mission that places her at the center of a sinister corporate conspiracy. While Bong's trademark virtuosic set pieces dazzle, Okja's beating heart is the connection between a girl and her superpig, made all the more poignant by the brilliant special effects that bring the animal star to unforgettable life.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• 4K digital master, approved by director Bong Joon Ho, with Dolby Atmos sound on the Blu-ray and 4K UHD editions
• In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• New conversation between Bong and producer Dooho Choi
• New interviews with actors An Seo Hyun and Byun Heebong
• New interviews with members of the crew about the film's cinematography, visual effects, and costume and production design
• Short programs including a director's video diary, featuring Bong; actors Paul Dano, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tilda Swinton, and Steven Yeun; and others
• Teaser, trailer, and web promos
• English subtitle translation and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Karen Han

[TheDudeAbides]

Bong Joon-ho's Okja

Tilda Swinton shares the secret to tastier pork tenderloin

Apparently this is being distributed by Netflix as a Netflix Original; I'm pretty disappointed about that. Bong Joon-ho shoots some truly gorgeous films and it'll be a shame to have to watch Okja from my couch rather than on the big screen. I remember when The Neon Demon was released, it came to VOD and theatres at the same time and I was more than happy to shell out $12 for a ticket to see it but maybe I'm a dying breed. I really hope that Netflix and VOD doesn't completely spell the end for indie's and lower budget films in cinemas *EDIT* not even just low budget movies as this apparently has a budget of roughly $50 million, but I hope these VOD services don't make it so that only massive budget blockbusters and award season films are the only ones we can see in cinemas

[The Narrator Returns]

Trailer

[domino harvey]

This is now streaming on Netflix

[Michael Kerpan]

Anyone else see Bong's Okja on Netflix yet?

[Michael Kerpan]

Consumer alert: Keep watching this until after the credits end....

I found this interesting, but rather disappointing. Definitely my least favorite Bong film to date. The plot seemed even more full of holes than Snowpiercer -- but worse -- I found too many of the performances surprisingly flat (even from old reliables).

[bradass]

Consumer alert: Keep watching this until after the credits end....

I found this interesting, but rather disappointing. Definitely my least favorite Bong film to date. The plot seemed even more full of holes than Snowpiercer -- but worse -- I found too many of the performances surprisingly flat (even from old reliables).

I missed the stinger on the first pass at Cannes, but suspect it's there at least in part to keep the credits filling the screen (as opposed to reverting to a thumbnail).

[Lost Highway]

I quite enjoyed it, but Jake Gyllenhaal gives an awful performance for the ages. He's a fine actor but it needs a Peter Sellers scale comedian to make this type of outlandish performance work. In Gyllenhaal's hands this turns into the most aggravating supporting turn since Chris Tucker in The Fifth Element. I'm also getting a little tired of Tilda Swinton's pantomime villain performances, who mostly seems to indulge in being grotesque these days, working from wigs and prosthetics in (never getting to the "in"). I suppose we'll be getting more of this on the Suspiria remake. But the scenes with the girl and the beast are affecting and the last act got me. I agree that it is the least of Bong's films but it's still distinctive and even if some of it didn't land, I was never bored.

[Michael Kerpan]

I wasn't bored, but I did get a little impatient and restless every now and then...

[ianungstad]

Mildly entertaining but feels quite slight. I agree that it's Bong Joon-ho's most underwhelming film. Okja wins points for being very "cute" but the plot is thin (mostly can be boiled down to either the protagonists chasing after Okja or villians chasing after Okja.) The characters are across the board thin and underdeveloped with the Hollywood supporting cast all playing it way too over the top. Most of the topical issues it brings up regarding GMO's, animal rights activists, evil corporations etc. are barely addressed and come across as a missed opportunity. I'm surprised this got a competition slot at Cannes. A slightly above average summer action film that's more or less instantly forgettable.

[DarkImbecile]

...Jake Gyllenhaal gives an awful performance for the ages. He's a fine actor but it needs a Peter Sellers scale comedian to make this type of outlandish performance work. In Gyllenhaal's hands this turns into the most aggravating supporting turn since Chris Tucker in The Fifth Element. I'm also getting a little tired of Tilda Swinton's pantomime villain performances, who mostly seems to indulge in being grotesque these days, working from wigs and prosthetics in (never getting to the "in").

I was actually more bothered (and bored) by Swinton than Gyllenhaal, who was at least interesting because he was playing something very different for him. That said, I don't understand why they didn't just get Sacha Baron Cohen for that role rather than have Gyllenhaal attempt to ape him. The one actor who seemed to give just the right level of crazy in his performance was Paul Dano, who I haven't seen much talk about despite being one of the only parts of the film that more or less unequivocally works.

Overall, as with most of Bong's films: very much worth looking at, but not worth a lot of thought after the fact.

[Michael Kerpan]

I think (at least) Barking Dogs, Memories of Murder and even Host were worth plenty of thought after the fact.

[DarkImbecile]

I did say 'most'!

[Michael Kerpan]

I thought Tilda was pretty awesome in Snowpiercer, so the weakness of her performance in Okja was surprising to me.

[Constable]

Mildly entertaining but feels quite slight. I agree that it's Bong Joon-ho's most underwhelming film. Okja wins points for being very "cute" but the plot is thin (mostly can be boiled down to either the protagonists chasing after Okja or villians chasing after Okja.) The characters are across the board thin and underdeveloped with the Hollywood supporting cast all playing it way too over the top. Most of the topical issues it brings up regarding GMO's, animal rights activists, evil corporations etc. are barely addressed and come across as a missed opportunity. I'm surprised this got a competition slot at Cannes. A slightly above average summer action film that's more or less instantly forgettable.

I'm surprised to hear you call it slight, given that it is packed with these heavy themes of evil corporations, animal rights etc.

My big gripe with the film is how heavy handed it is in making its points about those themes and how morally black and white it is (the animal rights crusaders are SUCH good guys, not only do they not want to hurt anybody, but they apologize if they have to put their hands on you).

I've been reading some reviews and was quite surprised that it seems I'm the only one who feels this way.

Do you guys not share the heavy handedness critique?

[cdnchris]

I haven't seen it yet but I was under the impression that most of the complaints were about the film being too simplistic in its depicting of the issues it brought up, which I guess would make it look heavy handed since it sounds like everything would be black and white.

I like his other films but for whatever reason I just have this one way down on the list of stuff I want to watch.

[domino harvey]

I'm surprised to hear you call it slight, given that it is packed with these heavy themes of evil corporations, animal rights etc.

Slight films are made about heady topics all the time. Think of any Lifetime movie, for starters

[swo17]

UHD and BD July 5

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

I saw this in theaters the weekend it came out and was tremendously excited as I was a fanatic of Bong’s first four features. By the time we reach the early chase in the film with the corny gypsy jazz soundtrack, all the wind was already sucked out of me.

It’s hard to elaborate on all my feelings about this film as its been five years since I saw it, but found it to be a massive misstep for Bong and one of the worst films of the previous decade. I might have felt less like this had anyone else made it, but after Bong’s acerbic genre masterpieces, it was unreal he could’ve created something so cartoonishly black and white with a solid cast giving the worst performances of their career. And to add to the greotesquerie of all this, there’s an insanely offensive rape scene that I found beyond exploitative.

The screening I saw had a Q&A with Bong who said the film was born from his desire to stop eating meat, but that he was still eating fish. That to me reflected on the lack of seriousness behind the films message more than anything. I understand quitting meat for morality reasons, but fish are living creatures too. Isn’t it still cruel to eat them despite not being cute like a mammal? Is factory farming fish no less cruel?

[Drucker]

It's okay to eat fish because they don't have any feelings.

[therewillbeblus]

The screening I saw had a Q&A with Bong who said the film was born from his desire to stop eating meat, but that he was still eating fish. That to me reflected on the lack of seriousness behind the films message more than anything. I understand quitting meat for morality reasons, but fish are living creatures too. Isn’t it still cruel to eat them despite not being cute like a mammal? Is factory farming fish no less cruel?

I had a philosophy teacher in undergrad who explained he was a pescatarian because of how different central nervous systems operated in fish vs. animals, and how animals internalize and make connotations to pain on a cognitive-emotional level in ways fish do not. Now, I'm not well-versed enough in the philosophy of what's okay to eat to get into a debate around this position, but plenty of people do differentiate between the two for ethical reasons rooted in logic related to pain senses, and have taken great effort to measure "cruelty" based on them- so it's definitely something widely discussed and ruminated on by people who choose a way of life involving food restrictions for moral reasons

Edit: What Drucker said

Also, I cosign your feelings on this film, far and away the most WTF moment for Bong

[zedz]

This is the only Bong feature I haven't seen in its entirety. I started watching it, had to take a break, and never had the will to go back and finish it. Is it really as bad as I thought it was?

[therewillbeblus]

I'm going to give it another watch soon just in case I find it to be some masterpiece with time, but as of now, yes

[swo17]

I actually just watched it for the first time like a month ago. I enjoyed it for what it was (which to be honest is no more ridiculous than Snowpiercer). Paul Dano is legitimately very good in it

[DarkImbecile]

The one actor who seemed to give just the right level of crazy in his performance was Paul Dano, who I haven't seen much talk about despite being one of the only parts of the film that more or less unequivocally works.

Paul Dano is legitimately very good in it