But Bong insists Okja isn't intended to be a fiery screen statement against eating animals. As the truck passes under a sequence of low bridges, Mundo nervously questions whether Kim even has a commercial drivers license. The first and foremost, most obvious one, even as stated by Joon-ho Bong in a couple of interviews as well would be Capitalism, that seems to be the driving force of virtually everything in the 21st Century. Our first ever Mirando superpig sale. Every parent's mileage will vary. B: The Beginning. While at it, I will also add corporate greed to the list in existing in virtually the same vein as Capitalism. Picture this: you're deep in the wilderness, surrounded by towering trees, jagged mountains, and icy rivers. 10. In the resulting chaos, Mija and Okja run away but are eventually saved by the ALF, led by Jay. K shows Mija photos of the lab where Okja was created as Jay explains that everything shes been told about the superpigs is a lie. For ten years she has lived an innocent, Eden-like existence in the company of the young girl Mija (An Seo Hyun) in a remote South Korean forest. The film is unapologetically against the assembly line-style "harvesting" of animals for meat, and perhaps, on a very basic level, anti-meat, period. K: Oh, yeah . The movie features his trademark sharp shifts in tone, but also melds . Bong Joon-ho created some of the highest-grossing films in South Korea. Sometimes you don't get to use clips or art from other movies and shows. Her grandfather gives Mija a gold pig, explaining he saved up to replace Okja when she was taken away. All the film's many threads ultimately come back to questions of trust: what it means to keep it or betray trust, and whether there are circumstances where betrayal is necessary, and whether the trust between human and human is more meaningful than the trust between human and animal. Mija was able to save her beloved super pig from slaughter, and even a baby piglet too, but what of her parents? Okja is selected as the best super-pig in the world and the figurehead for Mirando's upcoming product launch, and she's whisked away after a filming session with Dr. Johnny Wilcox (Jake . He justifies the seizure of Ks property as for the sake of the greater good. BlacKkKlansman's Ending & What It Really Means. In an interview, Bong said the film touched on "capitalism". A bittersweet story about animals and humans, it centres around a lovable super-pig that's touted as an organic, ecologically-sound "revolution in the livestock industry". Okja loves Mija and Mija loves Okja, but their sacred bond is governed by a ticking clock. As Dr. Johnny Wilcox ascends the final steps and gripes loudly about the trek, Mija is star-struck by the appearance of the world-famous host of Animal Magic. English has a similarly symbolic role in the latter movie, where it serves as a salient class marker. We almost make Korean name in Chinese Character, but write in Korean. Big yet lovely, shy and introverted. For some, it served as a jumping-off-point for their own study of the ethics of meat-eating. 2023 BBC. They leave, and Okja is recaptured. His films are usually characterized by social themes and black humor. Virtually everything, from the fruits and vegetables we consume to the meat we have is genetically mutated to taste better, grow faster, and well, just be bigger to record better sales. It also comes with a cool font generator tool. But considering all things, Bong wants you to think that you have just been delivered a warm fuzzy ending, while it would seem anything but. Read about our approach to external linking. Paul Dano shows up as an animal-rights activist hoping to save Okja's skin. K and Jay continue to speak over Mija until they are forcibly removed from the conversation. Mirando may in itself be a fictitious organisation, but it is a metaphorical and often satirical representation of virtually every agro based MNC out there: degrading food just to increase yield through machines by mass production to feed an ever-growing population, and make a ton of money while at it. The tiny cages they're keeping the sick and crippled pigs in actually look bigger than the ones actual pigs are kept in. What's he waiting for? Why is it still alive? The story unfolds with young Mija, a farm girl played by actress An Seo-huyn who lives in the lush mountains of South Korea with her grandfather and their beloved genetically-engineered pig, Okja (an old-fashioned South Korean name without a specific meaning). This is our 40-year tradition.]. Come to think of it, when he says universal language, his deliberate intermixing of genres is quite understandable. The heroine is a South Korean farm girl named Mija (An Seo-hyn), an orphan who lives with her grandfather Heebong (Byun Hee-bong) in a mountainous stretch of rainforest. We dont want to hurt you! There is a definite advantage when you have Rian in the writers room - and Okja survived!" Principal photography began on April 22, 2016, in Seoul, South Korea. I know, go figure. From Mijas point of view, there is literally nothing better that could have happened. We explore. VideoRecord numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. Toward the end of the movie, K pops back up with a fresh tattoo that reads . And this is where Okja comes in. Worker: [presses bolt gun to Okjas temple again], Mija: [in Korean] No, wait! We blaze this trail for our own. K isnt a neutral and passive converter of meaning. Jay: Im sorry, but this was our plan. Characters posters in some cinemas and at Cannes. It's a unique animal that we've not seen before. Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Largeof RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism. This disc's gorgeous 4K transfer and slate of extras make a strong case for the importance of physical releases of streaming titles. Maybe it's because Bong is a showman who packs every frame with three jokes and grace notes where most directors would only offer one, if that. . Aer fiction and poetry have appeared inAsimovs,F&SF, andStrange Horizons, and aer translations have appeared inClarkesworld. Its point-of-view won't be to everyone's liking (I can see Fox News Channel getting a solid week's worth of programming from the fact that Netflix helped bankroll a blockbuster anti-meat picture). On one instance, Okja endangers his own life to save Mijas too. Mija would tell you there's no difference. "I'm seeing more of my friends move away from red meat due to health and environmental issues . American megacorporation Mirando, led by Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton), plans to revolutionize the meat industry with genetically engineered superpigs. It is witnessing your family being dragged into a slaughterhouse," he said. In that, a campaign such as the super pig program that is just cosmetic masking so that consumers like us can feel good being oblivious to a harsh truth, Okja and director Joon-ho Bong label us as equal perpetrators in the cogwheel. . For heritage speakers, the transfer of language between parent and child is disrupted by assimilationist forces that value English more than any other language. Emphasis added. We tear down cages and set them free. The question here is not whether there can be a sequel to Okja, but whether Netflix wants one. Perhaps the director called its main character an outdated name because the rest of the film is so futuristic, or maybe he simply felt it was a nice, if old-fashioned, moniker. Pigs recur as a symbol for resourcesand not just superpigs. K: I dont know. [14] Co-writer Jon Ronson said he believed the movie would "turn people vegetarian", adding, "I really dont think that was my intention or Bongs intention". Mija and Okja's separation kicks off a story that follows the pig from South Korea to New York City and (parenthetically) to a plant near Paramus, New Jersey, where hundreds of other prototype pigs are kept for experimentation and eventual slaughter. Start the truck, quick! K stumbles because he has to think about which verb is the correct one for the context, immediately revealing that he is from the U.S. and doesnt speak Korean fluently. [shrugs] They fucked, not me. MIja and Jay try to escape with Okja but fail and are rescued by a reformed K, while Okja is recaptured and sent to the Mirando labs with hundreds of other super pigs, where Nancy commands to have full time slaughterhouse operations for the super pigs as she plans to sell them and scraps Lucys program entirely, believing that the public will buy it anyway if its cheap. It was the most efficient, easy and simple way . The film competed for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. Both display a strong need to control the narrative of Whiteness, whether through marketing and propaganda, or through reframing the Mirandos narrative as one of hard work, meritocracy, and bootstrapping, rather than the truth: Lucy and Nancys father made the Mirando fortune by manufacturing Agent Orange. Despite all the trauma and devastation Mija and Okja have experienced, though, the ending is hopeful. Okja creates a world nothing too different from our current one, but it is imbued with such manic energy and zany characters, ones that you take to hate for all the right reasons and some that you unfailingly love, that you are happily taken along for a ride. Despite the family-friendly poster of a giant pig and a little girl, and though it has many comic elements, it's an extremely intense, violent film about cruelty to animals in a world in which corporations wreak havoc on the planet. Ks introduction makes his relationship with Korean clear: Dialogue is in Korean. Jake Gyllenhaal as Dr. Johnny Wilcox . When Mija learns that Okja is being taken away to New York, she goes to the Mirando office in Seoul to plead for her return. But that is not the case in English. She reaches Mirandos head office in Seoul all by herself where she sees Okja being loaded onto a truck. The eponymous animal of Bong Joon-ho's Okja is so endearing that she even defecates cutely, depositing little fecal pellets into a stream in a fashion that somehow connotes . So, in Korean, translation is sacred and translations are sacred would both be expressed using the same sentence. I have to commend director Joon-ho Bong into delivering that finale. For example, in Edmund Spenser's famous allegorical poem, The Faeirie Queene , the female knight Britomart is a symbol of the values of chastity and restraint, traits which many 16th-century readers . The film ends with Mija having returned to the Korean country side in the hills, resuming her normal life with her grandfather, Okja and the new piglet. Though my Mandarin was imperfect, I did my best to translate, even when the information was medical or legal. The shock to the viewer comes from the deliberate mistranslation. Jay: You already have a shitload of money. Workers in the movie use a saw to rip open the carcasses of the fictional "super-pigs," and the same thing is done to real-life cows, right along the spine. The film parasite and Okja utilizes symbolism to present its themes. Director: Bong Joon-ho Writers: Bong Joon-ho, Jon Ronson Cast: Ahn Seo-hyun as Mija . In my reading, the ALF is just one manifestation of Western movements that fail to account for intersectionality. K: ? Were very hardworking businesspeople. But we cant be weak. You employ new and unproven methods. Mija: [holds up photo of herself with Okja to a Spanish-speaking factory line worker], Worker: [hesitates as he holds a bolt gun to Okjas temple and looks from the photo to her]. Summary: A young girl named Mija risks everything to prevent a powerful, multi-national company from kidnapping her best friend a massive animal named Okja. Blond: Thats right. Devastated, Mija goes to Seoul to find Okja, where she sees her being loaded onto a truck. "Okja's eyes, how clear they are, the innocence, the kindness within that's embedded in her eyes," Bong says. In that moment, its just I couldnt I couldnt stop the mission. And there are subplots that don't get the attention they deservein particular the conflict between ALF leader Jay and his lieutenant K (Steven Yeun of "The Walking Dead"), which teases a conversation about how righteousness becomes intolerance that "Okja" isn't actually interested in having. Okja (2017) is the brainchild of Bong Joon-ho, the South Korean writer-director of Parasite, the Academy Award winner for Best Picture in 2019.He is also the creator of the cult classic monster movie The Host (2006) and the steampunk dystopian train ride Snowpiercer (2013). 9. Sir, sir, put the gun down, its okay. Jim Carrey-style clowning is not, to put it mildly, this actor's most comfortable mode, and his fidgety, braying, often mincing performance is so misjudged that it destroys scenes that should have been unsettling or touching. With their newest member Kim Woo-shik, a former driver for Mirando Corporation, they plan to disrupt a major meeting involving all of the Mirando shareholders. After the ALF sees the footage, K reveals that he lied to the rest of the group about Mija's support of the plan. . "We create psychological border-lines to avoid discomforts, so we separate our views of animals," Bong said. Ks story doesnt end there, though. The film received positive reviews from critics. Tilda Swinton as Lucy Mirando . Englishs role as a symbol of power becomes more obvious in Okjas initial rescue. Whether one is vegan or not is a matter of individual choice," Bong explained, adding that he wanted audiences to "witness and understand" how meat was being mass produced. As revealed in an opening flashback, Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton),the CEO of the Mirando Corporation, seeded the world with prototype pigs and announced that when they'd all spent ten years growing to maturity, the company would choose the finest environment in which to raise them, the better to provide the world with cheap but high-quality meat and meat products. Despite the scene being played as humorous, as illustrated by Jays incredulous Is that it?, this is the exact position heritage speakers are put into, especially the first generation born in the US. Throughout the entire movie, others have spoken for Mija, whether the ALF with a pro-animal rights agenda, or Mirando forcing Mija to whitewash her experiences into palatable propaganda. Our Privacy Notice has been updated to explain how we use cookies, which you accept by continuing to use this website. Jay puts his life on the line to rescue Okja. A few lines in the dressing room scene make me suspect that the fanny pack was an intentional choice: Wardrobe: [tugging at fanny pack] Still with this thing. [22] The movie was released as part of the Criterion Collection in July 2022. I see you, Bong. Spirit Riding Free. Mundo and Kim speak in Korean. In NYC, Mija has to comply with the Mirando Corp. Jay slips into her room and tells her they plan to rescue Okja while on stage. To minimize PR damage to the company, Lucy pays for Mija to come to NYC to reunite with her pig. [11] Bong visited a Colorado slaughterhouse to prepare for the film's slaughterhouse sequence, an experience that converted Bong and producer Dooho Choi into temporary vegans. Jay: Yes, but dont worry. Support the Show for $1: https://www.patreon.com/TheAtZShow Twitter: https://twitter.com/theatzsh. You are extremely ambitious, original, and courageous. You know, this is the coolest mission ever. When hes rescued in turn, the driver of the getaway truck turns out to be K, who shows him his new tattoo: Translations are Sacred., Ks freshly tattooed forearm showing raised black script reading Translations are Sacred. (Screenshot: Netflix / Plan B Entertainment.). We promise to bring her back to you. Im leaving this shithole anyway. Such is the whimsy of human happenings, they are never unilateral or genre abiding, so to say, and Joon-ho Bong knows that and quite ably reflects that in his films. . Because the movie is in both Korean and English and it is primarily set in South Korea and New York City, one of its most prominent themes is that the world is shifting towards global unity, for better or worse. Video, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. In an article published by Far Out Magazine . I believe that the mismatch between Ks tattoo and Jays words is deliberate. Despite countless examples of the U.S. showing that it is perfectly happy to exclude and annihilate us, we still live in the United States. He crowns Okja the best super pig and reveals that they will take Okja to New York the same day. They are visited by Mirando spokesperson and zoologist Dr. Johnny Wilcox, who declares Okja the best super pig, and announces that they will take her to NYC. Refusing to give up, Jay and K take Mija to the processing farm/slaughterhouse where Okja is due for slaughter that very day. English in Parasite is the bartering chip itself, but English in Okja is the strategy behind the whole game, one where the stakes are the autonomy and agency of an entire people. Read More in Explainers: Prisoners | Se7en| Reservoir Dogs. And there are many upsetting images of animal abuse, particularly towards the endnot as harsh as what you find through a YouTube search, but nevertheless unusual for commercial cinema. My name is K.], Mija: . But when the animal abuse footage triggers Okja while she and Mija are on stage, there is a moment when Okja appears to be on the verge of grievously injuring Mija. There is no need to wait for Hollywood to catch up. But there is a pressure there, too, to be a link between groups and to be a peacemaker, one that I rarely see acknowledged in fiction. With their newest member Kim Woo-shik, a former driver for Mirando Corporation, they plan to disrupt a major Mirando shareholders meeting. Still, Mija knows she must speak the language of those in power to have any hope of escaping from the institutional oppressions shes been roped into. Amidst the ensuing chaos, Nancy Mirando returns to assume control of the organisation from Lucy and calls upon private security contractors to bring the situation under control. In Okja, we see a man herding dozens of "super-pigs" up a ramp into the slaughterhouse with an electric prod. The dialogue is liberally peppered with F-words, and the more exaggerated jokes about corporate hypocrisy are reminiscent of non-child friendly satires like "Dr. Strangelove" and "Network" (upon learning that it will take ten years for the pigs to grow, a reporter moans, "Jesus ChristI'll be dead by then!"). My best to translate, even when the information was medical or legal, they plan disrupt... Truck passes under a sequence of low bridges, Mundo nervously questions whether Kim even has a commercial license... Too, but also melds and devastation Mija and Mija loves Okja, also! Cannes film Festival in an interview, Bong said interview, Bong.. The sake of the movie features his trademark sharp shifts in tone, but write in Korean the deliberate.! Wait for Hollywood to catch up same sentence for Hollywood to catch up Notice has been updated explain. Read more in Explainers: Prisoners | Se7en| Reservoir Dogs Netflix wants one give,... 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