A young girl risks everything to prevent a powerful, multinational company from kidnapping her best friend - a fascinating beast named Okja.A young girl risks everything to prevent a powerful, multinational company from kidnapping her best friend - a fascinating beast named Okja.A young girl risks everything to prevent a powerful, multinational company from kidnapping her best friend - a fascinating beast named Okja.
- Awards
- 7 wins & 14 nominations total
Ahn Seo-hyun
- Mija
- (as An Seo Hyun)
Byun Hee-Bong
- Hee Bong
- (as Byun Heebong)
Choi Woo-sik
- Kim
- (as Woo Shik Choi)
Lee Bong-ryun
- Receptionist
- (as Bongryun Lee)
Featured reviews
I have never cried so much, after watching Okja it really opened my eyes to what really happens to livestock in the world. If you are an animal lover i suggest you watch this. If you want to know the reason why a lot of people are vegan you should watch this. After watching this I decided to cut back on meat slowly until i completely cut it off. It's an inspiration, thank you so much to the creators.
Bong Joon Ho is without a doubt one of the top five or ten working directors today. When it comes to juggling genre and tone almost no one is his equal. With an all-star international cast and its production by Netflix, this may be his most accessible movie yet; however, it may also be his most bizarre. It's the kind of movie that will leave you laughing one minute, crying the next, and then raising your eyebrows the next. It's so refreshing to see a film not conform to easy plot points and pandering like this film could have done so many times. Rather it takes tonal and story risks that consistently pay off. It helps that it maintains a solid satirical tone throughout allowing even the dysfunctional and reprehensible characters to remain interesting and some even likable. The actors are all terrific, particularly Ahn Seo Hung in her film debut. She keeps the emotional component grounded throughout the film and provides the most resonating moments. The only performer who may not resonate with everyone is Jake Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal goes all out insane for his role and while I enjoyed the lunacy, many will not be fans. My only complaint was that some of the scenes with Tilda Swinton descended into too much exposition which hinders some of the pacing. Despite the familiarity of the story, it will consistently sneak up on you with wonderful unexpected moments. Its another example of the daring and beautiful films coming from Korea, the best country for cinema in the past decade. If studios don't want to lose out to Netflix, they need to be willing to back the same kind of talent and allow for the same kind of artistic freedom.
Pro-tip: Watch past the end credits
Pro-tip: Watch past the end credits
Full disclaimer; I am a vegetarian, so I was always going to be sympathetic to the message of this film. And while some would argue, perhaps correctly in most cases, that the medium IS the message, it doesn't always hold that a noble sentiment translates into a well made film. Thankfully this is not the case here.
A whirlwind mash of genres (part heist movie; part buddy comedy; part activist polemic) Okja is a beautifully executed interweaving of the complex and deep relationship between humanity and the other animals that inhabit our planet. Despite (obviously) heavy use of CGI for Okja herself, the Super Pig's presence is (mostly) seamless with the rest of the environment, and its convincing and moving interactions with the rest of the cast, not least a starring performance from young Seo Hyun as Mija, were enough to move me to tears more than once.
At no point does the film verge into 'preachiness', however, nor wander into grisly animal-rights documentary territory. It achieves this through interspersing some nicely shot action scenes with the odd absurdist comic line, before, towards the end of the film, revealing in jarring and emotional fashion the logical consequence of mass, production-line slaughter. And that really is the main takeaway from the film; not that MEAT=BAD, but rather that the industrialised killing our profit-driven society has allowed to develop is an unbearable and heartbreaking infringement of the rights of the living beings with which we must share our earth.
Perhaps the only reservation is Jake Gyllenhaal's bizarre performance as Johnny Wilcox. I personally didn't have that much of a problem with it, although can see why the OTT nature of it might pull one out of the film on occasion. Nonetheless, Okja is a film bold in its scale and confident in its message. At once gentle and brutal; funny and poignant, I really can't give this film any more praise without it sounding like I'm a Netflix plant. Highly recommended, whatever you choose to put on your plate...
A whirlwind mash of genres (part heist movie; part buddy comedy; part activist polemic) Okja is a beautifully executed interweaving of the complex and deep relationship between humanity and the other animals that inhabit our planet. Despite (obviously) heavy use of CGI for Okja herself, the Super Pig's presence is (mostly) seamless with the rest of the environment, and its convincing and moving interactions with the rest of the cast, not least a starring performance from young Seo Hyun as Mija, were enough to move me to tears more than once.
At no point does the film verge into 'preachiness', however, nor wander into grisly animal-rights documentary territory. It achieves this through interspersing some nicely shot action scenes with the odd absurdist comic line, before, towards the end of the film, revealing in jarring and emotional fashion the logical consequence of mass, production-line slaughter. And that really is the main takeaway from the film; not that MEAT=BAD, but rather that the industrialised killing our profit-driven society has allowed to develop is an unbearable and heartbreaking infringement of the rights of the living beings with which we must share our earth.
Perhaps the only reservation is Jake Gyllenhaal's bizarre performance as Johnny Wilcox. I personally didn't have that much of a problem with it, although can see why the OTT nature of it might pull one out of the film on occasion. Nonetheless, Okja is a film bold in its scale and confident in its message. At once gentle and brutal; funny and poignant, I really can't give this film any more praise without it sounding like I'm a Netflix plant. Highly recommended, whatever you choose to put on your plate...
Exciting and excellent film. I was looking forward to this movie and the truth, it was so cute. An excellent cast that meets and each acted excellent. The story so exciting, This film is the real love between a person and an animal. From the beginning to the end she kept me entertained to the screen. Of the best films of the year. Do not miss the post-credits scene. wonderful
I waited to watch this movie. I decided to watch it today. It's good. I thought it was going to be an adventure movie during the first 30 minutes.
While I liked this movie, it turns into an animal welfare movie. Animal welfare is important and mass farms/gmo foods needs everyone's attention but this movie didn't seem to take it to the extreme to really have an impact.
I enjoyed myself while watching but ultimately this movie is forgettable.
While I liked this movie, it turns into an animal welfare movie. Animal welfare is important and mass farms/gmo foods needs everyone's attention but this movie didn't seem to take it to the extreme to really have an impact.
I enjoyed myself while watching but ultimately this movie is forgettable.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOkja's design was based on the face of a manatee and the body of a hippopotamus. The hippopotamus-like design was specifically chosen as a reference to the infamous 1910 "Hippo Bill," which proposed the idea of America importing, breeding and farming hippopotamuses for meat.
- GoofsThere is a mistranslation on the English subtitles when K played by Steven Yeun is about to jump out of the truck. According to the subtitles, his parting words to Mija are "Mija! Try learning English. It opens new doors!" What he actually says is "Mija! Also, my name is Koo Soon-bum." It's a flagrant mistranslation - but one that would only be apparent to those who can speak both languages. Moreover, the mistranslation is a clever subversion of the supremacy of English. The subtitle is a command to learn English - something that every Korean student has heard throughout her life - but to actually understand what K is saying, you would have to know Korean. There's an added layer of comedy to the name itself, which has the whiff of the old country about it: "Koo Soon-bum" is sort of like a white man saying his name is "Buford Attaway." As Yeun said in an interview, "When he says 'Koo Soon-bum,' it's funny to you if you're Korean, because that's a dumb name. There's no way to translate that. That's like, the comedy drop-off, the chasm between countries."
- Crazy creditsThere is a post-credit scene.
- SoundtracksHarvest For The World
Written by Ernie Isley (as E. Isley), Marvin Isley (as M. Isley), O'Kelly Isley (as O. Isley), Ronald Isley (as R. Isley), Rudolph Isley (as R. Isley), Chris Jasper (as C. Jasper)
Performed by The Isley Brothers
Courtesy of Epic Records
By arrangement with Sony Music Licensing
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- Siêu Lợn Okja
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $50,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross worldwide
- $2,049,823
- Runtime2 hours
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
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