Netflix November: Okja Isn't Taking Home Any Bacon
- Nov 7, 2017
- 2 min read
Netflix is better known for it's series than it is for its movies, and for good reason. For every Beasts Of No Nation and Siege Of Jadotville, there's half a dozen like Okja. An incompetent mess of half baked concepts, strange acting and awful writing.
Okja is the classic story of a girl, Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun), and her hippo sized pig, Okja. Okja is destined for one thing, to make a lot of food. So, when the company that owns Okja comes to take her away, Mija gives chase in a pursuit that takes her from Korea to New York, a chase filled with a whole lot of weird, tonally conflicting problems.
There are two good parts to Okja, the beginning and the end. The film opens with the head of the company in charge of the so called, super pigs, giving a speech about how and why these pigs are so good. It gives the film a satirical tone from the outset, one that is rather funny. Then there is the second to last sequence in which Mija wanders through a super pig processing plant, a scene which takes what was a weird film and quickly turns it into something far darker. It's very well done to say the least. The problems lie in everything in between.
Be it the godawful performances by Jake Gyllenhaal and Tilda Swinton, seriously, they're so obnoxiously over the top they give Nicolas Cage a run for his money, the frequent shift from satirical comedy to serious film about the meat industry, the bizarre relationship between the members of the Animal Liberation Front who show up in this movie to achieve absolutely nothing or the ending which, while good, feels like an unnecessary extra 20 minutes.
So no, I cannot recommend this movie. I like the directors prior work, with Snowpiercer being an all time favourite of mine, but Okja has no clear tone, a message so overt that it barely stops short of throat punching you and some down right strange moments that prevent it from becoming an enjoyable film.
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