This film premiered on Netflix, who paid for it, rather than cinema
screens. Cannes has never had a competition film named after a giant,
farting pig before. Even when properly up and running, the film slips in and
out of its groove. A diverting, intermittently clever, sometimes awkward blend
of find-the-missing-pet adventure and anti-meat satire, it comes from the pen
of Jon Ronson (a vegetarian with a dark sense of humour) and Korean director
Bong Joon-ho. It’s a goofy concept, oscillating on the edge of facile, but Bong
has a good track record for cooking up such weird concepts and spinning them
off in productive, tonally brave directions.
The relationship between Okja, a prize specimen being raised in the
Korean countryside, and Mija (Ahn Seo-Hyeon) the young farm girl who has raised
him from piglet hood, feels more cut out for a family-friendly story. The
Mirando Corporation, represented by a squeaking TV animal pundit called Mr.
Johnny (Jake Gyllenhaal), arrive to claim their property, and Mija can only
watch as the massive mound of grey blubber she thinks of as a best friend. Okja
shares about equal screen time with the stars like Gyllenhaal, who makes a
promising fist of his first scene and then rapidly lets himself go way
overboard. Much more inspired is Swinton, in the double role of sisters with no
love lost and an interestingly opposed take on corporate values.
Okja is plenty of fun, and smart around the edges, but the
girl-and-her-pig stuff can drag, and it feels like it’s pressing for resonance
more than properly achieving it. We wind up in a slaughterhouse, of course. It’s
more like a kids’ meal for adults than an adult one for kids.
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