Director Joon-ho Bong, the purveyor of spectacularly wacky cinematic things (The Host, Snowpiercer), has delivered to Netflix Okja, perhaps his wackiest film yet: It’s a tale about a future world in which meat is scarce, so huge pigs are biogenetically engineered for slaughter.
The title character is a prized, giant animal raised in the mountains by Mija (Seo-Hyun Ahn), a young girl who thinks Okja is her pet. She’s oblivious to the fact that Okja’s days are numbered, so when an envoy for a large corporation (Jake Gyllenhaal, going completely nuts here) shows up and takes Okja away, Mija flies into action—and the bizarre adventure begins.
Paul Dano, one of the kings of movie weirdness, chips in as the leader of an animal-rescue corps that includes Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead) and Lily Collins. Following up her collaboration with Bong on Snowpiercer is Tilda Swinton, playing twins (as she did in Hail, Caesar!)—two evil sisters running the corporation that produced Okja.
The movie mixes absurd laughs with mayhem, and the cast is great. Like films such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Babe before it, this movie tries to shine a light on the cruel treatment of animals—and perhaps get you to pass on the bacon the next time you are at Denny’s.
Okja is currently streaming on Netflix.