Can movies be made that attack the prejudices and cruelties of 95% of the human race — and be financially viable? Will the guilty party pay to see themselves raked over the coals? Are speciesist bigots so detached from their emotions and reality that they don’t even realize that they are being criticized?
In the South Korean/US 2017 release, Okja, the answer to the first two questions is: not without a lot of attempted humor, action, tokenism, cartoonish characters that undercut a serious message and a nonsensical happy ending. The answer to the last question is at the end of this article. And I actually like this film.
Okja is one of 26 super pigs created in a lab by an evil corporation and given to various farmers around the world to raise in “natural” settings. That’s why Okja is put on a remote forested South Korean mountain where there are lots of cliffs to slip off of. Okja looks like a hippopotamus but is the size of an elephant and is so “special” that she is going to be killed and eaten as environmentally “sustainable” meat. Somehow raising and killing these quasi-dinosaurs for food doesn’t have much environmental impact. The film is labeled “action-adventure” but it’s more a rapid-fire multi-leveled satire. The “willing suspension of disbelief” should be bought in the extra large size before entering the theatre.
Okja is raised by a young South Korean girl named Mija and her grandfather. For ten years this is a happy story about a girl…