Earlier this week, Netflix just released yet another movie in its ever-expanding catalog with Okja, an American-Korean collaboration written and directed by Bong Joon-Ho. If you’re not familiar with the name, then you might know him as the guy responsible for that modern classic sci-fi monster movie film from years ago, the Host. And, if you haven’t seen that one, I highly suggest you do; it’s not your usual kaiju movie, and as far as I know, there aren’t any movies like it that has come from the West.
As one would expect, Netflix doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to their production values, with Okja not being an exemption to that rule. If nothing else, the movie was very polished visually. That is not to say, though, that this movie was no good at all, because it is. It’s very good.
All right, to sum it all up, Okja is a movie about a girl and the eponymous animal, which is called a super pig (not to be confused with spider-pigs, which are a whole different Simpsonian species altogether). If you’re wondering what a super-pig actually looks like, you can imagine that it’s a hybrid between a hippopotamus and a dog, and although it may not exactly have the physical attributes of those porcine creatures, they’re purported to taste just like the real thing. That is, if we are to believe what the movie tells us. In any case, that’s the basic idea of Okja. What makes it stand out as one heck of a movie, though, is that it wonderfully combines the emotional quality that could be found in, say, Bong Joon-Ho’s The Host (again, get with the program and watch this in order for you to understand what I’m talking about), or a lot of Korean movies for that matter, and the visual spectacle of Western – or American, to be specific – folk and gothic motifs. It’s truly something that distinguishes itself from other movies out there featuring a plucky hero and her (or his) animal friend.
Then, of course, there’s the cast. To tell you the truth, I actually am still a bit surprised whenever I see one of Netflix’s titles carrying some very heavy names in the industry. For some reason, I just can’t believe that they’re on that level where their production values are on par – if not better – than most other networks or companies out there, and they don’t even have to go through the traditional channels, such as theaters and home video releases. Ah, well, that’s progress for you. Okja’s stellar cast features some big names. And you may argue that they may not exactly be the ones with the highest fees, but there’s no question that they’re some of the best out there. One, there’s Jake Gyllenhaal, who plays a twisted version of James Irwin or Crocodile Dundee; the enormously talented and androgynous Tilda Swinton, who portrays not one, but two characters in this movie; hell, they even got Gus Fring himself, Giancarlo Esposito in a supporting role here. And those are just the ones I’m willing to tell you. Go check it out.
