Okja has a very niche plot, but it is a story that can easily resonate with everyone. It'll forever be known as the super pig (slash hippo) movie. It's a risk that pays off handsomely for Netflix, which has already conquered the medium of television. This has the potential to be Netflix's big break in the original narrative film side of the business. Beasts of No Nation was very good but it never really broke through. Okja, though shunned by the cinematic tradition at Cannes, is the future. Netflix is desperate to catch Amazon, already with a Best Picture Oscar nomination for last year's Manchester by the Sea. What makes this film so important? It demonstrates to auteur filmmakers around the world that Netflix is willing to take risks. It will produce artistic films that no one else will. And if not with Okja, it eventually will strike a Best Picture nomination with this model. And leave it for crazy Bong Joon-ho to lead the way for Netflix.
The acting in Okja is quite over the top. I'm looking at you, Jake Gyllenhaal. I'm not sure how I feel about it. He's really insane. But somehow, the over exaggeration fits because it has dramatic and funny moments. Because his foil is a slightly less crazy Tilda Swinton. And the more subdued crazy of Paul Dano. The little girl, Ahn Seo-hyun is very good too as she embarks on a quest to rescue her super pig Okja. I guess that requires a little explanation. The genetically modified super pigs are produced by an evil company, given to farmers around the world to be bred for 10 years, then to be put into food production. It's a charming simultaneously disturbing story with a moral. That moral will inspire people to become a vegetarian, or at least to not eat pig, after all Mija's favorite food is chicken. It's not a totally anti-meat movie per se, but there is a moral that you can discern for yourself.
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