OKJA 2017
by
Bong Jon-hoo
What might just be food
for the consumer,and money spinner for the one processing it ,be someone’s love
of life.Animals do have souls,this much must be conceded,and are capable of
giving and receiving love.
There must be an assembly line,where cows and pigs must line up,awaiting their turn to get slaughtered.I am a vegetarian,but am no fundamentalist.I dunt care what you eat,be it calves or human kids.But what you eat must feel the pain,if pain exists.I dunt know where does that logic take you philosophically.I also know that if everyone gives up eating meat,the planet wud starve for want of foodgrains.But still,the slain animals must cry out in agony.Killing them for food must affect karma.Surely this is not all hyperbolic.
Okja is the story of a superpig ,one of the twenty six produced in a lab in the US by a GM Food MNC and being reared in the idyllic,beautiful,picturesque mountains of Korea by a teenage girl and her grandfather.Having grown up together ,Okja and the girl share a deep emotional bond.Enter Jake Gyllenhall and his crew to fly away the superpig back to the US where the plan is to unveil it to the public as promotional propaganda and then use it in the factory line to manufacture sausages.
The Korean girl ,along with Animal Rights’activists create mayhem in the streets and malls of Seoul and later in the US,and finally liberate Okja.
There must be an assembly line,where cows and pigs must line up,awaiting their turn to get slaughtered.I am a vegetarian,but am no fundamentalist.I dunt care what you eat,be it calves or human kids.But what you eat must feel the pain,if pain exists.I dunt know where does that logic take you philosophically.I also know that if everyone gives up eating meat,the planet wud starve for want of foodgrains.But still,the slain animals must cry out in agony.Killing them for food must affect karma.Surely this is not all hyperbolic.
Okja is the story of a superpig ,one of the twenty six produced in a lab in the US by a GM Food MNC and being reared in the idyllic,beautiful,picturesque mountains of Korea by a teenage girl and her grandfather.Having grown up together ,Okja and the girl share a deep emotional bond.Enter Jake Gyllenhall and his crew to fly away the superpig back to the US where the plan is to unveil it to the public as promotional propaganda and then use it in the factory line to manufacture sausages.
The Korean girl ,along with Animal Rights’activists create mayhem in the streets and malls of Seoul and later in the US,and finally liberate Okja.
The film asks questions about MNC’s greed,animal rights and
GM food safety.Surprisingly,the director manages to not let the script
degenerate into any kind of general war,and the struggle always remains
personal (for Okja and the girl).That is a triumph else it becomes a tad too
ideological to enjoy.
This is perhaps the best film of the year I have seen so far.It must claim Best Picture nomination ,and win the Best Foreign film Oscar.Bong Joon-ho has balanced the pitch dark satirical tone of the film with some exquisite action sequences (esp.in the first half),over-the-top performances by Gyllenhall and Tilda Swinton and subtle drama .It is a heady cocktail that works on many levels as a children’s film (despite the swearings),a propaganda piece (against GM) and a campaign for animal rights,but commits to nothing .This is the triumph of technogy and imagination,a movie to remember.
This is perhaps the best film of the year I have seen so far.It must claim Best Picture nomination ,and win the Best Foreign film Oscar.Bong Joon-ho has balanced the pitch dark satirical tone of the film with some exquisite action sequences (esp.in the first half),over-the-top performances by Gyllenhall and Tilda Swinton and subtle drama .It is a heady cocktail that works on many levels as a children’s film (despite the swearings),a propaganda piece (against GM) and a campaign for animal rights,but commits to nothing .This is the triumph of technogy and imagination,a movie to remember.
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