Okja
“Joon-ho Bong’s Okja misses the mark in some ways, but it does present creativity and global collaboration.”
Title: Okja (2017)
Director: Joon-ho Bong 👨🏻🇰🇷
Writers: Joon-ho Bong 👨🏻🇰🇷 and Jon Ronson 👨🏼🇬🇧
Reviewed by Li 👩🏻🇺🇸
Technical: 3/5
Okja is a wacky, strange comedy with a heavy-handed moral about valuing the natural world over the plastic excesses of modern culture. A fine thesis, to be sure—but the sheer mania of the film, bouncing from Jake Gyllenhaal’s ear-piercing falsetto to sporadic bursts of violence, to tender moments between a young child and her oversized animal companion, all deliver vertigo rather than stir up empathy—which I suspect was the point of the film.
Still, while Okja didn’t gel for me, I always appreciate directors willing to take risks. I’m glad they seem to have paid off for director Joon-ho Bong and for Netflix; critics have mostly given Okja the thumbs up, and that’s fine by me.
Gender: 4.25/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES
Okja resonates most strongly through its female characters. The young lead, Mija (Seo-Hyun Ahn), serves as the pillar of sanity in a clownish world. She plays the moral compass and hero, single-mindedly sprinting, clawing, and fighting her way to her beloved pet, Okja.
Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton), CEO of Mirando Corporation, is a doll-like character who hides her issues with her father and older sister behind grandiose, over-the-top presentations. I will say, I’m still a bit salty about Swinton’s whitewashed role in last year’s Doctor Strange—wherein she dresses like an Asian monk—so seeing her don a Korean hanbok brought up unpleasant parallels around cultural appropriation.
Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One in Doctor Strange
Tilda Swinton as Lucy Mirando in Okja
That being said, both Lucy and her sister Nancy (also played by Swinton) were enjoyable characters, flamboyant and satirical without devolving into the squawking that typified Gyllenhaal’s role as TV zoologist Johnny Wilcox.
Okja doesn’t quite get full marks, however, due to the higher prevalence of male characters overall. Even when women have meaty roles in a film, as Mija and the Mirando sisters do, it’s important to look at the supporting cast. While top-tier roles are fairly balanced, secondary ones are not. For example, the members of ALF—an animal rights group in the film—consist of five men and one woman.
Race: 5/5
This is a fascinating time for film. A converging, global market is producing nascent experiments in multicultural filmmaking. Some miss the mark, such as Zhang Yimou’s The Great Wall (2016), which clumsily slaps a white Hollywood actor onto a Chinese film. Others, such as Bong’s Okja, present true creativity and collaboration.
With South Korean Bong and British writer Jon Ronson behind the screenplay, Okja takes cues from both hemispheres. The zany, frenetic comedy feels more akin to an East Asian variety show, while the commentary against genetically modified organisms recall Western critiques of controversial agricultural practices. Meanwhile, no single culture is either maligned nor simplistically celebrated: Both the “bad guys” (Mirando Corporation) and “good guys” (ALF) have obvious proxies in the United States—Monsanto Company and PETA, respectively. Similarly, Mija may be a South Korean hero, but plenty of other Koreans get in her way on her journey to save Okja. Above all, Bong recognizes the specificity of identity; I was delighted to read that he specifically wrote a Korean American part, casting Steven Yeun in the role as translator for ALF.
Bonus for LGBTQ: +0.50
In Okja, we see a small nod towards a gay male couple within the animal rights group. Australian actor Daniel Henshall plays the character Blond, and his boyfriend Silver is played by Canadian actor Devon Bostick. Their relationship is subtle and both members are white, so this is hardly revolutionary. But inclusion of LGBTQ characters is always welcome and helps cement Okja as a progressive story.
Mediaversity Grade: B+ 4.25/5
Is Okja perfect? No. In fact, I didn’t even enjoy the film; I can still hear Johnny Wilcox’s shrieking in my ears. Nonetheless, I’m a fan of creative risk-taking and inclusive media. In particular, Okja displays a deep understanding of racial identity, so I am happy to hear that Netflix's gamble is paying off.