#fuck i need to rewatch i miss the feeing of this movie

[bookwormguri]

A Kinda ‘Okja’ Analysis

I’m still peeved over Okja, but after gathering my thoughts and sleeping on it, I think I can more accurately discuss why I thought it was a bad movie.

Rest is under the cut if you don’t want to see the negative shit and because it got REALLY long.

I was finally able to pinpoint why Okja made me so angry. Going back and rewatching the trailers, to me it seemed like we were going to be in for a movie about the bond of friendship, a feel-good and possible heartbreaking story about Okja and Mija’s relationship. We did get that. And I find that part of the film to be it’s driving force and greatest pull. Unfortunately, the film gets bogged down by a ton of other messages, where nothing gets resolved.

The description of the movie on Netflix seems much more accurate that the trailers ever were (”A gentle giant and the girl who raised her are caught in the crossfire between animal activism, corporate greed and scientific ethics.”) which is also unfortunate seeing as the trailer is wat got me hyped for the film. To me, the film seemed to be going for The BFG or Pete’s Dragon feel through their trailer editing and language and I can’t help but feel lied to with the final product.

I understand why some people enjoy the movie. It does apply some commentary to the corporate greed aspect and is staunchly anti-capitalism which I LOVE. However, for its possible pro-vegetarianism message (as many fans seem to be taking it as) is not only misguided, but also confuses the tone of the film. The thing that makes me the angriest is how Okja and Mija’s bond and storyline seems to be sacrificed for these sensationalised themes.

I tried to break down the other issues I had with the film into the following categories.

Characterization  As much as every seems to love the ALF, what do we even know about our loveable bunch of not-terrorists? Aside from Jay, they can easily be categorised as ‘Snarky + one notable personality/physical trait + ALF Member.’ 

Red = Snarky Female ALF Member Silver = Snarky Hungry ALF Member Blonde = Snarky Big Guy ALF Member K = Steven Yeun

Trust me, I use the same technique when I need to make NPCs in D&D to make them seem like an actual person instead of a cardboard cutout. This technique is fine and dandy for the side characters that they are, but the characterization falls flat for many of the bigger characters as well.

Jay introduces himself as a lover of all living creatures. I thought he came off as creepy, which is why I thought the film was going to the set-up of “corporations are bad, but their opposite isn't altogether innocent either.” I was almost entirely sure we were going this route when Jay beats K, but no, not only was this completely out of character, but the ALF turn out to be the good guys through and through. 

I give some leeway to the Jay-K scene as it was during that absolute trash rape scene, so we can infer that Jay let his emotions get the better of him and he decided to throw away his non-violent creed in a fit of passion. Okay, sure. But what about why he goes to hit Okja with the mic stand and Mija stops him? Up until the point with K, Jay had been established as a person who did not act brashly like that, especially against and animal that he saw being raped and tortured. This is what I mean by poor characterization. When they can’t keep one of their titular characters IC, what’s even the point?

Speaking of titular character, let’s talk about Lucy. Aside from Mija, I think we got the best performance and characterization from Lucy. We got to know her motivations and insecurities throughout the film, which is why I can’t fucking fathom why they toss her aside to shoehorn in her sister as the titular villain. Oh wait, yes I can. Because without Nancy taking Lucy’s place as the villain at the very end we would have had no reason for the gratuitous slaughter house showdown. 

Why the filmmakers thought it was a good idea to bring in Nancy is beyond me. We spend almost the entire film with Lucy telling us how horrible and barbaric Nancy is, and once she’s introduced, BAM, she’s exactly that. No intrigue if Lucy’s perception of her sister is a bit biased. No investment to ‘beating’ Nancy like there was with Lucy. No. She was just there. 

Bong Joon-ho said in an interview that he scrapped the first ending of the film (where all the pigs in the slaughterhouse would be set free) because he’s too much of a realist and it would be too-Disney. Idk what is more Disney that the Nacy style of villain to be honest?

Lastly, let’s talk about Mija. Honestly, I found her performance to be the best out of everyone. Not surprising considering she is the lead, but there are still parts that are lacking. For one, while Mija’s single-minded determination to find Okja is fantastic to see, her poker face and steadfast gaze gets repetitive after a while. I would have loved to see more emotional scenes with her like when she was on the mountain (both in the beginning and end).

Speaking of emotions, why oh WHY, is this film allergic to even giving Mija’s close-up shots? You know what would have REALLY driven the emotional impact of Mija and Okja’s reuion? A fucking shot of Mija’s face as she realises how Okja has changed. OR when Jenifer not-so-subtly threatens Okja to get Mija to cooperate? Would have been nice.

What makes me the saddest is the missed opportunity during the slaughter-house showdown. Mija ‘celverly’ uses the golden pig to buy Okja (because who didn’t see that coming the minute she put it in her fanny pack?), but we’ve already seen how that pig means nothing to her from when she slams to the ground in the beginning. Her giving it up to Nancy carries no emotional weight and is honestly a poor climatic solution. Of course, it feeds into the message of corporate greed I spoke about before, but as I also said, it is at the expense of actual deep, emotional impact from Mija as she finally finally gets Okja back. I got more satisfaction from all the times Mija screams, “Okja-ya!!” 

Mixed Messages I really don’t think this film knows where to go with its final message. We’ve got the Homeward Bound or Fox and the Hound theme of best friends doing anything for one another and to get back home. Then we’ve got Lucy and later Nancy with the corporate greed, anti-capitalism side. THEN we have the animal rights theme being pushed quite heavy-handedly in the most grotesque scenes. And of course it introduces the ethics of science before forgetting it altogether. 

The problem is, this film was not great about balancing these issues in a way that didn’t make it seem like even the film didn’t know what it was going for. 

Furthermore, from what I’ve read in the Okja tag it seems like many people have chomped into the animal rights theme and refuse to let go. While I think the handling of the various themes could have been handled a lot better, it is no better to dismiss the other messages. Many people seem to mistakenly label the film as pro-Vegan and say they will stop eating meat after seeing the film. This is a perversion of the intent if I’ve ever seen one. While the film tries to shed a light on the horrible conditions of mass produced meat, it does not try to preach that all meat is bad. (Mija and her grandfather are farmers for christ’s sakes) I think many people are forgetting the beginning of the film where Mija has Okja catch a fish for her to make into stew? Or when her grandfather makes her “favorite” chicken stew?

Instead of stopping at the simple solution of “don’t eat meat” we need to delve further into what makes something have enough ethic to pass the standard of consumption (even as Silver mumbles about when refusing to eat a tomato). Of course, that is not an easy conversation to have because it inevitably will lead to a conversation about economic disparity and whom has access to a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle. I don’t have the time to go into that here so I’ll just leave it at that.

Loose Ends Boy howdy are there a lot of them.

Why happened to Lucy after her sister says they won’t help her with legal fees? What happened to Wilcox? Why are Nancy and Frank even in cahoots? Why did none of the people watching a drunk Wilcox harvest from Okja stop him when we know Okja was not supposed to be harmed? Who the hell even were those people? How long was Okja in the lab? What caused her to go all rampage-y? Who the fuck where those three taste-testers and why did they take up valuable screen time? Who is K’s doctor friend? Hello Ms. Conveienient Plot Device? How are Jay and K able to break into Mirando’s slaughter-house with relative ease but not their lab? If they expected to get caught why even bring Mija? So she could say goodbye to Okja before she’s killed?

The question that is most important to me:

WHY DID WE NEVER REVISIT OKJA BEING AN ACTUALLY INTELLIGENT CREATURE?? LIKE, SHE SAVED MIJA FROM THE CLIFF AND SPENDS THE REST OF THE FILM ONLY REACTING TO WHEN MIJA CALLS HER NAME??? MY IDIOT CAT DOES THAT.

I’m sure there’s more that I could pick out if I watched the film again.

Tonal Issues My biggest gripe with the whole fucking movie was its tone issues. There was even one point I said to myself, “Oh, we’re not supposed to take this seriously, it's just a good-time film.” This, of course, was before the dark second half.

I’ve seen some people praise the film for being seamless in its transition from fart jokes to serious commentary, but I’d like to ask what about it was possibly seamless? I would have gotten whiplash it the tone was any more sporadic.

Furthermore, the ‘serious’ bits were mostly those with ‘graphic’ imagery like the rape scene or the whole slaughterhouse. I found the Wilcox and Okja scene was actually one of the better scenes, but it on top of the gratuitous rape scene ended up just feeling like bad torture porn. The Wilcox scene on its own would have stood up much better as it is a human doing the evil deeds, not another animal. That carries more emotional weight for Okja whom has never met another mutant pig.

The ALF and Mirando specifically suffer from tone issues and I have more to say about all of these problems, but I’ve already talked for long enough.