Okja (2017)

Director: Joon-ho Bong
Writers: Joon-ho Bong, Jon Ronson
DOP: Darius Khondji
Cast: Ahn Seo-hyun, Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Jake Gyllenhaal
Language: English, Korean

The film begins with the launch of a super pig competition by the multinational food company 'Miranda Corporation' led by Tilda Swinton. Competition involves sending out 26 super baby pigs to different parts of the world and judging them after ten years. One of those pigs is Okja, raised in Korean mountains by Mija. Film follows the story ten years later as the company is trying to take away Okja back to United States for its competition's finale.

Director's previous English language film 'Snowpiercer' was a surprise hit where Tilda Swinton played a very hammy character. She continues in the same mould in this one as well and there is Jake Gyllenhaal giving her company by taking it to 11. Film takes a while to get going as there is a thirty minutes or so of setup to show the relationship between Okja and Mija. The CGIed super pig is convincing. Things starts get going when Mija reaches Seoul after the company takes her pig away. We are also introduced to the hilarious animal rights activists led by Paul Dano's character. The film takes several tonal shifts throughout  and quite successfully. Comedy in it works very well and the ending portion of the film could come off as Vegan propaganda. I wouldn't strictly call it that as it is more about the practices of Monsanto like companies rather than being a Vegan advocacy film. For many people, animal rights begin and ends with their pets. In India it is largely restricted to the rights of Cows for so-called religious/Muslim baiting reasons and of Stray dogs because some people take man's best friend title too seriously. The film also end in that vein with Mija being concerned only about her pet Okja

It is a great watch overall and I enjoyed it even more than Snowpiercer. I had recently viewed 'The Bad Batch' through the Vegetarian prism and it can be put as a counter-piece to Okja. Okja was produced and released by Netflix and it created controversy at the Cannes where it premiered. People at the Cannes have decided to not admit films that don't have a sufficient theatrical release window from next year. I think its a shame as studios are largely restricting themselves to the franchise model of shitty reboots, sequels and prequels and alternate means like Netflix are funding original films these days.

Rating: 4/5

Salinui chueok (Memories of Murder) (2003)

Director: Joon-ho Bong
Writers:  Joon-ho Bong, Kwang-rim Kim, Shim Sung-bo
Cast:       Kang-ho Song, Sang-kyung Kim, Roe-ha Kim
Language:Korean

Film is based on the true story of South Korea's first known serial murders, which took place between 1986 and 1991 in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi province. The film follows two detectives who are trying to solve the crimes.

Quentin Tarantino had included this film in his top twenty films since 1992 (Reservoir Dogs). I recently saw Joon-ho Bong's futuristic sci-fi action film Snowpiercer which was a great watch with some over the top action and concepts but in an extremely enjoyable way. When a foreign director does a film in a language foreign to him you don't expect much subtlety which was the case with Snowpiercer. I was expecting Memories of Murder to be much more of a brooding thriller considering the subject matter but it is done with some deadpan humor especially at the beginning. As the film progresses it sheds that style and become much more about how the investigation is affecting the two detectives. Some of it is quite camp with the line uttered by the more sophisticated detective from Seoul becoming from 'Document is the truth' at the start of the investigation to 'Document is a lie' by the end. Some of that might be a case of lost in translation and it is quite a great watch. 

Obvious comparison is to be made with David Fincher's 'Zodiac' which came later in 2007. The endings are similar and both are based on true stories. Don't know whether the Korean film influenced Fincher film in any way but Zodiac is much more of a character study done with much more subtlety.  But Memories of Murder is much more fast paced and both films have their own place.

Rating: 4/5

Snowpiercer (2013)

Director: Joon-ho Bong
Writers:  Joon-ho Bong, Kelly Masterson, Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand, Jean-Marc Rochette
Cast:      Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, John Hurt, Tilda Swinton

A failed experiment to combat global warming leads to the planet going frozen with the only survivors being the ones in a train (snowpiercer) that travels around the globe via a perpetual-motion engine. A class system is evolved in it and there is always a simmering tension leading to failed revolutions and the film depicts the latest one led by Curtis (Chris Evans). 

One will be reminded of Matrix, Orwellian novels like 1984 & Animal Farm, Brave New World etc while watching it. It is an adaptation of French graphic novel 'Le Transperceneige' and is produced by Korean Investments Corporation along with others. Park-Chan Wook also served as an executive producer. 

It explores the ideas of social class system, God, Nature, Nazism and social order. One might think that it suffers from not having a well known actor in the lead role but I think it is intentional keeping in mind the twist at the end. Didn't realize it was Tilda Swinton playing the role of Mason, the minister, until the end credits rolled. She steals the show playing this character which would remind people of Margaret Thatcher. In two hours Joon-ho Bong achieves much more than Matrix trilogy in its entirety could. It doesn't have revolutionary action sequences and coupled with the dark nature of its theme it might not do well at the box office.

Rating: 4.5/5