Okja (2017)

This terrific tale of a Korean girl protecting her hippo-size pet pig from the corporation that bred it was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes and went straight to Netflix, its producer. An Seo Hyun (also known as Seo-Hyn Ahn and Seo-hyeon Ahn) is 13 and wonderful as Mija (not her first gig but new to me). Among the large cast we have Tilda Swinton (last blogged for Doctor Strange), Paul Dano (most recently in Youth), Jake Gyllenhaal (last blogged for White House Down, though it was three years before Nocturnal Animals) in a comic/manic role, and Giancarlo Esposito (has been working on screens since age 8 and some of my favorites of his work are Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Night on Earth (1991), 22 episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street (1998-99), Ali (2001) as Cassius Clay Sr., Sherrybaby (2006), 26 episodes of Breaking Bad (2009-11), Rabbit Hole, the voice of Akela in The Jungle Book, Money Monster, nine episodes of Better Call Saul (2017), and narrator in ten of Dear White People, a Netflix series streaming now) the low-key opposite.

Director/co-writer Bong Joon-Ho (has returned to the traditional Korean practice of placing his surname first for this project, unlike in his last one Snowpiercer) and co-writer Jon Ronson (wrote the "inspiration" novel for The Men Who Stare at Goats and makes his feature screenwriting debut here) bring us an indictment of corporate greed and narcissism wrapped in this often funny story that's rated TV-MA (13+) for violence against animals, one riot, and language.

The beautiful photography, especially in the Korean mountains, is thanks to cinematographer Darius Khondji (last shot Irrational Man), masterfully combined with computer graphics of the huge animal who has many dog-like characteristics.

Music credits go to Jaeil Jung and Jemma Burns, both in their feature debuts as composers, though Burns has had dozens of music supervisor jobs. This video, in two parts, shows Jung performing over 20 minutes of the Okja soundtrack.

The movie is in English and Korean with subtitles and closed captions in English are available for all dialogue and do not repeat or block the subtitles. There's one instance of intentional mistranslation, which would be missed by anyone not fluent in both English and Korean, covered in goofs.

Now that Netflix allows members to temporarily download content, I had originally planned to watch this on a cross-country flight, but decided in the first few minutes that I'd want to savor its images and music (I finished the season of House of Cards on the plane instead). So Jack and I enjoyed it in our home theatre last weekend.

It's doing well on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics averaging 85% and audiences at 83. Stick around or fast forward through the credits because there's an entire scene at the end.