MovieChat Forums > Okja (2017) Discussion > unamazed, but amazed...

unamazed, but amazed...

posted 7 years ago by Renovatio (2990)
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Unamazing, but amazed... (mini spoilers ahead)...

First, the unamazing...

The movie shamelessless panders to the audience, assuming that we fully embrace it's ideology and when there is doubt about that it focuses on the sentimentality of the girl and her pet "super" pig... in a way, it mirrors the CEO character's (lucy?) attempts at rebranding her company... more than a little cynical... it's made for us to congratulate ourselves for not being "super" pig eaters and molesters... really?!

... there are only few moments where you kinda, sorta see beyond the idiology... the abrupt violence that the zealot ALF leader visits on his soon-to-be former comrade is one of the few moments of authenticity, the other being the new CEO's (Nancy?) trade with Mija to exchange the "super" pig for gold... Authentic moment...

The animal breading scene was absurd... are we really supposed to think of that as abhorent? What do you think happens in the wild with none GMO animals? Do they ask for consent? ... I think the movie relies far too much on us anthropomorphising the "super" pig, to think of it as human and to out ourselves in it's place, but with our morality and emotional life... I guess for generations raised on Disney this is ingrained now, in a Pavlovian way...

The part where I'm amazed...

I think the Korean setting and exoticness of it coupled with the "Super" pig branding and well done CGI hides how banal this movie is... the spectacle... if it was a midwestern girl and her pet GMO cow, I think people would see how uninspired the story is and maybe we'd see beyond the spectacle and recognise that we haven't been moved emotionally, just sensory stimulation with a few sprinklings of empty sentimentality... even though the execution is solid with such a skillful filmmaker and top class cast... BUT, I think the director knows this, the central event of his movie revolves around a spectacle, a mass marketing event, a propaganda engineered to sell the idea of "super" pigs as superfood through spectacle... The movie itelf is a super pig pageant, and we're like the onlookers, smiling, grinning, just along fornthe ride enjoying a day out in the sun...

I'm amazed that people aren't assessing this movie more critically, because without seeing it's shortcomings we can't truly appreciate what it does well... how self aware and calculating it is even at the micro-level, every side character and main character is this way apart from the innocent Mija, the avatar for the audience...

A good movie overall, certainly one worth checking out and thinking about, I just wished critics were more up to the task instead of being simple cheerleaders...

[–] samoanjoes (50634) 6 years ago

With regards to your unamazed part, while I agree that it expects you to be on the same page as them, I consider it more like they're telling us there are better ways to handle it. It was really more of a greedy corporation that they were trying to point out was the problem, rather than if you eat meat, you're evil.

[–] deputydev (3) 6 years ago

I'm not sure what's so wrong with being concise and deliberate when creating a movie. It's true at the macro level Bong Joon Ho was making a sci-fi adventure but that doesn't mean he needs to water down the movie at the micro level. The dialogue invited us into the perspective. You mentioned that the story only holds emotional merit because it covers a young Korean girl with a CGI pig. There have been heaps of movies made that are grounded in real-life dialogues; young farm girls (or boys) forming bonds with animals in their care. It's refreshing to see the story with fresh faces. The story of big business and exploitation agains the environment is always a story worth telling. Even Tilda Swinton's first character portrayal, Lucy, is at the mercy of big corporation and mass production. It's less about eating animals and more about the gross over manufacturing of animals. When documentaries take on the narrative the only people watching are the people that are already on board. What a gift that the conversation can be opened up to other mediums. We should all be slapped in the face with this information. Do a little research on where your food comes from and you'll be scared to eat your next meal. Or perhaps it is prudent and evolutionary for us to keep our heads in the sand or we will starve.