Okja (South Korea/USA: Bong Joon-Ho, 2017)

 

 Okja (South Korea/USA: Bong Joon-Ho, 2017: 120 mins)

"Bong Joon-ho (Ongoing Filmmaker Archive." Dialogic Cinephilia (October 4, 2023)

Booker, M. Keith. "OKJA (2017, Director Bong Joon-Ho)." Comments on Culture (2019)

Camia, Giovanni Marchini. "Okja is an Intelligent, Ambitious Blockbuster." The Film Stage (May 20, 2017)

Jones, Matthew. "The Case for Animal Rights: A Defense of Tom Regan." Philosophy in Film (October 24, 2020) [On Tom Regan's 1987 book The Case for Animal Rights and Bong Joon-Ho's 2017 film Okja.]

Taubin, Amy. "Free Range." Film Comment (July/August 2017) ["With Okja, Bong Joon Ho creates his most dramatically protean adventure yet—a work of interspecies friendship, galloping satire, and monstrous truths."]

Tsui, Curtis. "The Evolution of a 'Superpig': Designing Okja, from Start to Finish." The Current (July 14, 2022) ["A tale about a girl’s bond with her beloved “superpig”—an animal she must eventually rescue from the clutches of the evil corporation that genetically engineered her—Okja provided a new challenge: its shy titular creature needed to be a source of affection, not fear, inviting touching and cuddling while also maintaining a massive heft that would prove attractive to the greedy food industry. And because of the real-world setting of the film, which moves from the tranquility of the South Korean mountains to the commotion of New York City, Okja would need to seem plausibly realistic, yet also unlike anything existing in nature. The following images chart the evolution of the creature, as Bong and Jang tackled initial design concepts, incorporated feedback from collaborators, and continued to refine details until they arrived at the lovable superpig we see on-screen."]