So the other night I decided I would watch a movie with the girlfriend. If you don't know my girlfriend you probably don't know she had a dog that was her best friend for years. Eventually, the dog "Fatty" got cancer and had to be put to sleep. This all happened to her very quickly giving her almost no time to say good bye. She was told by the vet on the spot and she grabbed her dog and ran out the door. Her family had to chase her down and convince her it was for the best.
This was before we were together but from knowing her I know one thing, she loved that dog and it was basically ripped from her life. Anytime we see a bulldog in public she tears up, when life gets tuff she turns to memories of her beloved fatty, it is constantly eating away at her.
So now that you know the sensitivity level of who I was sitting down to watch this movie with I will explain what this movie was like.
So, we find this movie by its huge advertisement on Netflix. The cover looks a lot like something that would stem from the hunger games, so we decide to watch a trailer. Well I should have payed more attention to the trailer, but I assume I'm a lot like other people and don't want to ruin the plot for myself, so I usually watch the first 30 seconds of a trailer to get an idea of dialogue, cinematography quality, and maybe who stars in a film before watching.
In this case, if I would have watched the entire trailer it would have saved me from hearing my girlfriend cry on our movie night.
In this movie you will see a child's pet and best friend get raped from behind until its eye's go bloodshot
So let's set this thing up.
The movie is set far in the future where a large corporation has got a bad image for not being friendly to nature. It was being run by one sister played by Tilda Swinton, as another steps also played by Tilda Swinton to change the company's image. They talk about how they are starting a world wide contest by genetically modifying super pigs and giving them to small communities around the world. They make a reality tv show out of this where they go around for 10 years checking in on the health of the pigs and their story. The reality show host Johnny Wilcox is played by Jake Gyllenhaal. He has a very disturbing role as a mean short tempered animal harming show host.
Fast forward to the star of the show and her pig.
The young Asian girl Mija is played by Seo-Hyun Ahn, and she is probably the most adorable child actor I have ever seen, I'm sure this is by design. You watch as the girl at the start of the movie falls in love with this super pig (who is terribly adorable by the way) and she falls asleep on its belly in the middle of the forest. You can tell instantly that she has a close relationship with this pig and treasures its friendship over everything else in her life.
Eventually the corporation decides the 10 years is up and returns to take the pigs. Mija has no clue as they arive her grandfather takes her off in the woods to give her a small brick of gold in the shape of a pig as a sorry for not telling her that the pig was going to be taken while they were gone. He stated that he tried to buy the super pig but they wouldn't sale it so he's giving her the gold as an apology.
When the girl returns the pig is gone, she runs down the side of a mountain and runs until nightfall looking for her bestfriend. t nightfall she returns and gears up to go into Soul Korea to rescue the pig before it's shipped off to New Jersey. This is when she meets some people from the Animal Liberation Front who actually help the bad guys capture her OKJA. They want to attach a camera to uncover the terrible acts and stop more pigs from being killed.
In this process, Mija has to go to America where on a big screen as she rescues her pig she has to see the things they did to it when the camera was rolling. You see the pig get raped, poked and proded, then the pig acts as if it's broken and doesn't recognize Mija anymore. This is probably the most heartbreaking part of the entire film with the exception of one of the last scenes.
They end up going to a processing plant where they have a final outcry to save OKJA from being turned into food, as they rescue OKJA another super pig family shoves their baby super pig through an electric fence shocking the baby pig but saving it from slaughter. Okja hides the baby pig in it's mouth as they escape and it's parents look on in shock as they see their child one last time before it's gone and they go off to slaughter.
It ends briefly after this, leaving you wondering where the happiness is in this film, it's depressing from the start, it's sad through the middle, and ends moments after you watch a baby ripped from it's parents.
I'm listing a few reasons not to watch this film.
- It's super sad
- it doesn't resolve much
- it's a huge vegetarian propaganda film (not that there's anything wrong with being vegan or vegetarian)
- it misleads you into thinking that everything will be ok at the end of the movie
- it has rape in it
- it has people beating animals
Despite all of that if you still wish to watch the film Im sure you will find something in it you like, it will touch you, it will probably make you cry.
My personal opinion is a little different because of what my girlfriend has gone through and how bad it messed her up emotionally for a few days. I wish it would have had a better ending making people feel better, but it's clear that its intentions were to make people re-think where the source of their food comes from, and what their food goes through.
I agree it has a positive side in that, however the overwhelming sadness that proceeds it is almost a counter to the emotional effect and social action it begs to have take place.
Thanks Brad Pitt & Netflix for messing me up more than Ren & Stimpy already did.
Hope you enjoyed the read and I didn't ruin the film for you.
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