MICKEY 17 : Tuesday 11th March 2025.

I saw the M Rated 'MICKEY 17' earlier this week and this Sci-Fi black comedy film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Bong Joon-ho, whose prior feature film credits take in his debut with 'Barking Dogs Never Bite' in 2000 and then the likes of 'The Host' in 2006, 'Mother' in 2009, 'Snowpiercer' in 2013 his English language debut, 'Okja' in 2017 and the critically lauded and multi-award winning 'Parasite' in  2019. This film is based on the 2022 novel 'Mickey7' by Edward Ashton, and saw its World Premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in mid-February, before being theatrically released in South Korea on 28th February and later Stateside and here in Australia last week. It has garnered generally favourable critical reviews, and has so far grossed US$59M from a production budget of US$118M. 

It is 2054, and Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) and his best friend Timo (Steven Yeun) are financially well and truly broke after a failed business venture that saw them borrowing money to open up a chain of macaron stores. Unable to repay a murderous loan shark, the pair decide to flee Earth by signing up as crew for a spaceship that leaves our little blue planet to colonise the planet Niflheim, a journey that will take them four-and-a half years. Timo signs up as a shuttle pilot and Mickey as the spaceship's only 'Expendable'. Using Earth-banned technology to clone Mickey and restore his memories, Mickey is treated as disposable, given lethal assignments that mere mortals would never dare contemplate, and then reprinted after death - time after time after time. 

During the voyage, a romance develops between Mickey and security agent Nasha (Naomi Ackie). Some four years pass and the spaceship eventually arrives at snow bound and wintery Niflheim. Using Mickeys 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 the spaceship's scientists finally develop a vaccine against Niflheim's air borne pathogens. Mickey 17, the seventeenth version of Mickey, is given the task of capturing one of the planets giant woodlice-like alien creatures (termed 'creepers') for scientific analysis. In doing so, he falls into a deep fissure in the ice, beyond the reach of Timo, who leaves and reports Mickey 17's death. However, the creepers arrive en masse and collectively push Mickey 17 out of the fissure, for him to return almost unscathed to the spaceship.

Mickey 17 returns to the spaceship, cleans himself up and flops on to his bed only to be greeted by the very recently printed Mickey 18 (Robert Pattinson), who is much more confident and aggressive. As the expedition's leader, twice failed politician Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), has vowed to kill any 'Multiples' (simultaneously living clones), Mickey 18 tries to kill Mickey 17, who resists and is then interrupted by Timo. Mickey 18 then tries to kill Timo, but is interrupted and leaves with Nasha, who believes she is leaving with Mickey 17. Mickey 17 in the meantime is brought to dinner with Marshall, his wife Ylfa (Toni Colette), and security guard Kai Katz (Anamaria Vartolomei). Mickey 17 suffers severe pain after being served experimental meat and being treated with experimental painkillers. Kai intervenes to stop Marshall from putting a bullet in his head. Kai later woos Mickey 17, who flees.

Nasha learns of the Mickeys and accepts them both. When Mickey 17 tells Mickey 18 what happened over dinner with the Marshall's, an enraged Mickey 18 decides to kill Marshall at a public ceremony commemorating a huge chunk of Niflheim rock. Chaos ensues when two baby creepers emerge from the rock that had just moments before been lasered in half. Mickey 17 arrives and captures creeper Zoco, but creeper Luko jumps onto Marshall and is shot to pieces by Kai and other security agents. Nasha stops Mickey 18 from killing Marshall, who discovers the Multiples. Mickey 17, Mickey 18 and Nasha are arrested, and locked up. Thousands of creepers arrive outside the ship, calling out to Zoco.

Locked up in their respective cells Mickey 17's description of the creepers helping him escape from the fissure makes Nasha realise they are not hostile. Timo tries to kill Mickey 17 to satisfy the loan shark who has seemingly caught up with him even on Niflheim, but Nasha and Mickey 18 overpower him. The Mickeys and Nasha are brought to Marshall, who wants to exterminate all the creepers. Marshall destroys Mickey's stored memories, while Nasha saves Zoco from being executed by Ylfa. Marshall's assistant Preston (Daniel Henshall) persuades Marshall to task the Mickeys to compete in collecting creeper tails, which Ylfa wants one hundred of for making edible sauce, with the winner being allowed to live. The Mickeys are forced to wear remote-detonated bomb vests to ensure they comply with the instructions.

When the Mickeys are sent out into the frozen snow-bound wasteland surrounding the ship, they peacefully seek out the creepers' leader, which prompts Marshall to go outside himself with a security team and Preston ready to film the unfolding events for a live broadcast, and with the intention of personally killing all the creepers. Using a translation device manufactured by sympathetic scientist Dorothy (Patsy Ferran), Mickey 17 communicates with the creepers' leader, informing on Marshall's plan. The creepers' leader threatens to kill all humans, unless Zoco is returned alive and one human is killed to compensate for Luko's death.

Mickey 17 tells Nasha via camera to free Zoco. Nasha takes Ylfa hostage to ensure Zoco's release. Nasha releases Ylfa, who tries to kill Zoco, but Nasha again saves him. The security agents arrest Ylfa. Nasha returns Zoco to the creepers' leader, while Mickey 18 fights Marshall and detonates the bomb planted on his vest, killing himself and Marshall to fulfil the demand by the creepers' leader. Afterwards Ylfa commits suicide in a psychiatric ward, while Preston and other Marshall collaborators are imprisoned. An associate of the loan shark tries to kill Timo, but Timo manages to kill him. Nasha is later elected as a colony political leader. She presides over a groundbreaking ceremony on Niflheim where it is now spring time, where Mickey 17 (now to be known as 'Mickey Barnes') detonates the cloning device to symbolically end the Expendable programme, but not before he had a vision of a reprinted Ylfa and Marshall.

Director, Producer and Writer Bong Joon-ho has here delivered us a darkly comedic Sci-Fi satire set in the near future on some distant planet far far away that is a times absurdist, thought provoking, a social commentary, and an environmental essay while exploring the class divide and providing us with a bit of a creature feature too along the way. Robert Pattinson gives possibly a career best performance as the various Mickey's, ably supported by a scene chewing Mark Ruffalo channeling a certain POTUS and an equally on point Toni Collette serving up his unhinged yet domineering sauce loving wife. Visually the film looks the part too, but the plot meanders along and it overstays its welcome just a tad at a 137 minute run time, and I came out of the movie theatre feeling a little 'meh'!

'Mickey 17' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

NOPE : Tuesday 16th August 2022.

I saw 'NOPE' earlier this week and this eagerly awaited highly anticipated M Rated American Sci-Fi horror film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Jordan Peele whose two previous film making outings were the highly acclaimed 'Get Out' in 2017 and 'Us' in 2019. The film saw its World Premier showcasing in Los Angeles on 18th July, was released Stateside on 22nd July and here in Australia on 11th August having so far grossed US$117M from its production budget of US$68M and has garnered generally positive critical reviews. The films title was rumoured to be an acronym for 'Not Of Planet Earth' or 'Not Our Planet Earth' based on the movie poster, but Peele later revealed that the title speaks to the reaction he hoped to garner from audiences.

The film opens up with a short clip of the popular 1998 TV sitcom 'Gordy's Home' being recorded on a  soundstage before the titular chimpanzee animal actor (Terry Notary) attacks several of its human co-stars after being startled when a balloon bursts on set. We later see the full extent of the attack in flashback as the show's youngest actor, Ricky 'Jupe' Park (Jacob King), cowers under a table and watches the bloodbath unfold but is unharmed, though naturally traumatised by the experience. The chimp finds Jupe and extends his bloodied hand for a fist bump, before being shot dead by authorities.

We then fast forward to the the present day, and ranch owner Otis Haywood Sr. (Keith David) trains and handles horses for Hollywood film and TV productions, under the name of Haywood's Hollywood Horses Ranch. One bright sunny day he is out riding one of his horses, Ghost, and is killed by a quarter coin that pierces his eye and lodges in his brain that seemed to fall inexplicably from the sky. His adult children Otis Jr. - 'OJ' (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald 'Em' (Keke Palmer) inherit the ranch. OJ tries to keep the business afloat and protect his father's legacy, while Em seeks fame and fortune in Hollywood, and is happy to sell up. 

Some six months later, while filming a TV commercial with well known and highly regarded cinematographer Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott), one of the horses reacts violently when a crew member startles it suddenly, resulting in the Haywoods being fired from the project. The ranch's financial situation begins to worsen and OJ is forced into selling several of his horses to the now adult Jupe (Steven Yuen), who owns and operates the nearby 'Jupiter's Claim', a small Western theme park and neighbour of the Haywood's, where he exploits his story of the 'Gordy's Home' attack for profit. Jupe offers to buy the ranch from the Haywood's, an offer which Em encourages OJ to accept.

Later the Haywood's notice their electricity supply fluctuating, the mobile phones cutting out and their horses vanishing and violently reacting to a seemingly unknown presence. OJ is the first to see in the clouds above the ranch an unidentified flying object shaped like a flying saucer that has been swallowing up their horses and spitting out any inorganic material, which caused their father's death. Motivated by a desire for wealth and fame, the siblings decide to document evidence of the UFO's existence, and engage Fry's Electronics (a big box consumer electronics store) employee Angel Torres (Brandon Perea) to set up surveillance cameras around the property, all pointing up towards the sky. One night while monitoring the night sky, more electrical interference and a praying mantis on one of the cameras prevent them from securing any clear footage. The next day as Angel secretly monitors the footage from his workplace he observes a nearby cloud that never moves. He rushes over to the ranch with his video footage and together they draw the conclusion that this is the place where the UFO is hiding. 

Jupe starts up a new live show, the 'Star Lasso Experience' in Jupiter's Claim and plans to use a horse, Lucky, as bait to entice the UFO, having previously fed it the horses he had bought from the Haywoods. In front of an audience of about forty made up of  his staff and paying guests, he says that for a number of consecutive Friday evenings at 6:13pm the UFO manifests itself from the skies above. The UFO duly arrives about a hour early and quickly devours Jupe and the whole audience. OJ draws the conclusion that the UFO is not a spaceship, but a predatory, territorial creature which eats anything that looks directly at it. Utilising similar methods to those used to break and train horses, OJ believes they can influence the creature's behaviour to capture footage of it without being killed themselves. They call the creature 'Jean Jacket' after the first horse that Em learned to ride, and they then decide to hire Holst for assistance. Holst initially refuses, but eventually reconsiders after hearing about the Jupiter's Claim incident broadcast on national news that has the Police and authorities baffled as to how forty or so people can just disappear en masse. 

To avoid Jean Jacket's adverse effects on electronics, Holst brings a hand-cranked IMAX film camera to capture footage. With Angel, the group of four hatch a plan to bait Jean Jacket and watch a field of inflatable scattered tube men props for electrical malfunctions to deduce its location in the sky above the ranch. However, a TMZ reporter trespasses onto the ranch and despite being asked to turn around and go back from whence he came by Em he continues onward with his own hand held camera. He is thrown from his electric motorbike when it suddenly powers down within close proximity to Jean Jacket. He in turn is devoured by Jean Jacket while laying injured on the ground but not before begging OJ to film the event. OJ rides off from the scene on Lucky. Though Holst captures footage of Jean Jacket, he lets himself be eaten along with his smaller hand held hand cranked camera, forcing the remaining three to flee. Angel survives an attack from Jean Jacket by wrapping himself in a tarp and binding it with barbed wire, causing the creature to unfurl from its saucer shape and into something more resembling a jellyfish.

OJ lures Jean Jacket away from Em, while she rushes to Jupiter's Claim on the downed motorbike immobilised by the TMZ reporter, and untethers its giant balloon cowboy mascot. She uses an attraction's analog camera located in a wishing well to photograph Jean Jacket as it flies directly overhead and attempts to consume the balloon, which then explodes seemingly killing it. With the picture as proof of the creature's existence and reporters pulling up, Em sees an unharmed OJ ride to Jupiter's Claim on Lucky. 

'Nope' is Jordan Peele's third feature film making outing and here once again he doesn't disappoint, providing the viewer with a mash up of Sci-Fi, horror and Western genres that when combined offer a film that is bigger than the sum of its parts. It is action spectacle writ large with stunning cinematography, just the right amount of humour, a cast on its A-game, and a thrill and chill ride that will maintain the attention throughout its 135 minute run time that never leaves you wanting. The film is entertaining, fun and offers up a few well placed jump scares, despite the ending feeling rushed toward and leaving a number of questions unanswered. For me, 'Nope' gets a resounding Yep!

'Nope' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

MINARI : Tuesday 2nd March 2021.

'MINARI' which I saw earlier this week, is a PG Rated American drama film Written and Directed by Lee Isaac Chung whose previous feature film credits are 'Munyurangabo', 'Lucky Life', 'Abigail Harm' and the documentary 'I Have Seen My Last Born'. The film saw its World Premiere showcasing at the Sundance Film Festival at the end of January 2020, winning both the US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the US Dramatic Audience Award, and in the meantime has collected sixty-seven award wins and a further 161 nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit including three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, ten Critics' Choice Movie Award nominations, six Independent Spirit Award nominations, and the recently announced Golden Globe Award win for Best Foreign Language Film. Needless to say the film has been universally acclaimed, cost US$2M to produce and has so far returned US$737K since its release in the US on 12th February and here in Australia on 18th February.

Set during the 1980's the Korean American Yi family moves from California to a rural plot of fifty acres in Arkansas in search of their own American Dream. Arriving at the new home is husband and father Jacob Yi (Steven Yeun), his wife and mother Monica (Han Ye-ri), older daughter Anne (Noel Kate Cho) and younger son David (Alan Kim). Although Jacob has visited the property before, this is the first time that the other family members have clapped eyes on the place, and suffice to say there are none too pleased with the sight that greets them. There new home in the Ozarks hinterland is a mobile home propped up on wheels that seems to be a far cry from the comforts they enjoyed in California. But nonetheless Jacob is determined to make a go of it and live off the land, by cultivating Korean crops which he will sell to markets and shops in Dallas to sustain the 40,000 or so Korean immigrants to America every year. 

One of the early decisions Jacob makes is to pass on the services of a water diviner for the sum of US$300 and so he digs a well in a spot he finds on his own. Next up he enlists the help of Paul (Will Patton), a local man who sells him a tractor for US$2,000 and who is also deeply religious. While Jacob is optimistic about the family's future prospects, Monica is disappointed and worries about David's heart condition. David is constantly told not to run for fear of worsening the condition. The husband and wife team work sexing chicks at a nearby hatchery and argue a lot while David and Anne listen in from their bedrooms. 

To help mind the children throughout the day, they arrange for Monica's mother Soon-ja (Youn Yuh-jung) to travel from Korea to live with them. David, who only meets his grandmother for the first time, is forced to share his bedroom with her, and he goes out of his way to avoid her because she does not conform to his idea of how a grandmother should be - she swears a lot, doesn't bake cookies and smells are just some of his complaints. That said, Soon-ja attempts to adjust to life in the US and bond with her grandchildren.

In the meantime, Jacob's crops are growing well and plentiful, although one day he notices that the drip irrigation lines have stopped running. The well that Jacob dug some months earlier had run dry. He is reluctant to pay for county water, but ultimately is forced to do so. He also encounters additional challenges, such as the vendor in Dallas cancelling their order just as he was about to dispatch it. Still, he perseveres despite Monica's repeated wishes to return to California. This puts extra strain on their marriage.
  

One day Soon-ja takes David out walking on the property, and they come to a stream where she says to the young boy that they should plant minari seeds by the waters edge. She tells them of how resilient and useful the plant is, and predicts plentiful growth, using the seeds that she brought over from Korea. David gradually starts to bond with his grandmother after she teaches him card games, bandages a wound to his foot, and gently strokes him to sleep. She also encourages him to be more physical, suggesting he run more even though his parents discourage any form of physical activity that would put undue pressure on his already fragile heart, saying that he is stronger than they think he is.

Soon-ja suffers a stroke one night and whilst she survives with the aid of medical treatment, she is left with impaired speech and movement. Jacob, Monica, David, and Anne travel to Oklahoma City for David's heart appointment with a specialist doctor and to meet with a potential vendor to sell Jacob's produce. They learn that David's heart condition has dramatically improved and Jacob makes a deal to sell vegetables to a Korean grocer, although Jacob also indirectly admits to Monica that the success of his crops is more important to him than the stability of their family, and if she wants to go back to California then she is free to do so, but without him, as he needs to finish what he started. Following an emotional argument, the pair quietly agree to go their separate ways.

While the family were in Oklahoma Soon-ja was left home alone, where she decided to have a clear out of the barn and burn the garbage, as was common practice. However, that evening while stoking the fire in an old oil drum, she accidentally sets the barn containing David's recently harvested crops on fire. Driving back in the dark Soon-ja comments that she smells smoke and there is a faint glow on the horizon. Upon arriving home to the burning barn, Jacob rushes in to save his crops, and Monica soon follows. Quickly the fire grows out of control, and they decide to save each other while leaving the barn and all of its produce to burn. A distraught and confused Soon-ja starts to wander off into the night, as Anne and David call for her to come back. As she does not responding to them, David breaks into a sprint to catch up with her, blocking her path. Soon-ja appears to recognise David for a moment, and reaches for his hand and the grandchildren lead her back home. Later, Jacob and Monica are with the water diviner who locates a position for a well. They mark it with a heavy stone noting their intention to remain on the farm. Jacob and David then head to the stream to harvest the minari, which had grown plentifully, with Jacob noting that Soon-ja picked a good place to plant the seeds.

'Minari' moves along at a slow lumbering pace with nothing really by way of story line other that what goes down in the daily lives of this immigrant family that have moved from Korea to California to rural Arkansas in search of the great American Dream - and do the get there? Well kind of I guess, but not without hardship and anguish along the way. This is hardly an uplifting film, although at the end there is some light at the end of the tunnel as the family seem to have reconciled themselves to their fate. The positives are the performances from the principle cast most notably young Alan Kim and the family matriarch Youn Yuh-jung who is not afraid to speak her mind, uses profanity, plays practical jokes and makes decisions in isolation of others no matter the consequences. The full range of human behaviour and emotions are on display here which adds depth and heart to the otherwise thin story, and a poignancy to Director Chung's autobiographical film of his own upbringing in rural Arkansas. 

'Minari' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

OKJA : Tuesday 4th July 2017

'OKJA' which I saw from the comfort of my own home last week, courtesy of Netflix which is the chosen method of releasing this film for South Korean Director, Screenwriter and Co-Producer Bong Joon-ho in only his second English language release following 2013's excellent 'Snowpiercer'. The film had its Australian Premier as the closing film for the recent Sydney Film Festival on 18th June, and was in official competition for the Palme d'Or at this years Cannes Film Festival, where it received a four minute standing ovation following screening. The film cost US$50M to make, was released on Netflix on 28th June, and has so far garnered largely positive Reviews.

And so to the story. The year is 2007 and we are greeted by new Mirando Corporation CEO Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton), addressing her team in a huge warehouse like building. She is reading from a teleprompter, as it seems that she has recently taken the reins of her fathers company of whom she speaks none to highly off, nor her grandfather either for that matter nor the company they created - manufacturers of napalm no less! She announces that her company has been breeding a 'superpig' - big enough to provide ample supply of food products, delicious to taste, environmentally sustainable, carbon neutral and not in the slightest genetically modified (as she knows that the population at large would not withstand that!). She further announces that the 26 best such superpigs have been sent to the locations around the world where Mirando have a corporate presence, and distributed to farms for their rearing over the next ten years. In 2017 the best of the best fully grown, healthiest pigs will be crowned an outright winner and attend a lavish ceremony in New York. All of this is a big PR exercise in an attempt to re-brand her company and shake off the shackles of her fathers and grandfathers legacy.

Fast forward to 2017, and on a remote farm high in the mountains of South Korea lives young teenager Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun) with her grandfather Heebong (Byun Hee-bong). They were chosen as one of the 26 farms with which to raise a superpig ten years ago, and since then Mija has been lovingly caring for Okja every single day. They have forged a certain bond over that time, an understanding of each other, and a dependence upon one another as both have grown over the ensuing decade.

One day, the time comes when Mija and Okja are visited by representatives form the Mirando Corporation for the purposes of judging the superpig in the 26 strong competition. They are visited at their mountain farm by a small group of representatives that include spokesperson and extroverted celebrity zoologist Dr. Johnny Wilcox (Jake Gyllenhaal, hamming it up and clearly loving it!). They quickly inspect Okja and announce that she is the outright winner and will take her to New York. Meanwhile Heebong takes Mija to the burial site of her parents, and says that he was unable to buy Okja from Mirando, and so his saved up money was invested in a solid gold pig which he presents to her. Devastated by this news Mija returns home only to see the Mirando truck driving away down the mountain side with Okja inside. She gives chase but the truck is too far in front. She returns to the farm, collects some essentials, and leaves for Seoul to the Mirando office there to track down Okja.

Upon arriving in Seoul Mija forces her way past the Mirando Offices security in her search for Okja. From a window above she looks down on Okja being roughly man-handled and secured inside a truck ultimately bound for NYC. As the truck leaves down the side streets Mija gives chase on foot eventually jumping onto the roof of the moving truck. As the truck enters a road tunnel, it is intercepted by another truck of the same size, containing masked and hooded members of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) who are seeking to liberate Okja from returning to the unscrupulous Mirando Corporation.

Okja is set free from the Mirando truck inside the tunnel with the intention of getting her inside the ALF truck, but chaos ensues as the panicked Okja goes on the rampage trashing several now parked up and backed up cars in the tunnel and frightening the bejeezus out of onlookers. The commotion continues out of the tunnel and down into a subway and a shopping precinct there where several shops come off worse for wear. However, the ALF come good and safely retrieve Okja and Mija before the armed authorities close in.

The ALF soon realise that Mija is Okja's owner, and leader of this ALF Group Jay (Paul Dano) tells her that their plan is to put a camera recording device in Okja's ear and let her be re-captured by the Mirando Corporation to show the world how brutally they treat their animals. In the meantime, social media coverage of Okja's rampage through Seoul has gone viral, and Lucy has to go into damage control with her company executive board members including her closest aide Frank Dawson (Giancarlo Esposito). Lucy hatches a plan to reunite Mija with Okja onstage in New York City so that the world can see what a loving, caring, sharing company Mirando really is. Meanwhile, at the test laboratory where Okja is taken she is forcibly bred with another superpig, and Johnny Wilcox extracts meat samples for testing purposes, all of which have a traumatic effect on the humble animal.

The day of the eagerly awaited carnival arrives and with it the revealing to an awaiting world of Okja as the competition winner, to be welcomed on stage by Mija, Lucy and Johnny. Mija has been tipped off by Jay in her hotel room that the ALF still plan on going ahead with liberating Okja while she is on stage and in front of a worldwide television and live audience. 

On stage Mija is reunited with Okja who heavily traumatised by her ordeals in the laboratory does not recognise the young girl and tries to attack her. More chaos ensues and the world watches on too as the ALF screen secretly filmed footage of Wilcox's mistreatment of Okja. The gathered crowd of onlookers soon turn against Johnny and Lucy, and in the ensuing fracas Jay, Mija and Okja and the other ALF Members - K (Steven Yeun), Red (Lily Collins), Blond (Daniel Henshall) and Silver (Devon Bostick) attempt to escape but are thwarted by armed heavies deployed by Nancy Mirando - sister of Lucy and former CEO of Mirando Corporation (also played by Tilda Swinton) who has been waiting in the wings for her sister to fail.

Okja is captured once again, and the held ALF members are beaten up, but Jay and K are able to escape. They take Mija to a huge slaughterhouse plant where they believe Okja will end up as various cuts of pre-packaged meat destined for the supermarket shelves. Eventually through the night time flood lights Mija sees Okja being led up a ramp and cattle prodded to be slaughtered. Finding entry into the slaughterhouse she sees many dead and butchered superpigs, hanging carcasses and scenes of horrifying animal treatment. She arrives just in time to see Okja being prepared for slaughter. She pleads with the man operating a huge machine that will administer a lethal shot to the head just as Nancy arrives with her entourage.

In turn Mija tries to reckon with Nancy that Okja should be spared, as they have grown up together and have formed a special bond. Nancy will have none of this, until Mija produces the solid gold pig from her grandfather and offers to buy Okja in exchange for the figurine. Nancy agrees seeing much greater value in the gold than one worthless superpig, and allows them to go home, but has Jay and K arrested. As Mija and Okja are exiting they witness many more superpigs being led to the slaughter.

Okja is a film that will make you think, and all credit must go to Director Bong Joon-ho for bringing his story to the big screen and to Netflix for allowing the Director's vision to be fully realised as he intended. This is a film about love and caring unconditionally on the one hand between the two central characters - a CGI superpig and the impressive South Korean child Actress Ahn Seo-hyun who carries the film with a professionalism and a grounded realism well beyond her years. On the other hand the film is about corporate greed, animal welfare, good versus evil, and the way in which we as humans think less and less about the animals we eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day and in vast quantities. The film has moments of real tenderness between Okja and Mija, has moments of tension and action too, and others that will make you smile and laugh out loud. It's a coming of age story, a heist action drama, and a cautionary tale of the little guys against the corporate behemoth. It is beautifully shot, with strong performances, impressive CGI, a compelling message and it will stay with you after the end credits have rolled . . . and wait for these, as there is also a post-credits sequence! 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-