Review of Okja (2017) Available exclusively on Netflix

**1/2 out of five stars 

Don’t let the twenty-six super piggies fool you. This is not a movie for kids.

After the sensational, flashy, yet foreboding, introduction of Mirando CEO Lucy (Tilda Swindon now with dental braces adding another distinct character to her burgeoning repertoire) and her Super Pig Project to End World Hunger, Okja seems to shift to a fairy tale for adults.

Mija, her grandfather, and Okja, the best super pig ever (and best thing about this movie) live an idyllic life atop a mountain outside Seoul, Korea. These opening scenes are Jungle Book enchantment with Mija and Okja at play, fishing and farting and pooping the days away.

I was prepared to present a positive review of Okja after these first minutes, but then, with the arrival of the whacked-out TV animal program host/corporate spokesman Dr. Johnny Wilcox (Jake Gyllenhaal, in a flaming over-the-top bizarre performance), coming to claim Okja for Mirando, the wheels start coming off the magic bus.

What follows is an extended Keystone cops chase sequence with the evil Mirando minions spiriting away Okja from the peaceful countryside, then waylaid by the ALF (Animal Liberation Front), careening through the streets, subways and shops of Seoul, on their way to the nexus of Western corporate and consumer corruption, New York. And little Mija, Okja’s trusted soulmate for ten years, stays in hot pursuit, kicking down glass door-walls, hanging onto the sides of trucks, and getting badly beaten.

Upon landing in New York, the film reveals the true under (pork) belly of the whole deal and painfully ups the brutality, heavy handedly smashing us in our faces with police brutality, rape and abattoirs. The darkness at the end of this tunnel leaves us with a disturbing sense of dread and not the hope the filmmakers wanted for us, as demonstrated in a too little, too late, post credit sequence.

Despite the astonishing special effect that is Okja (hard to believe she’s not a real super pig) and the exhilarating stunts, the disparate segments throughout the movie betray the beauty that is promised by the film’s bookends. Bong Joon Ho (The Host, Mother, Snowpiercer) should stick to what he does best, sharp social commentary with no compassion and no compromise. Leave the sweet fantastical to Babe.

That’ll do, pig, that’ll do.