Just a day ahead of its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this Friday (May 19), Netflix dropped a new trailer for Bong Joon-ho’s absolutely lovely-looking and totally bonkers Okja this morning, and you’ll want to go ahead and take that coffee break an hour early and watch this shit. Basically, a giant pig-creature who is best friends with a little girl gets kidnapped by evil Tilda Swinton and the girl, along with some help from Paul Dano, has to rescue the big fella from getting eaten.
We told you you’d want to watch this.
Joon-ho is one of world cinema’s most valuable voices, and after setting pretty much every film lover’s heart on fire with the near-perfect dystopian action thriller Snowpiercer back in 2014, he’s moved on to something that’s just a little less fast-paced and insane. You know, just a little bit. It’s got a stacked cast, but the standout here is Swinton, who looks absolutely fucking crazy here (though to be fair that’s not exactly a new thing for her, if you’ve seen Snowpiercer) and it’s interesting to see him take on a monster movie that isn’t exactly like his 2006 film The Host, though they both share an emphasis on familial connections.
The only difference here is that the monster’s the family, and holy shit, is Okja cute.
Plus, say what you will about Netflix ruining and screwing up the theatrical experience, but we’re overjoyed that everyone will get to experience this film together in just under a month. This sort of movie would take like six months to get out to a variety of cities, and if there’s one thing cinephiles in flyover states are excited for, it’s the utter fucking disruption and destruction traditional NYC/LA “limited” release model and its subsequent national rollout.
Here’s a synopsis from Netflix:
“For 10 idyllic years, young Mija (An Seo Hyun) has been caretaker and constant companion to Okja—a massive animal and an even bigger friend—at her home in the mountains of South Korea. But that changes when the family-owned multinational conglomerate Mirando Corporation takes Okja for themselves and transports her to New York, where image obsessed and self-promoting CEO Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton) has big plans for Mija’s dearest friend. With no particular plan but single-minded in intent, Mija sets out on a rescue mission.”
Okja hits Netflix on June 28.
