Okja

Director: Bong Joon Ho

2017 / 120min / 4K DCP

The titular beast is a gentle, lumbering, lovable “super pig” created by big agribusiness, peacefully raised in the South Korean countryside by young Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun) before being spirited off to the US, sweeping both pet and owner into a conflict between animal rights activists and mercenary corporate forces. A dark science fiction fable, its impressive ensemble cast includes Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, and Jake Gyllenhaal. “[Okja] represents a departure toward a different type of image, a different texture and look: something very blue and metallic, with lots of compressed cityscapes and a bit of gold in the flesh tones… [Visual effects supervisor Erik de Boer] sat in with us [during the color grading] where we took every single shot of Okja in the film and treated each one individually for aspects of color and light.” —Darius Khondji

Distributor: Netflix

Part of Radical Chiaroscuro: The Work of Darius Khondji