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OXFORD FILM APPRECIATION SOCIETY
Okja: The Film That Turned Me Vegan
Lucy Vickers
Picture this: it’s Hilary 2020, my 2nd term at Oxford. I’m mid-essay crisis (I want to say it was on the rise of neoliberalism?) and I decide I need a break, so obviously I log straight onto Netflix. It also happens to be around a week before the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony, so the internet is abuzz with predictions and, in particular, the hype surrounding Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite. Parasite wouldn’t be due out in the UK for a few days so, in preparation, I decide to watch one of Bong Joon-ho’s other films – Okja. Little did I know the surprisingly large impact this decision would have on the next 9 months of my life.
Released in 2017, Okja tells the story of Mija, a young girl living with her father in rural South Korea, who spends her childhood growing up with Okja, a super pig given to her family by the Mirando Corporation. Ten years later Mija and her father are expected to deliver Okja to New York to be judged in a competition comparing her to the other 25 super pigs. Always overt in his social and political critique (usually of capitalism), Bong’s vision for Okja is no different. This comes through in the characterisation of Tilda Swinton’s despotic Lucy Mirando CEO, who embodies the murderous greed of capitalism, in contrast to the naive innocence of Mija, representing a more mundane way of resisting capitalist modes of meat consumption. The golden pig statue given to Mija by her father at the beginning of the film is indicative of another device frequently used by Bong, namely a single symbolic object, whose function becomes apparent by the time the credits roll. In Okja, the golden pig statue is used to signify the intimate relationship between Mija and Okja; between a human and that which she is supposed to eat. The physical power of the statue (without spoiling the film) becomes pretty clear during the climax. All the blatant symbolism and social critique, to the point of becoming preach-y, results in a message to the audience that feels almost accusatory – especially if you go into the film as a meat-eater.
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When I watched Okja, I had been vegetarian for 11 months, which made me feel almost smug as I watched the first hour. However, during the more horrific scenes of the third act, particularly those set in the slaughterhouse, and the ones featuring Okja’s torture by Gyllenhaal’s zoologist character, I began to question whether it was time for me to take the final step towards an entirely plant-based diet - there’s something about watching a man eat the flesh of an animal right in front of the animal he obtained the meat from that really puts you off.
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The brilliance of Okja lies in the fact that it is less a critique of the empirical act of consuming animals, and more of corporate consumerism and the commodification of life/animals. Around one month after Okja, I cut out eggs and dairy from my diet. As Okja the super pig (alongside the golden pig statue) eventually becomes a symbol of capitalist greed, I myself have come to think of the film itself as my own personal turn towards an animal-product-free diet. I guess vegan propaganda works after all.
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Images from Netflix
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