The first trailer for Bong Joon Ho's Okja is now available for your consumption! The writer-director of The Host and Snowpiercer, among others, looks to have taken everything he learned from the creature feature/horror picture and the sci-fi classic about class warfare and combined them into this "girl and her dog(thing)"-meets-evil organization(s) tale. Okja should encourage a lot of conversation about GMOs, the agriculture industry, animal welfare groups, and the pros and cons of both sides of each of them. Bong Joon Ho works masterfully in these gray areas and I can't wait to see what he does with them in Okja; the trailer likely only hints at everyone's ultimate motive here.

Message aside, the cast in Okja is outstanding, including Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Byun Heebong, Steven Yeun, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito, Jake Gyllenhaal and introducing An Seo Hyun as "Mija." The only thing I'm not quite sold on is the design and animation of the very obviously computer-generated title creature as it ambles along. It looks to be from the same evolutionary tree as the space pig in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the creature from Monster Trucks. Your mileage may vary. Be sure to check out Netflix for Okja on June 28th.

Watch the official trailer for Okja below:

Here's the official synopsis for Okja:

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 a 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, but her already daunting journey quickly becomes more complicated when she crosses paths with disparate groups of capitalists, demonstrators and consumers, each battling to control the fate of Okja...while all Mija wants to do is bring her friend home.

 

Deftly blending genres, humor, poignancy and drama, Bong Joon Ho (Snowpiercer, The Host) begins with the gentlest of premises-the bond between man and animal-and ultimately creates a distinct and layered vision of the world that addresses the animal inside us all.

 

Okja is a Plan B Entertainment, Lewis Pictures and Kate Street Picture Company production in association with Netflix.

For more on Okja, be sure to check out our recent write-ups below:

okja-trailer
Image via Netflix

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Image via Netflix