Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather gather the kaleidoscopic shards of Okja, the latest effort from acclaimed Korean director Bong Joon-ho, and try to figure out what the film has to say about, well, anything.
Subscribe: iTunes Other Apps
Suns Out Puns Out Limited Edition 2017 T-Shirts and Tanks
You: Smart, funny. Your gym clothes: not so much. If you like the dad jokes but not the dad bod, add a little snark to your swag with the limited edition 2017 Suns Out Puns Out t-shirt.
Further Reading
- Okja: Wikipedia, IMDb
- Mi-ja: information about the name
- “Did You Catch the Translation Joke in Okja?”
- “Photos: Tilda Swinton Is Sleeping In A Box At MoMA This Year”
As a follow -up to Okja may I humbly suggest the excellent War For The Planet of The Apes? This film also deals with super-intelligent animals, is a lot of fun while being appropriately post-apocalyptically gloomy, and provides plenty of fodder for overthinking.
“Fodder”. See what I did there?
I’m definitely going to see it at some point, but there’s a surprising lack of enthusiasm for this Planet of the Apes franchise among the crew. Until I deliver a hot take on this latest installment, check this out if you missed it the first time around:
https://www.overthinkingit.com/2014/07/22/game-theory-dawn-planet-apes/
We also talk about the original 60’s POTA movie in the Digital Library:
https://www.overthinkingit.com/digital-library/qotw472/
You damn ape!
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
There’s a case to be made for Bong Joon-Ho’s wildly inconsistent tone being more a feature than a bug. It’s something he’s always toyed with, going all the way back to Memories of Murder, which is nominally a police procedural but still manages to feature some weird slapstick elements.
From what I’ve read, it’s a stylistic choice that’s more common among new Korean cinema than mainstream American films. You can see what a difference it makes, between Snowpiercer (which is meant more for international audiences and plays its dour sci-fi tone fairly consistently) and The Host (which is more a product of South Korea, and juggles family drama, physical comedy and creature feature horror in equal measure).
I’d agree with you guys, though, that in Okja’s case it doesn’t necessarily make the movie any more coherent. For my money, it at least kept the story engaging, if not outright entertaining.