When I first previewed the film Okja, written and directed by Bong Joon-ho, I had initial reservations regarding the casting of Tilda Swinton. Swinton has proved herself to be a persistently stubborn and insensitive actor who does not understand the significance and nuances of representation in Western media, as is evident by her response to charges of whitewashing in Doctor Strange and her interactions with Margaret Cho. In light of these events, it was not immediately apparent to me why Director Bong would opt to feature such a problematic actor at the center of this film that does so much to contribute to Asian representation by casting Korean actor Anh Seo-Hyeon as the main character Mija and by featuring other Korean actors, such as Steven Yeun and Byun Hee-bong. Despite being set in Korea for a major portion of the film, Okja maintains a predominantly white cast, featuring Lily Collins and Paul Dano. Despite these facial failures, the film lodges a far more pointed and caustic critique of white dominance and Western hegemony that runs beneath the surface.
At face value, the film is a critique of commercial animal exploitation and cruelty. It not only engenders an acute sense of revulsion towards meat producing practices in the way that The Jungle does, the film prompts evaluation of multiple issues ranging from corporate exploitation of native populations to the hegemonic dominance of white culture and history. The outsourcing of labor to countries outside of the US to cultivate the initial population of “super pigs” smarts of the labor practices that the US commonly uses in its commercial enterprises. This capitalistic intervention in non-Western countries is coupled with the exploitation of those native populations for Western interests as is exemplified by the forceful separation of Okja from her home with Mija in rural Korea. This power dynamic is additionally punctuated by the racial dynamics of the exploited Korean natives and the exploitative white, American corporations. The subtle presence of American GIs that appear in the film serve as an additional reminder of such white imperialism.
Tilda Swinton as Lucy Mirando, a particularly egregious and despicable character, is an interesting choice. The role seems befitting, to say charitably, because not only is she portraying an exploitative and crass character, as a white actor who has no conception of her own exploitative practices, the character and the artist are hard to distinguish. Additionally, the protagonist force called the Animal Liberation Front is also American and predominantly white. The whole onslaught of the PETA-like force in Korea to rescue Okja is reminiscent of the interventions of white “liberators” that form the white savior narrative. The ALF is a caricature of itself, however, with the character Silver, played by Devon Bostick, who starves himself to the point of collapse because all consumption is exploitative and the constant verbal reminders from the group that they are anti-violence as they try to keep back armed forces that are trying to stop them. This by no means is a way to undermine the importance of advocacy for such issues, but is rather a way to highlight the occasionally misguided and almost naive intervention of Western philanthropes and advocates.
Steven Yeun’s character K is a particularly refreshing and entertaining character who seems to be in the film just for the benefit of Korean Americans. His clumsy command of Korean characteristic of second-generation Korean Americans is endearing and the comedic moments that come from the interplay of English and Korean operate as a critique of the dominance and supremacy of English. In one scene, K speaks to Mija in Korean and says that his name is actually Koo Soo-bum. The English subtitles, however, deliberately mistranslates this into “Try learning English! It opens new doors!”. The use of Korean dialogue itself breaks the pattern of normalizing English as standard. Director Bong plays with his command of English and Korean to critique the practice of learning English in order to cater to American standards of communication.
