On first glance, Okja looks like a cutesy kids movie. The brand-new trailer for the highly anticipated film opens with a young Korean girl blowing bubbles alongside an adorable, oversized creature that looks like a cross between a dog, a pig, and hippo. Over idyllic music, the two of them frolic in the woods, tumble down hills, and swim in streams. But something isn’t quite right. At the same time, a voiceover talks about how the same creature we’re watching will be “a revolution in the livestock industry.” Cut to Tilda Swinton, as the head of a corporation, giving a speech to reporters, and you realize that Okja is anything but a kid’s movie. Suddenly, we’re introduced to a pro-animal right group, led by Paul Dano, who is trying to save the creature from being captured by said corporation, and Okja is revealed to be a high-stakes drama with sci-fi flourishes.
Coming from the visionary Korean director Bong Joon-ho, the movie is premiering at the Cannes Film Festival this week, and rather than having a traditional theatrical release, will head directly to Netflix on June 28. (This has irked some of the festival’s traditionalists.) Mysteriously absent from the trailer is Jake Gyllenhaal, whose zoologist, Dr. Johnny Wilcox, we’ve glimpsed in photos. Bong Joon-ho’s, last movie, the post-apocalyptic thriller Snowpiercer, came out of nowhere to surprise audiences with its audacity and creativity. We fully expect Okja to do the same. Watch the trailer above.
