Netflix shared the first teaser trailer for it’s upcoming feature film Okja that was filmed in South Korea, Canada and the US last year. Don’t be mistaken though, this is unlike any other monster movie you’ve seen before…
The original film that features an all-star cast that includes Tilda Swinton, Jake Gyllenhaal and Lily Collins is Korean director Joon-ho Bong’s next adventure. The Netflix broadcasted movie follows a young Korean girl named Mija, played by South-Korean actress Seo-Hyun Ahn, and her best friend- a giant animal named Okja across continents where they face the harsh realities of genetically modified food experimentation, globalisation, eco-terrorism, and humanity’s obsessions with image, brand and self-promotion. The streaming service dropped the first teaser for the action-adventure film and it just left fans begging for more. The short clip featured just three of the impressive list of cast members the world will be introduced to on June 28.
There has been much speculation around Okja and what the “massive animal” actually is but the teaser trailer didn’t give much away- just introducing us to an animal that has elephant like skin and big, brown eyes. “It’s a very shy and introverted animal,” said Bong to NME last year. “It’s a unique animal that we’ve not seen before.”
A very blonde, and very serious looking Swinton appears and seems to be responsible for the creation of Okja. “I took nature, and science, and I synthesised” were some of the words spoken by Swinton’s character, Nancy Mirando, during the trailer. With very little dialogue to make sense of, audiences were left with just one sentence – “From the visionary director of Snowpiercer comes a story about the bond between man and animal and the animal in all of us.” Bong had previously stated that he wants to “show the beauty that can exist between man and animal, and also the horror between them”.
The film was picked up by Netflix and Plan B Entertainment in late 2015 and was given a budget of $50 million. Oscar winner Erik-Jan de Boer is supervising with visual effects and Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Lewis Taewan Kim, Dooho Choi, Woo-sik Seo and Joon-Ho Bong are producers on the film.
Check out the official teaser trailer below!
[…] and Giancarlo Esposito join the cast with child actress Seo-Hyun Ahn. Read more on Okja in FIB’s review of the teaser trailer, released earlier this […]