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Production kicked off in Seoul on Sept. 3 for “Hana Korea,” an ambitious Denmark-Korea co-production based on the real-life story of a North Korean defector.

“Hana Korea” is co-written and directed by Danish documentary filmmaker Frederik Sølberg and co-written by Sharon Choi, a filmmaker and Bong Joon-ho’s interpreter, who accompanied the director in his 2019 journey with “Parasite” from Cannes to its Oscar wins. Choi is also working as Sølberg’s on-set translator.

“Hana Korea” tells the story of Hyesun, a North Korean defector sent to the Hanawon (“house of unity”) educational institution for three months, where she is debriefed on life outside of the Dprk, learning about democracy, personal freedom, equality and how to use a credit card.

“Hana Korea’s” cast includes Kim Minha, who gained international recognition for her portrayal of Sunja in the Apple TV+ series “Pachinko”; Kim Joo-ryoung, seen in Netflix’s smash hit series “Squid Game”; and An Seo-hyun,...

The film industry around the world is currently at a crossroads: How can audience interest in the theatrical experience possibly be rebuilt, when everyone's become so accustomed to the immeasurable convenience of streaming? A good first step, of course, would be to let films actually play in theaters -- and, even more than that, to let films play in theaters without having their box office runs curtailed by shorter release windows and premature streaming availability.

Is there any hope of Hollywood execs internalizing that notion before it's too late? Hard to tell at this point. But if they do, it will be to the benefit of both filmmakers and viewers, as attested by the numerous films in recent years that deeply deserved big-screen time yet never got it -- or got so little of it that 99% of viewers saw them on streaming anyway. Easy and accessible as watching movies on streaming can be,...

When cinematographer Darius Khondji walked along the Han River, location scouting with director Bong Joon-ho, the great Dp was trying to get a sense of how his newest collaborator wanted to shoot “Okja.” The conversation never touched upon filmic style or technical matters; instead, they talked about music, through which Khondji was able to understand and visualize Bong’s effusive cinematic style.

“The rhythm of the scene and the way the actors and camera play the scene — it’s very much related to music and rhythm, which is why I love this director,” said Khondji. “His camera has a personality.”

Bong himself talks about the rhythms and pacing of his shots in terms of “energy,” specifically the clashing of energy from three different sources: blocking, the camera and the emotion of the scene. His goal as a director is to control all three and create one rhythm — or more specifically,...

Stars: Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Seo-Hyun Ahn, Giancarlo Esposito, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jungeun Lee, Hee-Bong Byun, Shirley Henderson | Written and Directed by Bong Joon Ho

In a world where we are running out of food and our population is increasing, finding an answer to the problem is something the world is working on. Okja shows the dark side of solving the problem, where meat becomes a currency that can be manufactured for economic gain.

Mija (An Seo-Hyun) is a girl who has grown up in the mountains of South Korea with her best friend Okja. A massive “super pig” created by a the Mirando Corporation, it is not long before they decide to take it away and show it off to the world. Once Mija discovers this though, it leads to her giving chase around the world to save her beloved friend.

What Bong Joon Ho has created with Okja is something different,...

The creative team behind Okja insists it didn't set out to convert an entire generation to vegetarianism — but it just might have that effect.

The film, from director Bong Joon-Ho, centers on a girl Mija (Seo-Hyun Ahn) and her friendship with her genetically modified "super piglet" Okja, a kind animal who seems to have characteristics of a hippopotamus, pig and lovable pet dog. Mija must rescue her beloved best friend when the Mirando corporation (led by Tilda Swinton's Lucy Mirando) reclaims Okja as the intellectual property and food product she ultimately is.

Okja, streaming on...

Author: Scott Davis

After taking the Cannes Film Festival by storm in more ways than one, Netflix’s latest original film Okja is available on the subscription service this week. To celebrate its release, we spoke to its creator and director Bong Joon-Ho and star Seo-Hyun Ahn about the film.

The idea of Okja has been floating around the director’s mind for a few years now and while he was preparing the script for his previous film, Snowpiercer, it hit him in a strange way:

“It was 2010 during the screenwriting phase of Snowpiercer. I was in the middle of Seoul – huge place, 11 million people, too many people! – and I was driving in the middle of the city, suddenly it just hit my mind, the image of a huge animal. Originally it was much bigger than what you see in the movie too. Almost 30ft high but her face looks...

Review by Stephen Tronicek

People watching Okja will probably find themselves confused and angry. The same could be said about those walking out of Transformers: The Last Knight. The difference is Okja actually wants you to be confused and angry and you shouldn’t take it any other way. What Bong Joon Ho and his group of actors and screenwriters have created is a lopsided film that itself justifies its own lopsidedness, throwing its audience into waters of at one moment discomfort and the another hilarity. Okja, much like the animal at its center is a big, brash, thing of beauty, that can’t help but be loved.

Okja concerns itself with Mija (An Seo Hyun), a young girl who has grown up raising one of supposedly 26 Superpigs, Okja, for the corporation Mirando. However, the ten year period is up now and Mirando wants to harvest, ready to supply the...

Okja Trailer 2 The second official movie trailer for Okja (2017) has been released by Netflix. The second trailer for Okja uses quotes from film review websites like FilmBook to laud the film, its actors, and its director. This trailer is comprised almost entirely of new footage [...]

Continue reading: Okja (2017) Movie Trailer 2: Tilda Swinton Has Plans for Seo-Hyun Ahn’s Animal Friend...

It’s been one full season of The Walking Dead since Steven Yeun's character, Glenn Rhee, was brutally murdered at the hands of Jeffrey Dean Morgan's sadistic Negan, and fans of the show are still in mourning for the beloved character, who had survived with the group for six seasons.

Yeun stopped to talk with Et's Jennifer Peros at the New York premiere of his new fantastical drama, Okja, and the star opened up about his "impactful" final scene on the AMC zombie series.

"I think I'm just grateful for it," Yeun shared. "I'm grateful that the character got to leave on such a high note. It's really cool."

While Yeun's gory bludgeoning ended his time on the series, the 33-year-old star says he still watches the show, and will continue to when season eight premieres in October.

"I want...

One of the most thrilling blockbusters of the summer is arriving this month, but unlike most other tentpoles this summer, many won’t get a chance to see it on the big screen. As South Korea’s largest cinema chain mounts a boycott of Bong Joon-ho‘s Okja due to its global Netflix day-and-date launch, those in the United States will thankfully have a few chances to see it on the big screen. Along with a theatrical release in Los Angeles, the globe-trotting creature feature will hit the big screen at New York City’s Film Society of Lincoln Center starting June 28. As for any cities in between those, we’ll have to wait and see if any additional theaters pick it up.

In the meantime, we have a new feaurette introducing Seo-Hyun Ahn as Mija as well as a batch of posters. One of our Cannes favorites, we said in our review,...

The Cannes Film Festival is currently going on over in France. It won’t wrap up for a few days still, but now is a fine time to check in and see how the fest is going. Cannes is the most prestigious festival in the world, so it always marks a seminal point in the season, regardless of what is playing. This year, the lineup has seemed, at least to me, a little less top notch than usual. Still, plenty of quality movies have debuted, without question. Awards will be handed out next week, and we’ll cover that, but for now…let’s just discuss what’s playing in the south of France right now. So far at Cannes, two of the more interesting titles to be largely feted include Okja and Wonderstruck. Also in the mix for heavy praise are The Florida Project, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and...

Nobody makes entertaining movies with purpose better than Korean director Bong Joon Ho. Both the dystopian train ride of “Snowpiercer” and the environmentally-conscious “The Host” combine outrageous, effects-driven showdowns with real ideas. The charming “Okja” continues that welcome trend, following the peculiar exploits of a mutant pig and the girl who loves her, while using that blatantly silly premise to assemble a savvy anti-corporate screed.

The director’s sixth feature takes place in an alternate present in which the bioengineering entity known as the Mirando Corporation has figured out a technology for growing animals in laboratories for food. In the snazzy, over-the-top opening sequence, CEO Lucy Miranda (Tilda Swinton with a sinister grin, revisiting the role of zany villain after a similar turn in Bong’s “Snowpiercer”) unveils a new challenge: The company will disseminate its baby pigs to farmers around the world, then recollect them in a decade for a beauty pageant.

Oh Bong Joon Ho. You crazy, crazy man.

We all knew that Joon Ho's new movie was a creature feature but I'm pretty certain no one expected it to be about a giant pig. That's right. Okja is, for all intensive purposes, a giant swine.

Seo-Hyun Ahn stars as Mija, a young girl whose best friend is a massive animal she's named Okja. Her idyllic life is turned upside down when a multi-national company, the face of which is none other than Tilda Swinton, swoops in to take the animal - the first of what they hope is a new source of meat. Devastated and willing to do anything to rescue her best friend, Mija teams up with a ragtag group of animal rights activists, led by Paul Dano, to rescue her pet.

Okja also stars Steven Yeun, Lily Collins, Devon Bostick, Giancarlo Esp [Continued ...]...

The new trailer for Bong Joon-Ho’s Okja actually introduces us to Okja—a “Super Pig” created to leave a minimal environmental footprint and taste “fucking good,” as Tilda Swinton’s evil CEO Lucy Mirando puts it. Okja is also really gosh darn adorable and has a sweet friendship with a girl named Mija (Seo-Hyun Ahn), making the film look like E.T. mixed with Charlotte’s Web and filtered through Bong’s own zany, sometimes violent lens. When Okja is captured, Mija sets out on a rescue mission aided by animal lovers led by Paul Dano; however, Swinton and Jake Gyllenhaal take the prize for imbuing their performances with the most lunacy.

Okja is set to premiere at Cannes, where the fact that it’s a Netflix film has been the source of controversy. It debuts for the rest of us June 28.

Family saga: Adam Sandler in Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories Photo: Cannes Film Festival

"When is a film not a film?” This conundrum appears to have taken the organisers of the Cannes Film Festival unawares - until today (10 May) when they have ruled on the issue.

The controversy arose with the inclusion of two titles in the official Competition (and therefore Palme d’Or contenders): Okja, by South Korean film-maker Bong Joon Ho, and The Meyerowitz Stories, by Noah Baumbach, both financed by TV streaming platform Netflix.

For the last few weeks, French exhibitors have been arguing that the films should be given a cinema release (at least in France) before airing on Netflix. There were emerging rumours that the titles might be pulled from the festival over mounting pressure from the industry.

Okja by South Korean film-maker Bong Joon Ho features actress Seo-Hyun Ahn alongside Tilda Swinton...

Tilda Swinton gave one of her most outlandish—and that’s saying something—performances to date in Bong Joon-Ho’s Snowpiercer. Well, now she’s back in Okja, the latest film from the director, to unleash another distinctive character on the world. In the first trailer for the Netflix project, her character explains, “I took nature and science and I synthesized.” Cut to a girl, Mija (Seo-Hyun Ahn), who calls out to, and finds, a beast with kindly eyes and leathery skin. Ultimately, this looks a little like Bong does Spielberg, but surely it’s weirder than we could even possibly expect. After all, the official summary explains that Mija will face “the harsh realities of genetically modified food experimentation, globalization, eco-terrorism, and humanity’s obsession with image, brand and self-promotion.” Okja was co-written by Bong and So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed’s Jon Ronson and is due on...

Giancarlo Esposito is in final negotiations to join "Snowpiercer" filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho's latest sci-fi film "Okja" for Plan B and Netflix.

Seo-Hyeon Ahn plays a young girl who risks everything to prevent a powerful, multinational company from kidnapping her best friend - a massive, genetically manufactured pig named Okja.

Swinton will play boththe head of the corporation and her twin sister, Gyllenhaal is a zoologist and Dano is an animal activist trying to expose the corporation’s dastardly dealings. Esposito will play Swinton's character's right-hand man.

The English and Korean-language film is shooting in South Korea, Canada and the United States.

Source: THR...

After tremendous success with Snowpiercer, an uber-stylish and hyper-violent slice of genre fare, Korean helmer Bong-Joon Ho is now getting his pick of the litter for follow-up Okja. The latest thesp joining the movie‘s veritable line-up of stars is Breaking Bad‘s Giancarlo Esposito.

Like Ho’s previous film, Okja won’t be a straight-laced affair. Part sci-fi and part-drama, the movie is being angled as a creature feature with a difference, as it revolves around a young girl “who must risk everything to prevent a powerful, multi-national company from kidnapping her best friend – a massive genetically-manufactured pig named Okja.”

If you’re not already sold on that unique premise then this ought to satiate your cinematic desires: signed on and raring to go is Snowpiercer‘s Tilda Swinton who is playing not one but two characters. She’ll be doing a Hail, Caesar! and playing twin sisters, one...

“The Housemaid” or “Hanyo” is a 2010 South Korean erotic thriller directed by Sang-Soo Im and is a remake of the 1960 classic by the same name, that one directed by the late Ki-Young Kim (1919–1998).

It opens with a very distinct shot of a woman dressed in black perched on the edge of a balcony, overlooking the bustling street market below. In obvious distress, she takes one last look before leaping to a certain death.

Having lost the family housemaid, Byung-Sik (Yeo-Jong Yun) hires the young and beautiful Eun-Yi Li (Do-Yeon Jeon) as a replacement. Her duties will include watching over the pregnant Hae-Ra (Seo Woo), becoming a friend and confidant to elementary student Nami (Seo-Hyeon Ahn) and keeping Hoon Goh’s (Jung-Jae Lee) household in order. And thus, she is offered a place to stay within their manor-esque residence.

Unfortunately, Hoon is a hard man to please and as he...