Movie review
June 28, 2017 · 120 min · PG-13
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Okja is a 2017 adventure film about a young Korean girl who raises a genetically modified super pig named Okja on her grandfather’s farm and later travels to New York to rescue her from a multinational meat corporation’s PR scheme and planned slaughter. The story mixes heartfelt animal friendship with satire of corporate marketing and industrial agriculture. Strong anti-capitalist framing and activist-style critiques of the meat industry run through the narrative and are reinforced by director Bong Joon-ho’s public comments linking the film to systemic problems of capitalism.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Okja.
Woke representation / casting
Casting choices are entirely natural and story-logical with no audience-visible forced diversity or identity signaling.
Woke political dialogue
Recurring ideological dialogue from activists explicitly attacking corporate capitalism and from execs pushing false sustainability narratives; central to several key scenes.
Identity-driven story themes
Story centers on interspecies friendship and corporate greed rather than any identity-based themes or modern social justice framing around race, gender, or sexuality.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Strong, recurring institutional critique of capitalism as the root cause of animal exploitation and corporate deception, with factory farming and marketing satire framed as systemic evils of profit-driven industry; director statements reinforce this as commentary on capitalist society.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Anti-woke backlash is minimal and not widespread; reactions center on the film’s emotional animal story, vegan inspiration for some viewers, and unrelated Cannes distribution issues rather than accusations of pushing identity politics or woke agendas. Evidence of significant backlash is weak.
Creator track record context
Director Bong Joon-ho has a documented pattern of anti-capitalist and class-based social critique in prior works such as Snowpiercer; this continues in Okja with explicit framing of capitalism as the source of societal and ethical problems.
Production
