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A comedy drama about the food industry

> ‘Okja’ film review
Jerrison Oracion
Senior Columnist

krekkk

Nn. 1995, there was an episode in The

Simpsons where Lisa becomes a
vegetarian and it shows how food is made
in a humorous way. Then, in the Richard
Linklater film Fast Food Nation (2006),
the food industry is shown in a serious
and shocking way. Now, the director of
The Host, Bong Joon-Ho, has crafted a
film about the food industry like you've
never seen before that is serious and at
the same time may make you laugh.

The film begins in 2007 with Lucy
Mirando (Tilda Swinton) announcing that
her company has developed superpigs
that will be used to produce sustainable
meat products, and they hold a contest
for various farmers to raise the pigs
until one of them raises the biggest pig.
Fast-forward to the present in a rural
area in South Korea and we meet Mija
(Anh Seo-Hyun) with the pig that she
raised over the past 10 years named
Okja. When she finds out that Okja is
the biggest pig and the company takes
Okja to New York City for a superpig
showcase, Mija goes on a journey to bring
Okja back to the mountains. Along the
way she meets a group of protesters that

 

are part of the Animal Liberation Front,
led by a man named Jay (Paul Dano)
with another member of the A.L.B.
simply named “K” (Steven Yeun) who
translates for Mija, and she encounters
various other people in the company.
Since Okja is a Netflix original, the
film began a debate during the Cannes
Film Festival this year if a film should
be shown on the big screen first before
various other ways. When I watched
the film, I thought that it looks like a
big-screen film. It is not like a more
traditional HBO movie, but it looks like
something you would see on TV. While
Okja is an American and Korean film,
it has a Korean look throughout it.
Bong and Jon Ronson’s screenplay
created a lot of funny moments and
interesting people. This includes Lucy
being the spokesperson of a company
that supposedly makes sustainable meat
products even though they do not; Jake
Gyllenhaal playing an animal-loving
scientist who hosts a show to promote
the superpig competition, and who we
later find out is very abusive to animals;
and a truck driver (played by Choi Woo-
shik) who transports Okja to the airport
while saying some startling things.
During Okja’s press conference at
the Cannes Film Festival this year, many
people who were involved in the film
said that it will impact a lot of people

Nostalgia bomb

> How ‘Sonic Mania’ backpedals to move forward

Brittney MacDonald
Life & Style Editor

 

t’s no secret that Sonic the Hedgehog

hasn‘t really had a hit game within
its franchise since the demise of the
Sega Genesis. Both critics and fans
have panned the most recent games,
citing not only their abundant bugs, but
also the overall disconnect from what
made the original Sonic the Hedgehog
zand 2 so commercially successful. In
an effort to rectify this, Sega has gone
back to basics—8-bit, to be precise.

The new Sonic Mania is an 8-bit
side-scrolling ode to the origins of Sega’s
favourite blue hedgehog. Stylistically
it looks like it belongs in the early ‘gos;
however, it is not a remaster. Sonic Mania
is completely new, both narratively and
in its gameplay. Though the narrative
is simplistic—stop Eggman from
replacing everything with machinery
and robots—you face new enemies, and
you can reap the benefits of modern
programming technology. This means
that in addition to the basic abilities
that were available in Sonic 1 and 2, you
also have some new ones because the
programming is no longer limited by the
space available on the game cartridge.

Though this seems new and exciting,
Sega is simply following in the footsteps of
Nintendo. Nintendo released Mega Man
g in 2008—though released on the Wii,
PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, Mega Man
g was notable because it was created to
be entirely reminiscent of Mega Man 2, a
game that was originally released in 1988
on the original Nintendo Entertainment
System (NES). Learning from Nintendo,
Sega took this a step further by also
updating the animation quality and
response time. So, though Sonic Mania
looks similar to Sonic the Hedgehog 2, if
you were boot up a copy of Sonic 2 ona
Sega Genesis and compare the two, Sonic
Mania would appear a lot sleeker and be
more aesthetically pleasing—though the
levels are still just as difficult to beat!

The reason why Sonic Mania seems
like such a labour of love is because it is.
The Sonic games from the ’gos have such
a cult following that they actually have
a huge community of fans dedicated to
making ports of them (porting is when
someone converts a game meant to be
played on one system or console, so
that it runs on a different one). This is
often done on classic games that haven’t
been remastered, and is usually done
for free considering it actually breaks
copyright laws. This type of community

when they watch the film. The film
shows things that the food industry does
not want you to know and they are as
shocking as the things seen in Fast Food
Nation (which Paul Dano was also in).
Anh said during the press conference that
when Okja was filmed, she ate less meat.
Also, there is a scene in which a pig gets
shot. If you do not want to see that, do
not watch this film. Overall it has many
aspects that might cause you to become
vegetarian and rethink the food industry.

While watching the film is an
experience, it will have a bigger impact
if you watch it on the big screen. Stay
during the credits to see a bonus
ending. However, if you are watching
the film on Netflix, you can fast forward
1:58:19 for that ending. Okja is available
now on Netflix, and the film will
also be shown in a special screening
during the Vancouver International
Film Festival on September 30 at The
Centre, with Bong as a special guest.

€¢€ The new Sonic Mania is an 8-bit side-scrolling
ode to the origins of Sega's favourite blue son.”

 

( ‘Literature Alive’ presents Carleigh Barker

 
 

Screenshot from ‘Okja’ Via Netflix

 

also breeds fan-made titles—games
that fans have made, that look like
their classic counterparts, but with new
levels and enemies. Sound familiar?

It is among these superfans that
Sega sought to find people who would
create a game that would capitalize on the
nostalgia of Sonic’s glory days. In doing
so they found Christian Whitehead, an
active member of the Sonic port and fan
community, who assembled a team of
game designers who had cut their teeth

 

making popular fan-made Sonic games
online. Because of this, Sonic Mania
has been able to recapture what made
the original ’90s games so good in a way
that also embraces the occasional good
points of the more recent games—such
as more diverse multiplayer modes and
objective orientated racing. The end
result is a game that fans of the franchise,
like myself, want to play—because it
was made by people just like us.

Image Via Sega