"Sound governs the emotion and the senses".
Bong Joon Ho, Okja 'Dolby Atmos' Featurette
Bong Joon Ho's $50 million Netflix feature film Okja (2017) has garnered heaps of praise for its deft blending of cinematic genres. The film is a bildungsroman narrative for its young South Korean protagonist Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun), who must swiftly learn the cruel ways of the urban and corporate worlds when her childhood hippo-pig Okja is snatched away from their idyllic countryside existence. Like Babe: Pig in the City (1995), the plot is driven by a young child's singular desire to reunite with the lovable pet she consider to be kin - a powerful bond that serves as an inconvenience to the multinational agrochemical company (Mirando), which merely sees Okja as a pawn in their grand, decade-spanning greenwashing endeavour. This conflict serves as a potent vehicle for commentary on industrial farming practices, corporate ethics, contemporary consumerism, genetic engineering and leftist politics.
The same multi-layered approach to storytelling is echoed in the film's soundtrack. Some the film's scoring choices, such as the use of the United States Air Force Band's "Sweeney's Cavalcade" for the city-wide fanfare that takes place to celebrate the grand product launch of Mirando's new genetically-enhanced meat products, is relatively unsurprising. The film's use of John Denver's 1974 folk-rock and country hit “Annie’s Song" during the scene where Okja is chaotically let loose in an underground Seoul mall, however, is unexpectedly effective. The lovesick populist hit is featured in its entirety, as Okja and Mija crash themselves into a tight spot. The comically pacifist Animal Liberation Front (ALF) members swoop in, saving Okja from tranquilizer darts (with colorful umbrellas) and thwarting the security guards that attempt to stop them (with a crutch to bolt the doors, and then marbles that force them to trip).
This surprising juxtaposition allows Denver's saccharine lyrics to achieve a grander sense of poignancy, as the lines 'Come let me love you, come love me again' appear to reflect Mija's primary motivation throughout the entire film, at a moment where she is entirely dependent on unexpected assistance from the ALF to protect her childhood friend. Besides 'like a storm in a desert' and 'like a sleepy blue ocean', the similes that Denver employed to express his romantic devotion to his wife potentially serves as a literal recount of the years Mija and Okja spent in each other's company in their sheltered and picturesque hillside home:
'You fill up my senses like a night in the forest,like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain,like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean.You fill up my senses, come fill me again.Come let me love you, let me give my life to you,let me drown in your laughter, let me die in your arms,let me lay down beside you, let me always be with you.Come let me love you, come love me again'.
Lyrics: AZLyrics
When juxtaposed to Okja's narrow escape (for the time being), the song's potential corninees disappears altogether. What's left is the bare, simple essence of Mija's one and only hope of a safe reunion with her beloved childhood friend, which hangs on a precariously thin thread right until the very end of the film.
