THE HOST director Bong Joon-ho is returning to the realm of creature features with his latest film OKJA, but while a mysterious animal is at the center of the story, the filmmaker wants potential viewers to know that OKJA is not a monster movie. This creature is "a very shy and introverted animal. It's a unique animal that we've not seen before."
That animal isn't revealed in some newly released "first look" images. Instead, we're given a look at Seohyun An as Mija,
a young girl who must risk everything to prevent a powerful, multi-national company from kidnapping her best friend – a massive animal named Okja.
The actress is joined in the cast by Jake Gyllenhaal, Tilda Swinton, Kelly Macdonald, Paul Dano, Devon Bostick, Byun Hee-bong, Shirley Henderson, Daniel Henshall, Yoon Je Moon, Choi Woo-shik, The Walking Dead's Steven Yeun, and Lily Collins.
Collins' character Red, an animal rights activist, is featured in the other images that have been shared – one a shot of Collins running on set, and the other a sample of the storyboards created for that sequence.
OKJA was filmed in South Korea, Canada, and the United States, including in Manhattan's Financial District. As Joon-ho says, "On Wall Street, it's the heart of capitalism. On the surface is a story about an animal, but it's essentially a story about capitalism."
OKJA will premiere on Netflix in the summer of 2017 and will also be receiving a limited day and date theatrical release.
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