Netflix dropped its first teaser trailer for Bong Joon Ho’s much talked-about fantasy film Okja on Tuesday.
The film is about a young girl who lives in the deep woods of South Korea’s mountainous Gangwon province with a “massive animal” named Okja. She does everything in her power to find her best friend when Okja disappears.
Okja attracted great interest around the mysterious titular character, and the newly released clip features a glimpse of a large, brown-eyed creature with elephant-like skin and a description in Korean that it is “somewhere between human and animal.” Oscar winner Erik-Jan De Boer (Life of Pi) is supervising the visual effects of the $50 million film.
A platinum-blonde Tilda Swinton appears to be behind Okja’s creation: “I took nature and science, and synthesized.” The sequence also shows the lead South Korean actress, Seohyun An, frantically searching for Okja in the woods, along with the caption in Korean that reads “Love and the fear within it.”
“I want to show the beauty that can exist between animals and humans, and also the horror between them,” the South Korean director previously said about his first project with Netflix studios.
Other cast members include Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano and Lily Collins (To the Bone), along with Devon Bostick (The 100), Byun Heebong (The Host), Shirley Henderson (Anna Karenina), Daniel Henshall (The Babadook), Yoon Je Moon (Mother), Choi Wooshik (Set Me Free) and Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead). Shooting locations include South Korea, Canada and the U.S., and the film is in English and Korean.
Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Lewis Taewan Kim, Dooho Choi, Woo-sik Seo and Bong Joon Ho are producers on the film. Okja is a Plan B, Lewis Pictures and Kate Street Picture Company production.
Okja will premiere globally on Netflix in June and will also have a limited day-and-date theatrical release in the U.S.