With Bong leading the way, Gyllenhaal goes big in 'Okja'

CANNES, France (AP) — Jake Gyllenhaal says he was motivated by one goal above all others while shooting the fantasy "Okja": making his Korean director giggle.

"Okja" is a disturbing kind of fable in which a young girl (An Seo Hyun) has raised a massive, genetically modified pig named Okja.

Ten years on, the New York conglomerate that manufactured the animal comes to the remote South Korean mountains to retrieve its invention, one intended to provide a new profitable source of genetically modified food.

Gyllenhaal, in a performance that will rank alongside any of the actor's previous extremes, plays a television zoologist working on behalf of the company (which is run by a pair of sisters, both played by Tilda Swinton.) He's a high-strung cocktail of neuroses in cargo shorts.

Recalling his direction to Gyllenhaal for a scene in which he wheezes heavily in a breathless high-pitch after climbing a mountain, Bong cringes a little.

Though Gyllenhaal (Zodiac, ''Donnie Darko) has carved out a career playing characters with compulsions and manias, he's a little sheepish about the theatricality of his zoologist, Johnny Wilcox.