"An Omnivorous Family's Dilemma"

DirectorHwang Yoongot into documentary filmmaking because she has always had a particular interest in animals. This was how she met her veterinarian husband, and eventually ended up giving birth to a son.Hwang Yoonherself is a fan of pork cutlet, and is naturally responsible for making sure her son gets fed. So the South Korea foot-and-mouth outbreak of late 2010 gotHwang Yoonto wondering. What exactly is her family eating? How is this meat produced? And should she do something about it?

If you're expecting an expose-style documentary aimed at cutting down the South Korean factory farm industry forget about it.Hwang Yoonmight be a film director but she's also a mother, and her goal is simply to answer these few basic questions. I imagine this sense of honesty was howHwang Yoongained permission to film at the factory farm in the first place. Her review of the farm's conditions are, to the best of her ability, fair and impartial.

Unfortunately, there's not really any way to put a positive spin on the way the factory farm looks- like the inspiration for a horrific science fiction dystopia. The pens are small, the shrieking pig noises overpowering, the stench so awful you can practically smell it through the screen, the filfth is everywhere, and then we get to the artificial insemination units...ugh, just plain creepy stuff.

The worst of it is that actually seeing these pigs, I couldn't help but think to myself how they kind of look like dogs. It's just the mannerisms- the way they drink and move. The way they act playful, when given the chance. Their very physical appearance is quite mammalian, and in the worst dystopian moments they actually kind of look like tiny pink people struggling against gigantic masked overlords.

I should note at this point that not all of the film takes place at the factory farm.Hwang Yoonalso visits, and takes her son to see, the pigs who live at a normal farm. And the difference is rather striking. The pigs at the normal farm are still somewhat gross, but they're happy. This makes them come off as cute, and even kind of cuddly.

Naturally, these pigs just like pigs anywhere else are eventually going to the slaughterhouse. It's just, I frequently got the impression that the farm pigs in "An Omnivorous Family's Dilemma" got to live a really nice life. Obviously in the end they have one really bad day, but it's an acceptable trade-off given that meat consumption isn't going anywhere. One memorable sequence hasHwang Yoondemonstrate how even mostly vegetable Korean food uses livestock byproducts one way or another.

So, how doesHwang Yoonresolve the family's dilemma? Well, she doesn't really. Factory farms are such an intrinsic part of the world agricultural system there's not really any getting away from them. Even so, through this journey,Hwang Yoonhas learned and shared with us the likely culprit of that horrific pig-burying imagery. And she's taught her son an important lesson about animals, and their relation to us, not likely to be easily forgotten. And I think we do owe the pigs at least that much. Consideration. We are eating them after all.

Review by William Schwartz

"An Omnivorous Family's Dilemma" is directed byHwang Yoon