(1st Look)

Bong Joon-ho, who directed the adventure creature-feature “Okja,” said he took a stab at vegetarianism for a while but soon gave up.

“It was hard to eat meat when I was filming ‘Okja,’ especially in public,” the director said at an interview Tuesday in Seoul.

The film draws on the brutal mass-production of animals in the meat industry.

“But sometimes, when I was away from the public eye, I would eat chicken or beef,” the director admitted with a laugh.

Bong believes that while veganism can be a choice, human beings are instinctively omnivores by nature.

“Okja” hits Netflix and local theaters Thursday.

By Rumy Doo (doo@heraldcorp.com)