Oscar winner Bong Joon-ho returns to big screen with Mickey 17
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
South Korean director Bong Joon-ho waves as he arrives for the world premiere of the film Mickey 17 in Leicester Square in London on Feb 13.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
LONDON – South Korean director Bong Joon-ho premiered his highly anticipated science-fiction dark comedy, Mickey 17, in London on Feb 13, his first movie since the Oscar-winning Parasite (2019).
Based on the novel Mickey7 by American author Edward Ashton, the film stars English actor Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes, a former pastry chef who finds himself in the unusual predicament of having to die for a living.
As a so-called “expendable” on a mission to colonise a distant planet, Mickey is required to die and come back to life, each time as a new version of himself.
“The film asks the question of ‘we are all humans, but how do we live a more human life?’” Bong told Reuters via a translator.
“This guy is someone who is too nice for his own good, just unfortunate things happen to him, and in the film, he somehow manages to find his own journey of reclaiming his selfhood.
“I think in that process, a lot of people who also have quite extreme jobs might find comfort in Mickey’s journey.”
Bong, 55, made history at the 2020 Oscars when Parasite, a dark social satire about the gap between the rich and the poor in modern Seoul, became the first non-English-language film to win the Best Picture award, the movie industry’s highest honour.
Parasite won four Oscars, including Best Director for Bong, Best Original Screenplay for Bong and his co-writer Han Jin-won, and Best International Feature Film.
Asked what pressure he felt in making his next film, Bong said: “I was already in my 50s (when) I won the Oscars and I tend not to get excited as a person. I just maintained my calm and did the same thing, and it was the same for this film.”
In the film, Mickey’s suicidal missions include being exposed to a deadly virus and a colony of part-insect, part-mammal creatures.
“Sci-fi scripts normally ... follow a certain pattern and with this, I was like ‘What is happening?’ every page,” Pattinson, 38, said. “Bong has such a unique take on reality and storytelling, it just felt very exciting.”
Mickey 17 also stars British actress Naomi Ackie, Australian actress Toni Collette, as well as American actors Steven Yeun and Mark Ruffalo.
The film begins its cinema roll-out in South Korea on Feb 28 and opens in Singapore cinemas on March 6. REUTERS
