Bong Joon-Ho returned to the big screen in spectacular fashion on Feb. 13, as London’s Leicester Square transformed into a sci-fi spectacle for the world premiere of ‘Mickey 17.’
As star Robert Pattinson walked alongside director Bong, the cast, and about a dozen Mickey clones down the red carpet, this event marked Bong’s highly anticipated return since ‘Parasite’s’ historic Oscar sweep in 2019. The crowd was left awe-stricken.
On the carpet, Bong teased at the film’s core message, telling Reuters, “The film asks the question…How do we live a more human life?”
Pattinson, a longtime admirer of Bong, expressed his excitement to The Hollywood Reporter, saying, “He’s absolutely incredible,” adding, “I saw ‘Memories of Murder’ when I was a teenager, and he was just one of my bucket list directors.”
Beyond the star-studded premiere, the film itself promises a blend of Bong’s signature dark humor and genre-bending storytelling. Adapted from Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel ‘Mickey7’, the film is a science fiction comedy that follows unlikely hero and financially destitute Mickey Barns (Pattinson) as he signs up to be an “Expendable,” a disposable clone worker assigned to an expedition to colonize the ice world Niflheim. Each time Mickey dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact, ultimately rendering him immortally expendable.
Bong, known for crafting layered characters within a unique cinematic world, describes Mickey as, “…someone who is too nice for his own good. Unfortunate things happen to him and in the film he somehow manages to find his own journey of reclaiming his selfhood,” he told Reuters, “and I think that a lot of people who also have quite extreme jobs might find comfort in Mickey’s journey.”
While ‘Mickey 17’ is a sci-fi spectacle, Bong sees it as a continuation of his storytelling themes. In an interview with Showsha, he explained, “‘Parasite’ and ‘Mickey 17’ may seem like very different themes especially since it’s a sci-fi spectacle, but in the end both films talk about the human condition and explore how we can live genuinely human lives, so this film is an extension of Parasite.”
For fans of Bong’s previous works, this film offers a similar theme of human connection and a critique on the potential harms of capitalism in a class-structured society, echoing the social commentaries of ‘Snowpiercer’ (2013) and ‘Okja’ (2017).
‘Mickey 17’ released in South Korea on Feb. 28 and will be available in U.S. theaters on March 7.. With a buzzing London premiere and Bong’s signature mix of spectacle and substance, ‘Mickey 17’ is shaping up to be his most ambitious sci-fi film yet.
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