'Mickey 17' Interview: "It Can Also Be Seen as a Coming-of-Age Film"
"When You Ask Questions, You Naturally Touch on Class Issues"
Director Bong Joon-ho revealed that the military dictatorship he experienced during his formative years had a significant impact on his artistic world.
The British daily The Guardian published an interview with Director Bong on the 22nd (local time). Bong's first Hollywood directorial work, Mickey 17, is set to premiere worldwide in Korea on the 28th, Korean time.
Mickey 17 is a sci-fi film set in the future year 2054, telling the story of a clone sent to pioneer an ice-covered space planet. The protagonist Mickey (Robert Pattinson) is resurrected as a clone through advanced technology every time he dies during his mission and is sent back to work.
In the film, clones are depicted as the lowest class, even ignored by the lower-class workers in society. At first, Mickey does not fully recognize this reality, but as the story progresses, his awareness of class begins to grow.
Regarding this, Director Bong said, "The protagonist is a being who is repeatedly regenerated, giving him the opportunity to reflect on what that means," adding, "In that sense, this film can also be seen as a coming-of-age story."
Director Bong has addressed social class issues through his previous works such as Snowpiercer (2013) and Parasite (2019). Using Parasite as an example, he explained, "When you wonder, 'Why does that person behave that way?' you naturally touch on class issues," and added, "I have always been interested in individuals and the environments they belong to."
He continued, "Under a military dictatorship, the gap between classes widens even more," and explained, "Having experienced such an environment during my most sensitive years, that awareness naturally became internalized." Director Bong was an elementary school student during the presidency of former President Chun Doo-hwan and was attending university when he stepped down.
However, Director Bong joked, "I don't put on a protest hood on my head every time I open my laptop to write a script."
He also revealed that he was influenced by Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, who are regarded as masters of British socialist realism cinema. In particular, he mentioned Leigh's 1990s works Naked and Secrets & Lies, adding, "I was impressed by how realistically they portrayed working-class characters."
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