Every time a director has a decently sized physique of labor, patterns would possibly start to emerge. South Korean author and director Bong Joon-ho’s newest film, Mickey 17, looks like a end result of themes he’s centered on since 2006.
Mickey 17 is about Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson), a form but naive man who indicators up for an multi-year expedition to a faraway planet the place people will begin a colony. Mickey has no particular expertise, so he registers for the journey as an “Expendable” with out understanding the small print of the work.
Mickey quickly finds himself dying. Loads. An expendable is somebody who is shipped into essentially the most lethal conditions for analysis functions, dies, and is cloned with all of their recollections up till their dying remaining intact. The method is then repeated over and over. Mickey’s life is actually expendable, and it takes a outstanding scenario for him to lastly see himself as worthy of life, love, and happiness.
Mickey 17 is finally a narrative in regards to the human situation, however it makes that time by incorporating quite a few themes and plot threads which have turn out to be widespread to many Bong Joon-ho’s movies. His movies can (and have been) analyzed deeply. The under sections check out a number of the most clear connections between his earlier films and Mickey 17, type of like a place to begin for deeper evaluation. Watch out for slight spoilers.
Parasite (2019)
Parasite is Bong Joon-ho’s masterpiece. It tackles capitalism by placing into battle two households on reverse sides of a wealth hole. For the Kim household on the low finish of the hole, struggling to maintain their heads above water (actually and figuratively) motivates their each motion.
Equally, Mickey is motivated to hitch the expedition to a different planet as a result of he has no different choices. He has fallen by way of the cracks of a failing society. He has no cash and no schooling to talk of, so he takes no matter job he can get… and his life is handled like trash due to it. The hole between the haves and have-nots can be readily obvious aboard the spaceship, with the leaders of the colony dwelling extravagantly with scrumptious meals and sauces whereas the rabble dine on numerous sludges and nutrient bricks.
Okja (2017)
Capitalism is a typical theme amongst Bong Joon-ho’s movies, Okja included. Nonetheless, Okja additionally contains themes involving animal rights and environmentalism. Okja, the genetically modified pig of the title, is saved from slaughter by a younger woman who kinds an emotional bond with the animal.
Equally, Mickey 17 contains a race of alien creatures the people identify “creepers.” The creepers appear like giant bugs, however they’re truly clever and delicate creatures. Mickey comes to grasp this, and his dealings with the creepers—and saving their lives and setting from deliberate destruction within the identify of “human progress”—is a big driver of the plot within the latter half of Mickey 17.
Snowpiercer (2013)
Snowpiercer is Bong Joon-ho’s most action-forward movie thus far. It’s set in a future the place human intervention exacerbated an inevitable environmental catastrophe. Now, humanity is confined to a prepare the place the elite are housed within the entrance and the poor are crammed in the direction of the again. Uninterested in being handled as lower than human, the residents of the again of the prepare insurgent and work their approach in the direction of the entrance.
Mickey 17 can be set in a future the place environmental harm is rampant. That’s one of many the explanation why so many individuals are prepared to start out life anew on one other planet. Additionally, the abuses made by the elite aboard the spaceship create a simmering rise up amongst a portion of the crew which culminates within the last act of the movie. In Bong Joon-ho’s movies, the elite are sometimes held accountable for his or her actions.
Mom (2009)
Amongst Bong Joon-ho’s movies over the previous twenty years, Mom is the one which stands other than the remainder. It’s a few girl whose intellectually challenged son is accused of homicide, so she goes to nice and horrible lengths to seek out the true killer. It is a wonderful film, however the themes so prevalent in Bong’s more moderen works aren’t as instantly obvious.
Nonetheless, the mom/son relationship of Mom will be seen in Mickey 17 in sure methods. First is Mickey’s backstory. Mickey holds onto guilt for a tragedy involving his mom, displaying that the bond between dad or mum and baby can depart lasting results. Maybe the higher connection entails the creepers. A creeper is captured by the crew of the human colony, and the chief of the creepers is the hostage’s mom, a mom who’s prepared to kill each human on her planet if she doesn’t get her child again.
The Host (2006)
And at last, now we have The Host. The inciting incident of The Host occurs when an American facility in South Korea dumps waste into the Han River and creates a monster. Years later, the monster abducts the daughter of an underachiever who runs a snack bar together with his father. Main themes embody important reactions of residents in the direction of the actions of presidency entities, each American and South Korean.
In Mickey 17, the failings of the federal government result in a “cult of character” politician, Kenneth Marshall, having the ability to exploit folks to a horrific diploma. Marshall’s complete crew is subjected to exploitation of some extent, however the lowest of the low, Mickey, offers with the worst. His job as an Expendable isn’t even authorized on Earth, however Marshall someway convinces the regulatory our bodies to permit it off planet. It’s baffling, however it imitates real-life political buffoonery frighteningly nicely.
