After Director Bong Joon-ho swept the top prize at both the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Awards with ‘Parasite’, rising to the ranks of a true ‘global master, the thing he heard most often was, “You must feel a lot of pressure for your next film.” It‘s no different now, with the release of his new film, ‘Mickey 17’, his first in five years. Every time, Director Bong answers, “I’ve never felt that kind of pressure, not even once.”

When we met recently, he looked back on the ‘Parasite’ syndrome in 2020 and said, “It was exciting and an honor, but I got through it calmly. He said calmly, “I just make the same movies as always, within the natural flow.”

His consistent attitude is fully reflected in ‘Mickey 17’, which opens on the 28th. ‘Mickey 17’, which tells the story of the Expendable Mickey who can print his body and come back to life even after losing his life, is a mega-blockbuster that cost a huge amount of money to produce, but Director Bong captured the story of ‘humans and class’, which he has always dealt with since his debut, in a farce, ‘in the most Bong Joon-ho way’.

Oh, I‘m the destroyer of pretty boys?”

Unlike typical Hollywood SF, Director Bong, who features a weak laborer Mickey as the main character rather than a heroic figure, said, “Even if I made a grand SF like ‘Dune’, I would have made the main character wear socks with holes in them”, and laughed, saying, “I’m the type of person who can‘t stand characters that aren’t like that.”

“The reason I chose the SF genre is to show that even in the vast universe, all sweaty humans are the same. An acquaintance who saw the completed script in 2021 said, ‘Even in this advanced age and going to space, humans are still stubborn and foolish. Isn‘t that the honest image of a human being?’ I really liked that reaction.’

He cast Robert Pattinson, famous for ‘Pretty Boy’, as Mickey, and said, “Robert isn’t just like the pretty boy vampire in ‘Twilight’,”’,’, and recited the titles of independent films starring Pattinson, such as ‘Good Time’, ‘Cosmopolis’, ‘Lighthouse’.’

“After directing ‘Mother’ (starring Won Bin), there was a perspective that I was a ‘destroyer of pretty boys’. In fact, I had a really hard time with ‘Mother’. It‘s not easy to film Won Bin in a way that makes him look bad. Still, I was confident in the two-faced nature of Robert that he had shown in many movies.”

O“Historical figures and pa”

He also added a story about the alien lifeform, the ‘Creeper’, that appears in the film. This lifeform, which resembles a rat worm called a soybean bug, is considered ‘Bong Joon-ho’s signature creature’, following the Han River monster in ‘The Host’ and the giant pig in ‘Okja’.

“The first image I gave to the creature designer was a croissant. That‘s why I included the line, ‘A croissant in poop water’ in the film. The Creeper’s actions were based on my dog, Jjoon. If you bring in the behavior of a puppy, it will definitely be cute.”

Director Bong Joon-ho, who is preparing an animation about deep-sea fish and a horror action film set in Seoul as his next works, said that he will also be tackling a “biographical film,” raising curiosity.

“When I was making “Memories of Murder,” I felt a lot of pressure because there were still victims related to the Hwaseong serial murders that were the motif. That’s why I said, “I’ll never do another movie based on a true story,” but when I recently watched “Harbin,” I felt the spiritual pleasure of seeing a noble historical figure. I thought that if I dealt with historical figures, I wouldn’t have the pressure of “Memories of Murder.” That’s why I’m choosing biographies of several people.”


Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.