Bong Joon-ho’s big comeback becomes clearer with Mickey 17 while the various trailers for the film sow doubt about the tone of the film.
Mickey 17 was revealed in a completely crazy trailer in mid-September and it’s an understatement to say that the first images of Bong Joon-ho’s new science fiction film intrigued us. In this American trailer, we saw Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson), a “replaceable”, dying again and again and coming back to life on behalf of a space company dont Mark Ruffalo is the CEO. Except that there can’t be several versions of a replaceable and obviously, that’s what’s going to happen to Mickey.
This postulate suggested a critique of capitalism and the exploitation of the poor by the richest (a subject already raised in Parasite and the entire Korean filmography). More unexpectedly, the American trailer suggested that the dystopia could above all be a science fiction comedy with black humor. However, the Korean trailer is quite different and difficult to know exactly what awaits us.
Death suits you
Between the American and Korean trailer, the difference is striking. Even if the two trailers have certain scenes in common like the severed hand levitating in space, the tone and atmosphere between the American and Korean trailers are really different, even opposite.
On the American side, the atmosphere is more festive and clearly comic with jazz music from the 60s which gives the various deaths of Mickey Barnes an ironic dimension. On the other hand, the Korean trailer uses classical music typical of Korean cinema to establish a more dramatic atmosphere and make the film lean towards the anticipation thriller side.
Apart from that, the Korean trailer seems to try to conform to the progress of the story with a choppy montage on the creation of the different Mickeys, from the first version to the seventeenth. In any case, the only viable question about the film at this point is: which one will best fit the end result? For now, nothing is certain.
As a reminder, the film is adapted from the novel Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton whose synopsis is the same as the film except that Bong Joon-ho stretched the story until the seventeenth version of Mickey Barnes (where the film stopped at the seventh hence its title). Undoubtedly a way for the Korean filmmaker to explore a little more easily the universe and the dangers faced by the character of Mickey Barnes.
In addition to Robert Pattinson in the shoes of Mickey and Mark Ruffalo, we will also find Toni Colette, Naomi Ackie (Blink Twice) and Steven Yeun in the cast. Mickey 17 will be in theaters on January 29, 2025 in France.
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