A chaotic sci-fi satire, mostly for the better
Korean director Bong Joon Ho has a filmography that can be pretty neatly split in half at this point. There are his films that, in theory, could take place in the reality we currently occupy. These films include the based-on-a-true-crime-story Memories of Murder (2000), the ruthlessly bleak drama Mother (2009), and Bong Joon Ho’s international breakout hit Parasite (2019).
The other half of his filmography is firmly rooted in science fiction, the sci-fi satire creature feature The Host (2006), the sci-fi satire dystopian action film Snowpiercer (2013), and the sci-fi satire Netflix “girl and her genetically engineered giant pig” film Okja (2017).
The aspects that define the other half of Bong Joon Ho’s filmography are pretty clear. Not only are they science fiction films, but they must include some aspect of satire, usually focused on either class warfare, government control, corporate overlords, or a combination of all three. Mickey 17, the newest film from Bong Joon Ho, is a combination of all three, a chaotic shotgun blast of ideas that mostly hit their intended targets. Mostly.
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