Mickey 17 is Bong Joon-ho’s weird and wonderful Parasite follow up

When you win an Oscar, as Bong Joon-ho did in 2020, there are many directions you can take your career — for the Korean director it was apparently time to get weird.

The filmmaker might have become a sensation with his crime thriller about greed and class through the collision of two families on opposite sides of the divide, but it's fair to say that Mickey 17 is not like that. The movie's first trailer landed on Wednesday, 18 September and it came as a delightful surprise to film fans because of its promise of a camp, quirky story led by an uninhibited Robert Pattison (who adds another strange accent to his filmography).

Mickey 17 follows Pattinson's titular character, an "expendable" who is sent on dangerous missions because if he dies a new iteration of himself will be printed. When one version survives a dangerous journey to colonise an ice planet Mickey 17 returns to find his successor — the two Mickeys realise they're now a "multiple", which isn't a good thing in his world, and all hell breaks loose.

Watch the trailer for Mickey 17:

Bong Joon-ho has never been a filmmaker to do the same thing twice, he's got an immeasurable level of creativity when it comes to the narratives he delivers that it's always exciting to see what he does next. The director has made sci-fi before, it's true, but it's clear from the tone of Mickey 17's first trailer that it's something completely different to Snowpiercer and Okja.

Mickey 17 is based on Edward Ashton's Mickey7, which is said to go to some weird places when Mickey finds his other self. Should Bong Joon-ho follow through with some of the mad ideas that are on the page then it might well be his most outlandish film yet.

For the director to follow up Parasite with a film like Mickey 17 is a bold move, but one that feels right for Bong Joon-ho. He's always created the stories he's wanted to create, regardless of what others might expect or want from him.

The filmmaker blasted onto the scene back in 2000 with his gipping debut Barking Dogs Never Bite, about a college professor who takes drastic action when annoyed by a yapping dog. But Bong Joon-ho came to wider attention for his 2003 follow-up Memories of Murder which followed two Korean detectives as they struggle to solve a case of multiple murdered women in the countryside.

Inspired by a real cold case (which has since been solved), the movie is an unflinching crime drama and marked the director's first of many collaborations with Song Kang-ho who delivered an exceptional performance as Detective Park opposite a quietly terrifying Park Hae-il.

Not one to get stuck in a box, the director's next film was monster movie The Host, he reunited with Song Kang-ho for an action-packed thriller about a family trying to rescue people impacted by the rampaging monster. It's a blockbuster movie in every sense of the word, but one that still had a lot of heart thanks to the family at the centre of the story.

Bong Joon-ho returned to the crime genre for Mother, which was told from the other side of the investigation to Memories of Murder as it follows a woman set on protecting her son, who she believes has been framed for a horrific murder.

In 2013, the director made his first foray into English-language movies with his adaptation of Snowpiercer. The dystopian film sees Earth ravaged by climate change, and what's left of humanity live on a train that is continually moving around the world. The train explores class through the way the passengers are divided, with the rich at the front of the train living in luxury and the most destitute at the back living in squaller.

The film ended up being a box office bomb but it really deserved better reception because it featured a fantastic cast and story, and it was surprising in all the best ways. That is likely why the film has since gained a cult classic status, and it has even led to a TV reboot which Bong Joon-ho produced.

Bong Joon-ho's next English-language film was Okja, a sci-fi film that challenged the meat industry in an unexpected way by featuring the friendship between a young girl and an adorable beast. It's a gorgeous and tragic film, and one that led to the West starting to pay more attention to him as a filmmaker, but it was Parasite and its awards season sweep that truly put him on the map.

Mickey 17, from initial look, feels like it'll have the most in common with Okja in terms of tone and spirit, but it'll also be something all its own too. With Pattinson at the helm, and a stellar supporting cast that includes Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun and Mark Ruffalo amongst others, the film will likely be an abundance of riches.

Just this little preview is enough to convince us to buy a ticket, and it feels like a fun new path for Bong Joon-ho to take precisely because it's not what people might expect.

Mickey 17 premieres in UK cinemas on Friday, 31 January.