People don't talk enough about how funny Bong Joon Ho's films are. This is probably to be expected from one of the greatest masters of the tension that work in films today – but it is a shame, because even its central films are also hellish.
With his latest film, Mickey 17Director Bong has finally made an out-out comedy: the story of a miserable clone worker who is killed again and again in the name of science. It is all pechwarler humor, a bit of distress and a lot of heart; In other words, a science fiction comedy that could only withdraw Bong Joon Ho, which is also the perfect time to finally give him the comedic loan that he deserves.
[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for many Bong Joon Ho movies. It does not contain spoilers for Mickey 17.]
While the tension may be with which it is immediately associated with, the truth is that Bong Joon Ho is only a master of the mood in general. Like most great directors, he is an expert to lead every part of the filmmaking process to the feelings that he tries to convey. More than almost every director in history, one of the things that mark his films as unique and specific is the elegance with which he mixes genres. In individual scenes, he can dash from horror to romance to melancholy, while he feels completely seamless and releases any kind of conventional classification.
But in all this genre championship, the comedy is perhaps the sharpest tool in his kit. Whether it is a well -coordinated distraction to give the viewer a break between intensive moments, like any ridiculous, exaggerated detail from Tilda Swinton's performance in Snow piercerOr something more crucial for the story, he always knows when the moment is suitable for a joke.
While Bong may be able to build entire scenes or conversations from other genres, he uses comedy like spices and produces the full flavors even the smallest elements of his characters or actions. Park Gang-Dun (Song Kang-Ho) tried at the end of victims The host I wouldn't mean that much if we would not spend the beginning of the film with seeing his extremely funny, lack of laziness in its convenience. Similarly, Park Doo-Man (also Song Kang-Ho) is slower towards despair and madness in Memories of murder I wouldn't hit that if we didn't see his earlier stupidity.
parasite Perhaps the best example of how Bong uses a pick-black humor to constantly underline the topics of a film. The scene of Park Dong-ik (Lee Sun-Kyun) and Choi Yeon-Gyo (Cho Yeo-Jeonong) on the couch has sex while the entire Kim family is hidden under their coffee table. A scene and situation that is so bizarre that they do nothing but laugh. At the same time, however, it is also the entire film in miniature: the opulent wealth of the parks, in this case a coffee table that is big enough to push in a family of four that literally blinds her poor people in their lives while they are near sex on Sofas Galaven. Like everything in Bong's films, it is just another example of every mechanism that is perfectly synchronous to tell the story.
While the comedy has played an important but supportive role in so many of Bong's films up to this point Mickey 17 He is allowed to reverse the formula. The film is funny, open (and successful) in almost every scene for laughter – thanks to Robert Pattinson's incredible physical comedy chops and his absolutely ridiculous voice.
Bong also confirms as a whiz from slapstick and visual humor, and the script (especially the story) is full of funny and bizarre little jokes about the special features of how Mickey 17 sees the world. But it would not be a Bong Joon Ho film if it were just a simple comedy. Scenes that start funny in Mickey 17 Take an unexpected turn, suddenly fly into violence, blood or even white tensions in the drop of a hat. It is a masterful mix of genres in a way that only a few other modern directors even try, and that Bong seems easy to do in every film he makes. Each scene has an elastic flexibility and crazy energy that helps its jokes harder and reinforces its moments of horror, action and tension in a way that only Bong Joon Ho could.
