By Xu Aiying
Photos = Warner Brothers Korea
Video = Warner Brothers Korea's official YouTube channel

"Have a nice death. See you tomorrow," Timo (played by Steven Yeun) tells his friend Mickey (Robert Pattinson) while looking down. The latter is on the brink of death after falling in an ice valley during a mission.

Mickey thinks a quick demise is nicer because his body is freezing. Unfazed by Timo's words, he does not blame him because Mickey is an expendable, which means he will be regenerated. Mickey's mission is to come back as a clone to work each time he dies in a dangerous mission or medical experiment. The number after his name refers to the times he has died.

"Mickey 17" is the first film released by director Bong Joon-ho since "Parasite" (2019). At a media preview screening and news conference for the movie on Feb. 17 in Korea, he explained the black comedy in his work and answered cute, sharp and difficult questions.

With Bong calling his latest work a "sci-fi film with a human touch," "Mickey 17" tells of the human clone Mickey living under an inhumane system. To the dictator Marshall (played by Mark Ruffalo), an expendable is merely a consumable good and tool.

Mickey has experienced death over 10 times but still fears his every demise. The film differentiates itself from other sci-fi films because of its focus on stories of the working class rather than science and technology.

Bong said he tried something for the first time in this movie: a gargantuan planet inhabited by aliens, spaceship and love story.

Director Bong Joon-ho (top left photo) and the cast of "Mickey 17" on Feb. 15 attend the Berlin International Film Festival in the German capital.

"Mickey 17" made its world premiere on Feb. 13 in London and was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival two days later in the German capital, receiving critical acclaim from around the globe.

IndieWire of the U.S. called the movie "the best and most cohesive of Bong's English-language films, offers such exciting proof of Bong's genius."

Screen Daily of the U.K. added, "Long-awaited follow-up to Parasite is a 'proudly idiosyncratic' affair."

On the left is actor Robert Pattinson at a street food stall in Seoul with "Mickey 17" director Bong Joon-ho on Jan. 20 during Pattinson's first visit to Korea to promote their film. On the right are the cast of the hit entertainment program "Running Man" and Pattinson at Tongin Market in the city's Jongno-gu District.

In the movie, Mickey 18 is made by accident when Mickey 17 is near death but does not perish. Robert Pattinson plays both Mickey 17 and 18.

The actor attracted huge attention during his first visit to Korea on Jan. 20 to promote the film.

He told the news conference that just four to five directors worldwide are comparable to Bong and that it was an honor work with him, whom every actor wants to work with. The actor added that large-scale sci-fi films that show light and humorous scenes like those of the Star Wars franchise are rare, calling the movie a "brave" work by Bong.

On why he cast Pattinson, Bong said, "I needed someone to play both the stupid and pathetic Mickey 17 and the bizarrely charismatic Mickey 18, so I thought of Pattinson from the start and the entire process went smoothly."

"Mickey 17" will be released in Korea on Feb. 28 and North America on March 7.

These are posters for director Bong Joon-ho's latest film "Mickey 17."

xuaiy@korea.kr