South Korean director Park Chan-wook praises Robert Pattinson’s ‘Mickey 17’ performance, urges Oscar recognition

Dubai: South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook is heaping praise on Robert Pattinson’s performance in Bong Joon Ho’s highly anticipated sci-fi film, Mickey 17, where the actor plays multiple iterations of the same character.

Park, renowned for directing Oldboy and The Handmaiden, took to social media to express his admiration, writing: “If you want to understand why the sci-fi genre is essential, watch Mickey 17!

He went a step further, urging the Academy to consider Pattinson for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars, given his dual performances.

Based on Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel Mickey7, the film follows an "expendable" worker in a futuristic colony who is repeatedly cloned after each death, raising profound existential and ethical dilemmas.

Bong Joon Ho, known for his ability to blend social commentary with genre filmmaking, has previously earned critical and commercial success with English-language projects like Snowpiercer (2013) and Okja (2017).

While Mickey 17 has garnered strong reviews, it has yet to reach the level of universal acclaim achieved by Bong’s Parasite (2019), which made history as the first non-English-language film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. However, anticipation remains high, with critics and fans eager to see how Bong’s vision translates to this ambitious sci-fi narrative.