Latest news with #BongJoon-ho
Nikkei Asia
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Nikkei Asia
South Korea's Cannes film festival shutout spurs reckoning
SEOUL -- After zero South Korean feature films were selected for this year's Cannes Film Festival for the first time in 26 years, one of Asia's most storied film industries has been searching for answers to the setback. High-profile South Korean films such as "Parasite," director Bong Joon-ho's genre-bending smash hit, Park Chan-wook's "Decision to Leave" and "Chihwaseon" by Im Kwon-taek have all won major awards at the French festival, and Korean films have routinely been selected for the in- and out-of-competition categories.
Daily Maverick
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Maverick
From Cannes 2025: Five standout films you should watch next
With the Cannes Film Festival acting as a very early awards season indicator, these are the most acclaimed and notable films to put on your Must Watch List in 2025. The Cannes Film Festival is about more than Riviera-side schmoozing, 15-minute standing ovations and their booing flipside (plus the new addition of lengthy blackouts). The iconic film festival is an early indicator of potential award season contenders. Last year alone, Anora, which took home the festival's highest honour, the Palme d'Or, went on to win five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Fellow Oscar winners The Substance, controversial Emilia Pérez, and Animated Feature upset Flow all premiered at Cannes. Notably, before that, Bong Joon-ho's Parasite made the journey from Palme d'Or to Academy Award in 2019-2020, while legal drama-mystery Anatomy of a Fall picked up Best Original Screenplay at several awards ceremonies following its 2023 Palme d'Or win. The point is that it pays to keep an eye on what stands out at Cannes, whether competing (see the full 2025 winner's list here) or simply screening. These are the premieres from the 78th Festival de Cannes that you should keep a lookout for at local cinemas and film festivals in the coming months. Anti-authoritarianism earns accolades Film has always been a powerful medium to critique social and political injustice, and this year the Cannes main competition jury seemed eager to reward those movies vocal about power abuse and despotism. Case in point: the 2025 Palme d'Or went to It Was Just an Accident, from Iranian director Jafar Panahi, who has repeatedly been hit with filmmaking bans, travel restrictions and prison sentences from his country's authorities. Acclaim for It Was Just an Accident doesn't appear to be performative, though. Narratively straightforward, accessible, but also thought-provoking, the film sees an apparent everyman kidnapped by people who suspect that he may have been their prison torturer. Can they overrule their doubts and take revenge? Honourable mention: The only film to earn two awards at Cannes this year, The Secret Agent also features anti-totalitarian themes. Scoring Best Director for Kleber Mendonça Filho, and Best Actor for Narcos' Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent is a genre-hopping Brazilian thriller that explores how Carnival was used as a front in the 1970s to make the then-military dictatorship's opponents disappear. The latest auteur efforts For decades, the Cannes Film Festival has been catnip for the world's most acclaimed filmmakers. This year was no different, with Wes Anderson debuting his latest quirky all-star effort, The Phoenician Scheme, a few days before it comes to US cinemas on 30 May. Benicio del Toro plays a 1950s industrialist who, in the middle of a spate of assassination attempts, names his estranged daughter (Mia Threapleton), a nun, as his heir. The good news is that if you found Anderson's last few efforts over-styled and underwhelming, The Phoenician Scheme is apparently a return to enjoyable form. Largely thanks to Threapleton. Honourable mention: Spike Lee and Denzel Washington reunite for the first time in almost 20 years for Highest 2 Lowest, an English-language reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa's High and Low. Washington plays a successful New York City record producer forced into a ransom scenario that tests his morals. The film is already lined up for an Apple TV+ debut on 5 September. Queer experience on screens The Cannes Film Festival is always welcoming of LGBT+ content, even having an independent Queer Palm accolade for films that excel in their depiction of non cishet experience. There were several contenders for the award in 2025 (it eventually went to The Little Sister), but the most intriguing is the rule-bending romance Pillion. Described as a gay version of Babygirl, this directorial debut from Harry Lighton sees Harry Potter's Harry Melling enter into a sub/dom relationship with Alexander Skarsgård's aloof biker. It's kinky but also tender in its exploration of consensual power dynamics within a relationship. Honourable mention: South African filmmaker Oliver Hermanus, who previously made the likes of Moffie and Queer Palm winner Beauty (AKA Skoonheid), debuted historical gay romance The History of Sound at Cannes this year. Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor star as two men who connect over their mission to record American folk music circa World War I. The comparisons to Brokeback Mountain are there by default. A quick second shout-out also must go to Honey Don't!, a consciously B-grade detective comedy from Ethan Coen, which sees Margaret Qualley's lesbian private investigator hook up with Aubrey Plaza's cop. Charlie Day and Chris Evans also star. Of families and generations It's been called Arthouse with a capital A, but historical drama Sound of Falling, from German filmmaker Mascha Schilinski, emerges from Cannes heralded as something boldly original due to its storytelling approach – which dips into and interweaves the lives of four girls on a farm in northern Germany over the course of a century. It turns out that women's experience doesn't really change, with trauma having a way of seeping through time. Considered a grim watch, Sound of Falling was a tied winner of the Jury Prize (alongside Sirat), which is typically bestowed on up-and-coming filmmakers seen as driving the industry forward creatively. Honourable mention: The Grand Prize is Cannes's second highest honour and that went this year to Sentimental Value, from festival favourite Joachim Trier. Could this Norwegian drama, about the complex relationship between sisters, and daughters and fathers, finally earn Stellan Skarsgård an Oscar nomination? Also worthy of a Must Watch List spot is My Father's Shadow, the first ever Nigerian film to make it onto the festival's Official Selection. In his feature debut, British-Nigerian director Akinola Davies Jr. has told a semi-autobiographical tale with his brother Wale, set against the backdrop of the 1993 Nigerian election. Siblings spend a day with their estranged father (Sope Dirisu) and learn surprising things. The film earned a Camera d'Or Special Mention. One to talk about Finally, if you're looking for the most divisive movie release of Cannes 2025, that dubious honour has to go to Eddington, the latest from Hereditary, Midsommar, and Beau Is Afraid filmmaker Ari Aster. Is it an escalating parody of American divisiveness? Does it actually harbour MAGA leanings as it jeers at mask mandates and other liberal ideas? With a wider release set for July, you'll have to watch this moody modern Western, which pits Joaquin Phoenix's small-town sheriff against Pedro Pascal's mayor in the early days of the Covid pandemic, with their friends and neighbours taking sides, and things turning violent. DM
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
I Finally Watched Mickey 17, And I Had No Idea The Robert Pattinson Movie Would Be A Rom-Com
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Though Mickey 17 was a movie I planned on seeing in theaters earlier this year, things just didn't work out. Bummer, I know! Bong Joon-ho's book-to-screen adaptation of one of the most inventive sci-fi novels of the past decade was one of those films that screamed, 'See this on the biggest screen possible,' and I failed. However, I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice when it joined the list of new and recent movies streaming. Little did I know that this great sci-fi film would also, oddly enough, also be one of the best romantic comedies I've seen in the past couple of years. Before I watched Mickey 17, I thought the 2025 movie would be darkly funny and touch on some heavy themes like Bong's other great movies, but I honestly didn't see the new Robert Pattinson flick being a charming rom-com you can now watch with a Max subscription. Let me explain… Max: Save Up To $41 On Annual PlansWith free trials and other introductory offers all but scrapped, the best way to save money on most subscriptions these days is by prepaying for a year upfront. The same goes for Max, with up to 16% off its choice of three plans. Alternatively, its cheapest plan starts from $9.99 a Deal On the surface, Mickey 17 is a journey of Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson in an incredible dual performance), a guy who becomes an 'expendable' in space to evade a serious debt on Earth, not knowing what that entails. But as the story unfolds, and the relationship between Mickey and Nasha Barridge (Naomi Ackie) develops, this offbeat satirical comedy also becomes a fascinating and unconventional rom-com. As the story unfolds and various obstacles and complications (like Mickey dying multiple times and being brought back as a new version of himself) bring challenges to their relationship, these two remain deeply committed to one another, which honestly provides so much heart to this dark comedy. Everything they do is because of their love for each other, which is something I was not expecting from Bong Joon-ho's follow-up to his Academy Award-winning thriller Parasite. But that's the beauty of it, right? From a very unconventional love triangle to denying advances from prospective lovers to some highly inventive sex scenes as well as a tale of two lovers going to great lengths to be together, Mickey 17 is full of classic romantic comedy tropes. Honestly, I didn't expect to see that in a Bong Joon-ho movie, and it certainly wasn't on my 2025 Bingo card. On top of having all of your standard sci-fi tropes, space travel movie staples, and the director's signature biting tone, the staples of the rom-com genre are all up in this movie, and just typing that out sounds absolutely bonkers. Mickey 17 is very much a sci-fi movie, one that has a lot to say about a number of different topics. From the morality of human cloning to man's obsession with power and control to the prospect of intergalactic travel, this riveting dark comedy does it all. With awesome action sequences, some truly outrageous technology, and some space creatures that are both utterly terrifying and heartbreakingly cute, there's a lot to love here. None of the sci-fi elements are hindered by the love story at its core. I would go as far as to say that the Mickey and Nasha dynamic makes everything in this movie even better. All of this is to say that I didn't expect checking out a Bong Joon-ho sci-fi movie would give me one of the best rom-com experiences of the year, yet here I am writing to you all, asking you to love this movie (or at least give it a chance).
Time of India
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Anurag Kashyap draws parallels between SS Rajamouli and Bong Joon-ho's global impact
Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap shared his perspective on the current landscape of Indian cinema , drawing an interesting comparison between the growing international acclaim for SS Rajamouli and the global cult following of Korean director Bong Joon-ho. He stated, "With Rajamouli, there is a whole audience of him that's getting built since 'Eega' internationally. That's the same phenomenon with, say, Bong Joon-ho. Bong Joon-ho broke it with 'Parasite', but his best film was 'Memories of Murder'". Kashyap's Prediction of Rajamouli's Global Success Kashyap recalled predicting RRR 's international success prior to its release, saying, "I said it much before 'RRR' released, that 'RRR' will be that film that will break out from India because it was building up." He cited his experiences at international film festivals, where filmmakers from various countries expressed keen interest in Rajamouli, adding, "I've had filmmakers from Belgium, from Switzerland, from across wanting to know more about Rajamouli." He further mentioned filmmakers visiting the sets of 'RRR'", I know two filmmakers who made 'Blood for Dracula' and one more, they came down to Mumbai, and I took permission from Rajamouli and they visited the sets of 'RRR' and spent one week there." Kashyap summarized Rajamouli's international ascent, stating, "He first became big in the filmmaking world with ' Baahubali ', then larger in cinephilia, and with RRR, he reached out to the audience beyond cinephilia and the filmmaking world." Malayalam Cinema as the ' Korean Cinema of the Late 90s' Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Want Lower Bills Without Changing a Thing? elecTrick - Save upto 80% on Power Bill Learn More Undo Anurag Kashyap also lauded the ongoing evolution of Malayalam cinema, drawing a parallel between its current state and the rise of Korean cinema in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He observed, "There's a new Malayalam cinema that I find parallels with Korean cinema, like how Korean cinema was evolving in the late '90s and early 2000s. That's what Malayalam cinema right now." He elaborated on their approach, "They are taking up ideas that are not rooted but making them rooted, like, they are making films that are not their culture, but somehow fostering culture into it or finding culture into it and making it rooted." Citing an example, he said, "When I did a Rifle Club, from the early silent movies to Hunger Games, there was a glimpse of all these influential films. So it's like parts of these films became Rifle Club." Speaking about cinematic knowledge in Kerala, he noted, "Most of the Amal Neerad films are influenced by The Godfather, various stakes of it. So their influences vary from the far-off cinema they've seen from across the world. Cinephilia in Kerala is very high. They are genuinely brokers called Godard and Lenin, and one of them is a filmmaker. So cinephilia is very high and they are trying to find their stories in the subculture." Concerns Regarding Tamil Cinema and Observations on Telugu and Kannada Cinema In contrast, he expressed concern about Tamil cinema, saying, "Whereas Tamil, they mostly see blockbuster cult films. They are just borrowing from there, they are just dotting the big director blockbuster cult films. They are not watching films made in languages they are not familiar with or not been big at a festival, or have not been Oscar-nominated." On Telugu cinema, Kashyap acknowledged its distinct direction, stating, "They are creating their mythology. They are expanding, or borrowing, rehashing, or repeating their mythological world." As for Kannada cinema, Anurag admitted to limited recent exposure, "The last very, very good Kannada film I saw was 'Rama Rama Re…' and then Natesh Hegde's 'Pedro'. I have not seen a lot of Kannada films recently." Check out our list of the latest Hindi , English , Tamil , Telugu , Malayalam , and Kannada movies . Don't miss our picks for the best Hindi movies , best Tamil movies, and best Telugu films .
Mint
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
Bong Joon-ho's sci-fi comedy Mickey 17, starring Robert Pattinson, to stream globally on Max from THIS date
Mickey 17, the sci-fi black comedy film from Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho, is set to make its global streaming debut on Max on Friday, May 23. The film marked the return of Bong Joon-ho to the world of filmmaking after his Oscar-winning film, Parasite. Warner Bros. confirmed that Mickey 17, apart from being released on Max on May 23, will also premiere on HBO's linear channel the following day, Saturday, May 24, at 7:40 p.m. ET. Starring Robert Pattinson, the film is based on Edward Ashton's 2022 novel Mickey7 and presents a dystopian twist on the concept of workplace loyalty. Pattinson plays Mickey Barnes, an 'Expendable' — a disposable employee who is cloned each time he dies while carrying out dangerous missions for a human colony on a distant planet in the year 2054. The story blends biting humour with existential themes, exploring the human cost of survival and the absurdity of expendability. Mickey 17 premiered to strong reviews at Leicester Square in London on February 13, 2025, before screening at the 75th Berlin Film Festival. It was released theatrically in South Korea on February 28 and in the United States on March 7. The film has since grossed $131 million globally and received praise for its inventive storytelling, visual style, and Pattinson's performance. The cast also features Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo. Bong Joon Ho, best known for his landmark film Parasite, not only wrote and directed Mickey 17 but also co-produced it alongside Dooho Choi (Okja, Snowpiercer). Executive producers include Brad Pitt, Jesse Ehrman, Peter Dodd, and Marianne Jenkins. Combining cerebral science fiction with pitch-black humour, Mickey 17 continues Bong's tradition of blending genre storytelling with sharp social commentary — and now audiences worldwide can stream it from the comfort of their homes.
