I was lucky enough to attend a "visiting artist talk" with auteur Bong Joon Ho at Yale University the afternoon before I saw his latest movie Mickey 17 and what really stuck with me about both experiences is Bong's sense of play. Whether he was wittily answering questions about surviving a successful Oscar campaign or his protagonist (Robert Pattinson) was engaged in a battle with a "habanero" version of himself, Bong serves up the unexpected in a way that unfailingly conveys an exhilarating freshness. In film as in life (or in life as in film), Bong never feels stale or weary... even when the questions are obvious, even when the set-up is seemingly familiar.
So while I'll never be an internationally recognized director nor a umpteenth iteration of my own clone bumbling about in outerspace, Bong points a way to be in this world. If you're engaged in a Q&A at a school auditorium, that's attentive, curious, humble, generous, and morally grounded; if you're floating in a spaceship ruled by a demented politician (Mark Ruffalo) and his twisted wife (Toni Colette), your best strategy is pretty much the same. How else would you connect with your best self or find a way to communicate with those giant snow bugs with fingernails for teeth? In both instances, however, if you're lucky you'll get to hang out with the incredibly talented Steven Yeun... which I did, in a way, in another life that was my life, too. Ask me about it next time you see me.
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