The New Film Isn't Likely to Be Weirder Than the Science Fiction Psychodrama It's Based On
Aegean avant-garde filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos is known for distinctly odd movies. The narratives he creates are weird, such as The Lobster, a film where singletons must partner up or risk being turned into animals. When he adapts another creator's story, he frequently picks basis material that’s pretty odd as well — stranger, possibly, than the version he creates. That was the case with 2023’s Poor Things, a screen interpretation of Alasdair Gray’s wonderfully twisted novel, a feminist, liberated reimagining of Frankenstein. Lanthimos’ version stands strong, but partially, his particular flavor of weirdness and the novelist's neutralize one another.
The Director's Latest Choice
The filmmaker's subsequent choice to bring to screen was likewise drawn from far out in left field. The basis for Bugonia, his newest project alongside leading actress Emma Stone, is 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a perplexing Korean genre stew of science fiction, black comedy, horror, irony, psychological thriller, and cop drama. The movie is odd less because of what it’s about — though that is highly unconventional — but for the frenzied excess of its mood and narrative approach. It's an insane journey.
A New Wave of Filmmaking
There must have been something in the air in South Korea during that period. Save the Green Planet!, the work of Jang Joon-hwan, was included in a boom of daringly creative, groundbreaking movies by emerging talents of filmmakers such as Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It was released alongside the director's Memories of Murder and the filmmaker's Oldboy. Save the Green Planet! isn't as acclaimed as those celebrated works, but there are similarities with them: graphic brutality, dark comedy, sharp societal critique, and genre subversion.
The Plot Unfolds
Save the Green Planet! revolves around a troubled protagonist who abducts a chemical-company executive, convinced he is an extraterrestrial originating in another galaxy, intent on world domination. Initially, this concept is played as farce, and the lead, Lee Byeong-gu (Shin Ha-kyun known for Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), seems like an endearing eccentric. Alongside his childlike entertainer girlfriend Su-ni (Hwang Jung-min) sport black PVC ponchos and ridiculous headgear adorned with anti-mind-control devices, and wield menthol rub for defense. However, they manage in kidnapping inebriated businessman Kang Man-shik (the performer) and transporting him to Byeong-gu’s remote property, a dilapidated building constructed on an old mine in a rural area, which houses his beehives.
A Descent into Darkness
From this point, the film veers quickly into something more grotesque. Lee fastens Kang to a budget-Cronenberg torture chair and subjects him to harm while spouting outlandish ideas, ultimately forcing his kind girlfriend away. However, Kang isn't helpless; driven solely by the certainty of his innate dominance, he is prepared and capable to endure horrifying ordeals just to try to escape and dominate the mentally unstable protagonist. At the same time, a notably inept manhunt to find the criminal begins. The detectives' foolishness and lack of skill echoes Memories of Murder, although it may not be as deliberate in a movie with a plot that seems slapdash and improvised.
Unrelenting Pace
Save the Green Planet! plunges forward relentlessly, driven by its own crazed energy, defying conventions underfoot, well past it seems likely it to find stability or run out of steam. Occasionally it feels as a character study about mental health and pharmaceutical abuse; at other times it becomes a fantasy allegory regarding the indifference of capitalism; alternately it serves as a grimy basement horror or a sloppy cop movie. Director Jang applies equal measure of hysterical commitment throughout, and the performer delivers a standout performance, while the protagonist continuously shifts between wise seer, charming oddball, and dangerous lunatic as required by the film's ever-changing tone across style, angle, and events. I think it's by design, not a flaw, but it might feel rather bewildering.
Intentional Disorientation
The director likely meant to confuse viewers, mind. Like so many Korean films from that era, Save the Green Planet! is driven by a gleeful, maximalist disrespect for stylistic boundaries in one aspect, and a quite sincere anger about societal brutality additionally. The film is a vibrant manifestation of a nation establishing its international presence during emerging financial and cultural freedoms. It will be fascinating to witness Lanthimos' perspective on this narrative through a modern Western lens — arguably, a contrasting viewpoint.
Save the Green Planet! is available to stream at no cost.
