The New Film Can't Possibly Be Stranger Than the Science Fiction Psychodrama It's Inspired By
Aegean surrealist director Yorgos Lanthimos specializes in extremely strange movies. His unique screenplays defy convention, for instance The Lobster, in which single people need to find love or face being turned into animals. When he adapts someone else’s work, he tends to draw from basis material that’s pretty odd too — odder, possibly, than his cinematic take. That was the case with 2023’s Poor Things, an adaptation of the novel by Alasdair Gray delightfully aberrant novel, an empowering, liberated spin on Frankenstein. His film stands strong, but to some extent, his particular flavor of weirdness and the novelist's cancel each other out.
Lanthimos’ Next Pick
Lanthimos’ next pick to bring to screen similarly emerged from unexpected territory. The basis for Bugonia, his recent team-up with star Emma Stone, was 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a bewildering Korean mix of styles of sci-fi, dark humor, terror, irony, psychological thriller, and police procedural. It’s a strange film not primarily due to what it’s about — although that's highly unconventional — but for the chaotic extremity of its atmosphere and storytelling style. It's an insane journey.
The Burst of Korean Film
There must have been a creative spirit within the country during that period. Save the Green Planet!, helmed by Jang Joon-hwan, was part of a boom of daringly creative, innovative movies by emerging talents of filmmakers including Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It came out the same year as the director's Memories of Murder and the filmmaker's Oldboy. Save the Green Planet! isn’t on the same level as those two crime masterpieces, but it’s got a lot in common with them: extreme violence, dark comedy, pointed observations, and genre subversion.
The Plot Unfolds
Save the Green Planet! revolves around an unhinged individual who abducts a corporate CEO, convinced he is an extraterrestrial originating in another galaxy, plotting an attack. Early on, the premise is played as farce, and the lead, Lee Byeong-gu (the actor Shin from Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), seems like a charmingly misguided figure. Together with his childlike circus-performer girlfriend Su-ni (the star) sport plastic capes and bizarre masks fitted with psyche-protection gear, and use ointment for defense. However, they manage in seizing inebriated businessman Kang Man-shik (Baek Yun-shik) and taking him to a secluded location, a makeshift laboratory assembled on an old mine in the mountains, which houses his beehives.
Shifting Tones
From this point, the film veers quickly into increasingly disturbing. Lee fastens Kang into a makeshift device and physically abuses him while spouting bizarre plots, ultimately forcing the innocent partner away. However, Kang isn't helpless; fueled entirely by the conviction of his innate dominance, he is prepared and capable to endure horrifying ordeals in hopes of breaking free and exert power over the mentally unstable protagonist. Simultaneously, a comically inadequate police hunt to find the criminal gets underway. The officers' incompetence and incompetence is reminiscent of Memories of Murder, although it may not be as deliberate in a film with a plot that comes off as rushed and improvised.
Unrelenting Pace
Save the Green Planet! continues racing ahead, propelled by its own crazed energy, breaking rules without pause, even when one would assume it to find stability or lose energy. At moments it appears as a character study regarding psychological issues and excessive drug use; in parts it transforms into a symbolic tale on the cruelty of capitalism; alternately it serves as a claustrophobic thriller or an incompetent police story. Director Jang applies equal measure of hysterical commitment in all scenes, and the lead actor is excellent, although the character of Byeong-gu keeps morphing from wise seer, endearing eccentric, and terrifying psycho as required by the film's ever-changing tone across style, angle, and events. It seems that’s a feature, not a flaw, but it might feel pretty disorienting.
Designed to Confuse
It's plausible Jang aimed to unsettle spectators, indeed. In line with various Korean films from that era, Save the Green Planet! is powered by an exuberant rejection for stylistic boundaries on one side, and a genuine outrage about societal brutality additionally. It stands as a loud proclamation of a nation finding its global voice alongside fresh commercial and artistic liberties. It promises to be intriguing to witness how Lanthimos views the same story from contemporary America — arguably, a contrasting viewpoint.
Save the Green Planet! is accessible for viewing for free.