The New Film Couldn't Be Stranger Than the Sci-Fi Psychodrama It's Based On
Aegean surrealist director Yorgos Lanthimos is known for extremely strange movies. His unique screenplays defy convention, such as The Lobster, where singletons are compelled to form relationships or else be transformed into creatures. When he adapts someone else’s work, he often selects original works that’s pretty odd too — odder, perhaps, than his cinematic take. That was the case with 2023’s Poor Things, an adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s delightfully aberrant novel, a feminist, sex-positive spin on Frankenstein. Lanthimos’ version is effective, but to some extent, his specific style of weirdness and the author's cancel each other out.
Lanthimos’ Next Pick
His following selection to bring to screen similarly emerged from unexpected territory. The source text for Bugonia, his latest team-up with leading actress Emma Stone, was 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a perplexing Korean mix of styles of science fiction, dark humor, terror, satire, dark psychodrama, and police procedural. It’s a strange film not so much for what it’s about — even if that's decidedly unusual — rather because of the chaotic extremity of its mood and directorial method. The film is a rollercoaster.
The Burst of Korean Film
There must have been a certain energy within the country at the start of the millennium. Save the Green Planet!, written and directed by Jang Joon-hwan, was part of a boom of audacious in style, boundary-pushing movies from a new generation of filmmakers like Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It was released the same year as Bong’s Memories of Murder and Park’s Oldboy. Save the Green Planet! doesn't quite match up as those iconic films, but it shares many traits with them: extreme violence, morbid humor, bitter social commentary, and bending rules.
The Plot Unfolds
Save the Green Planet! is about an unhinged individual who abducts a chemical-company executive, believing he’s an alien originating in another galaxy, plotting an attack. Initially, this concept is presented as broad comedy, and the young man, Lee Byeong-gu (the actor Shin from Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), comes across as a lovably deluded fool. He and his naive entertainer girlfriend Su-ni (the actress Hwang) wear slick rainwear and bizarre masks encrusted with mental shields, and wield menthol rub as a weapon. However, they manage in abducting drunken CEO Kang Man-shik (the performer) and bringing him to a secluded location, a ramshackle house/lab constructed in a former excavation in the mountains, which houses his beehives.
A Descent into Darkness
Moving forward, the film veers quickly into ever more unsettling. The protagonist ties Kang into a makeshift device and physically abuses him while declaiming outlandish ideas, finally pushing his kind girlfriend away. Yet the captive is resilient; driven solely by the belief of his own superiority, he is willing and able to endure horrifying ordeals in hopes of breaking free and lord it over the clearly unwell younger man. At the same time, a notably inept investigation for the kidnapper begins. The officers' incompetence and lack of skill recalls Memories of Murder, though the similarity might be accidental within a story with a narrative that comes off as rushed and spontaneous.
Constant Shifts
Save the Green Planet! just keeps barrelling onward, propelled by its own crazed energy, trampling genre norms along the way, long after you might expect it to find stability or run out of steam. Sometimes it seems to be a drama regarding psychological issues and overmedication; at other times it becomes a fantasy allegory regarding the indifference of the economic system; alternately it serves as a claustrophobic thriller or a sloppy cop movie. Jang Joon-hwan applies equal measure of hysterical commitment throughout, and the lead actor shines, although the character of Byeong-gu constantly changes among wise seer, charming oddball, and terrifying psycho as required by the film's ever-changing tone in tone, perspective, and plot. One could argue it's by design, not a bug, but it can be rather bewildering.
Purposeful Chaos
The director likely meant to unsettle spectators, of course. In line with various Korean films during that period, Save the Green Planet! is powered by an exuberant rejection for artistic rules on one side, and a profound fury about societal brutality on the other. The film is a vibrant manifestation of a culture establishing its international presence during emerging financial and cultural freedoms. One can look forward to witness the director's interpretation of this narrative from contemporary America — possibly, the other end of the telescope.
Save the Green Planet! is accessible for viewing for free.
