The New Film Couldn't Be Stranger Than the Science Fiction Psychodrama It's Inspired By
Greek surrealist filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos is known for highly unusual movies. His unique screenplays veer into the bizarre, like The Lobster, a film where single people are compelled to form relationships or else be changed into beasts. When he adapts existing material, he tends to draw from original works that’s quite peculiar too — odder, possibly, than the version he creates. That was the case regarding the recent Poor Things, a film version of the novel by Alasdair Gray delightfully aberrant novel, a pro-female, open-minded reimagining of Frankenstein. His film is effective, but in a way, his specific style of weirdness and the author's neutralize one another.
The Director's Latest Choice
His following selection to interpret also came from unexpected territory. The basis for Bugonia, his recent project alongside acclaimed performer Emma Stone, was 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a perplexing Korean fusion of science fiction, dark humor, terror, satire, dark psychodrama, and cop drama. It's an unusual piece not primarily due to its plot — although that's decidedly unusual — but due to the chaotic extremity of its tone and storytelling style. It’s a wild, wild ride.
A Korean Cinema Explosion
There likely existed a creative spirit across Korea at the start of the millennium. Save the Green Planet!, helmed by Jang Joon-hwan, was included in an explosion of audacious in style, boundary-pushing movies from a new generation of filmmakers like Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It was released concurrently with Bong’s Memories of Murder and the filmmaker's Oldboy. Save the Green Planet! isn’t on the same level as those iconic films, but there are similarities with them: graphic brutality, dark comedy, bitter social commentary, and bending rules.
The Plot Unfolds
Save the Green Planet! revolves around an unhinged individual who abducts a business tycoon, convinced he is an alien from the planet Andromeda, intent on world domination. Early on, this concept unfolds as slapstick humor, and the young man, Lee Byeong-gu (the performer known for Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), seems like an endearing eccentric. Alongside his innocent circus-performer girlfriend Su-ni (the star) wear slick rainwear and bizarre masks adorned with anti-mind-control devices, and wield menthol rub as a weapon. But they do succeed in kidnapping intoxicated executive Kang Man-shik (Baek Yun-shik) and transporting him to Byeong-gu’s remote property, a makeshift laboratory constructed on an old mine in a rural area, which houses his beehives.
Growing Tension
Hereafter, the film veers quickly into ever more unsettling. Lee fastens Kang to a budget-Cronenberg torture chair and physically abuses him while declaiming absurd conspiracy theories, ultimately forcing the gentle Su-ni away. Yet the captive is resilient; powered only by the conviction of his elevated status, he is prepared and capable to subject himself terrifying trials to attempt an exit and exert power over the clearly unwell kidnapper. Simultaneously, a notably inept police hunt for the abductor commences. The officers' incompetence and lack of skill recalls Memories of Murder, although it may not be as deliberate within a story with a plot that appears haphazard and unrehearsed.
A Frenetic Journey
Save the Green Planet! plunges forward relentlessly, driven by its own crazed energy, defying conventions underfoot, even when you might expect it to either settle down or run out of steam. At moments it appears to be a drama on instability and overmedication; at other times it becomes a metaphorical narrative about the callousness of corporate culture; in turns it's a claustrophobic thriller or a sloppy cop movie. Jang Joon-hwan applies equal measure of hysterical commitment throughout, and the lead actor is excellent, while Lee Byeong-gu constantly changes from wise seer, endearing eccentric, and terrifying psycho in response to the film's ever-changing tone in mood, viewpoint, and story. I think it's by design, not a bug, but it might feel quite confusing.
Purposeful Chaos
Jang probably consciously intended to unsettle spectators, of course. Like so many Korean films from that era, Save the Green Planet! draws energy from an exuberant rejection for genre limits partly, and a quite sincere anger about man’s inhumanity to man on the other. It stands as a loud proclamation of a society gaining worldwide recognition during emerging financial and social changes. It will be fascinating to observe the director's interpretation of the same story from contemporary America — possibly, an opposite perspective.
Save the Green Planet! can be viewed online for free.
