The New Film Can't Possibly Be Stranger Than the Sci-Fi Psychological Drama It's Inspired By
Aegean avant-garde filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos has built a reputation on distinctly odd movies. His unique screenplays defy convention, like The Lobster, in which unattached individuals must partner up or risk being turned into animals. Whenever he interprets another creator's story, he often selects original works that’s pretty odd as well — stranger, possibly, than his cinematic take. That was the case for last year's Poor Things, an adaptation of the novel by Alasdair Gray wonderfully twisted novel, a pro-female, sex-positive spin on Frankenstein. The director's adaptation stands strong, but partially, his particular flavor of eccentricity and Gray’s neutralize one another.
His New Adaptation
The filmmaker's subsequent choice for adaptation was likewise drawn from far out in left field. The original work for Bugonia, his newest team-up with leading actress Emma Stone, comes from 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a bewildering Korean fusion of science fiction, dark humor, terror, satire, psychological thriller, and police procedural. It’s a strange film not primarily due to its subject matter — even if that's far from normal — but due to the wild intensity of its tone and directorial method. It's an insane journey.
A New Wave of Filmmaking
It seems there was something in the air across Korea during that period. Save the Green Planet!, the work of Jang Joon-hwan, belonged to an explosion of stylistically bold, innovative movies by emerging talents of filmmakers including 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! isn't as acclaimed as those iconic films, but it’s got a lot in common with them: graphic brutality, dark comedy, sharp societal critique, and bending rules.
The Plot Unfolds
Save the Green Planet! revolves around a troubled protagonist who captures a chemical-company executive, believing he’s an alien hailing from Andromeda, with plans to invade Earth. Initially, the premise is played as broad comedy, and the protagonist, Lee Byeong-gu (Shin Ha-kyun from Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), comes across as an endearing eccentric. Alongside his innocent acrobat girlfriend Su-ni (the star) don plastic capes and absurd helmets encrusted with psyche-protection gear, and wield balm for defense. Yet they accomplish in abducting intoxicated executive Kang Man-shik (Baek Yun-shik) and taking him to Byeong-gu’s remote property, a dilapidated building constructed in a former excavation in the mountains, where he keeps bees.
A Descent into Darkness
Moving forward, the narrative turns into ever more unsettling. Byeong-gu straps Kang to a budget-Cronenberg torture chair and inflicts pain while declaiming absurd conspiracy theories, ultimately forcing the gentle Su-ni away. But Kang is no victim; powered only by the certainty of his innate dominance, he is prepared and capable to subject himself horrifying ordeals just to try to escape and dominate the clearly unwell younger man. At the same time, a comically inadequate manhunt for the abductor begins. The cops’ witlessness and lack of skill echoes Memories of Murder, even if it’s not so clearly intentional in a movie with a plot that seems slapdash and unrehearsed.
Constant Shifts
Save the Green Planet! plunges forward relentlessly, fueled by its wild momentum, trampling genre norms without pause, well past one would assume it to calm down or run out of steam. At moments it appears like a serious story about mental health and overmedication; in parts it transforms into a fantasy allegory on the cruelty of the economic system; alternately it serves as a dirty, tense scare-fest or a sloppy cop movie. Director Jang brings the same level of hysterical commitment to every bit, and Shin Ha-kyun delivers a standout performance, while the character of Byeong-gu keeps morphing from savant prophet, lovable weirdo, and dangerous lunatic in response to the narrative's fluidity in mood, viewpoint, and story. It seems this is intentional, not a mistake, but it might feel rather bewildering.
Designed to Confuse
Jang probably consciously intended to disorient his audience, mind. In line with various Korean films during that period, Save the Green Planet! is powered by a gleeful, maximalist disrespect for artistic rules on one side, and a quite sincere anger about man’s inhumanity to man in another respect. It stands as a loud proclamation of a nation finding its global voice alongside fresh commercial and social changes. One can look forward to witness the director's interpretation of this narrative from a current U.S. standpoint — possibly, an opposite perspective.
Save the Green Planet! is accessible for viewing without charge.
