The New Film Can't Possibly Be More Bizarre Than the Sci-Fi Psychological Drama It's Inspired By
Aegean surrealist filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos has built a reputation on highly unusual movies. His unique screenplays are weird, for instance The Lobster, in which singletons are compelled to form relationships or else be transformed into creatures. Whenever he interprets someone else’s work, he often selects basis material that’s rather eccentric too — odder, perhaps, than his cinematic take. That was the case regarding the recent Poor Things, a screen interpretation of Alasdair Gray’s wonderfully twisted novel, an empowering, liberated reimagining of Frankenstein. The director's adaptation is good, but to some extent, his particular flavor of weirdness and Gray’s balance each other.
His New Adaptation
The filmmaker's subsequent choice to bring to screen also came from unexpected territory. The basis for Bugonia, his latest project alongside star Emma Stone, comes from 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a confounding Korean fusion of science fiction, black comedy, terror, irony, psychological thriller, and cop drama. The movie is odd less because of its plot — even if that's highly unconventional — but due to the frenzied excess of its tone and narrative approach. It's an insane journey.
A Korean Cinema Explosion
It seems there was a creative spirit within the country during that period. Save the Green Planet!, written and directed by Jang Joon-hwan, was included in a boom of daringly creative, groundbreaking movies by emerging talents of filmmakers like Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It came out alongside Bong’s Memories of Murder and Park’s Oldboy. Save the Green Planet! doesn't quite match up as those iconic films, but it’s got a lot in common with them: graphic brutality, morbid humor, pointed observations, and defying expectations.
The Plot Unfolds
Save the Green Planet! revolves around a troubled protagonist who abducts a corporate CEO, convinced he is a being hailing from Andromeda, intent on world domination. At first, that idea unfolds as broad comedy, and the protagonist, Lee Byeong-gu (the performer known for Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), appears as an endearing eccentric. He and his naive entertainer girlfriend Su-ni (Hwang Jung-min) wear slick rainwear and ridiculous headgear adorned with anti-mind-control devices, and employ balm for defense. However, they manage in seizing intoxicated executive Kang Man-shik (the performer) and transporting him to the protagonist's isolated home, a makeshift laboratory constructed at a mining site amid the hills, where he keeps bees.
Growing Tension
Moving forward, the film veers quickly into increasingly disturbing. Lee fastens Kang into a makeshift device and inflicts pain while spouting absurd conspiracy theories, eventually driving his kind girlfriend away. But Kang is no victim; driven solely by the certainty of his elevated status, he can and will to undergo terrifying trials just to try to escape and exert power over the clearly unwell protagonist. At the same time, a notably inept investigation for the kidnapper begins. The officers' incompetence and incompetence echoes Memories of Murder, even if it’s not so clearly intentional in a movie with a plot that seems slapdash and unrehearsed.
A Frenetic Journey
Save the Green Planet! plunges forward relentlessly, driven by its own crazed energy, breaking rules along the way, well past one would assume it to either settle down or falter. Occasionally it feels to be a drama regarding psychological issues and pharmaceutical abuse; in parts it transforms into a metaphorical narrative about the callousness of capitalism; alternately it serves as a dirty, tense scare-fest or a bumbling detective tale. Director Jang maintains a consistent degree of feverish dedication throughout, and the performer is excellent, although the character of Byeong-gu constantly changes from savant prophet, endearing eccentric, and dangerous lunatic in response to the narrative's fluidity in tone, perspective, and plot. One could argue that’s a feature, not a flaw, but it may prove rather bewildering.
Designed to Confuse
Jang probably consciously intended to disorient his audience, indeed. In line with various Korean films during that period, Save the Green Planet! is driven by a gleeful, maximalist disrespect for stylistic boundaries partly, and a genuine outrage about human cruelty in another respect. It stands as a loud proclamation of a society gaining worldwide recognition during emerging financial and cultural freedoms. It will be fascinating to observe the director's interpretation of the original plot from contemporary America — arguably, the other end of the telescope.
Save the Green Planet! is accessible for viewing at no cost.
