The New Film Can't Possibly Be More Bizarre Than the Science Fiction Psychodrama It's Based On
Greek avant-garde filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos specializes in distinctly odd movies. His original stories defy convention, like The Lobster, in which singletons are compelled to form relationships or else be being turned into animals. When he adapts existing material, he tends to draw from original works that’s pretty odd too — odder, maybe, than his adaptation of it. That was the case regarding the recent Poor Things, an adaptation of author Alasdair Gray's wonderfully twisted novel, a feminist, open-minded reimagining of Frankenstein. His film stands strong, but to some extent, his specific style of eccentricity and Gray’s cancel each other out.
Lanthimos’ Next Pick
His following selection to bring to screen was likewise drawn from unexpected territory. The basis for Bugonia, his latest collaboration with star Emma Stone, was 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a bewildering Korean fusion of sci-fi, dark humor, terror, irony, dark psychodrama, and cop drama. It’s a strange film not primarily due to its plot — though that is far from normal — but for the wild intensity of its tone and storytelling style. It's an insane journey.
A Korean Cinema Explosion
There must have been something in the air across Korea in the early 2000s. Save the Green Planet!, written and directed by Jang Joon-hwan, was included in a boom of stylistically bold, boundary-pushing movies from a new generation of filmmakers such as 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! doesn't quite match up as those iconic films, but it’s got a lot in common with them: graphic brutality, morbid humor, bitter social commentary, and defying expectations.
Narrative Progression
Save the Green Planet! is about a troubled protagonist who abducts a business tycoon, thinking he's a being hailing from Andromeda, plotting an attack. At first, this concept unfolds as farce, and the protagonist, Lee Byeong-gu (the performer known for Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), appears as a lovably deluded fool. Alongside his innocent circus-performer girlfriend Su-ni (the actress Hwang) don plastic capes and ridiculous headgear adorned with psyche-protection gear, and employ ointment as a weapon. But they do succeed in seizing inebriated businessman Kang Man-shik (Baek Yun-shik) and transporting him to the protagonist's isolated home, a dilapidated building he’s built on an old mine in a rural area, which houses his beehives.
A Descent into Darkness
Hereafter, the story shifts abruptly into increasingly disturbing. The protagonist ties Kang into a makeshift device and inflicts pain while spouting outlandish ideas, finally pushing the gentle Su-ni away. However, Kang isn't helpless; fueled entirely by the certainty of his innate dominance, he is willing and able to subject himself horrifying ordeals in hopes of breaking free and lord it over the clearly unwell protagonist. Simultaneously, a comically inadequate investigation to find the criminal commences. The detectives' foolishness and lack of skill recalls Memories of Murder, even if it’s not so clearly intentional within a story with a narrative that appears haphazard and spontaneous.
Constant Shifts
Save the Green Planet! just keeps barrelling onward, driven by its manic force, defying conventions underfoot, well past you might expect it to either settle down or run out of steam. Sometimes it seems as a character study regarding psychological issues and overmedication; sometimes it’s a metaphorical narrative on the cruelty of capitalism; sometimes it’s a dirty, tense scare-fest or a bumbling detective tale. Director Jang brings the same level of hysterical commitment in all scenes, and the performer is excellent, although the character of Byeong-gu constantly changes from visionary, lovable weirdo, and frightening madman in response to the film's ever-changing tone across style, angle, and events. One could argue this is intentional, not a bug, but it may prove pretty disorienting.
Intentional Disorientation
It's plausible Jang aimed to unsettle spectators, mind. Similar to numerous Korean films from that era, Save the Green Planet! draws energy from a joyful, extreme defiance for stylistic boundaries on one side, and a quite sincere anger about human cruelty additionally. It stands as a loud proclamation of a culture finding its global voice during emerging financial and social changes. One can look forward to observe the director's interpretation of this narrative from contemporary America — arguably, a contrasting viewpoint.
Save the Green Planet! is accessible for viewing for free.
