The New Film Isn't Likely to Be More Bizarre Than the Sci-Fi Psychological Drama It's Inspired By
Greek avant-garde director Yorgos Lanthimos is known for highly unusual movies. The narratives he creates veer into the bizarre, for instance The Lobster, in which singletons must partner up or else be transformed into creatures. Whenever he interprets someone else’s work, he frequently picks source material that’s pretty odd too — odder, maybe, than the version he creates. This proved true for last year's Poor Things, a screen interpretation of the novel by Alasdair Gray wonderfully twisted novel, a pro-female, liberated spin on Frankenstein. The director's adaptation is effective, but to some extent, his specific style of weirdness and the novelist's neutralize one another.
The Director's Latest Choice
His following selection to interpret similarly emerged from the fringes. The original work for Bugonia, his latest collaboration with leading actress Emma Stone, is 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a confounding Korean mix of styles of sci-fi, dark humor, terror, irony, psychological thriller, and cop drama. The movie is odd less because of its subject matter — although that's far from normal — but due to the frenzied excess of its atmosphere and narrative approach. The film is a rollercoaster.
A New Wave of Filmmaking
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 a boom of daringly creative, groundbreaking movies from a new generation of filmmakers like Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It debuted alongside the director's Memories of Murder and the filmmaker's Oldboy. Save the Green Planet! doesn't quite match up as those two crime masterpieces, but it shares many traits with them: extreme violence, morbid humor, bitter social commentary, and bending rules.
The Story Develops
Save the Green Planet! focuses on a troubled protagonist who abducts a chemical-company executive, thinking he's a being originating in another galaxy, with plans to invade Earth. Early on, this concept is played as farce, and the lead, Lee Byeong-gu (Shin Ha-kyun known for Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), seems like a lovably deluded fool. He and his childlike entertainer girlfriend Su-ni (the actress Hwang) sport black PVC ponchos and absurd helmets adorned with psyche-protection gear, and employ ointment as a weapon. But they do succeed in abducting drunken CEO Kang Man-shik (the performer) and bringing him to a secluded location, a dilapidated building constructed in a former excavation in the mountains, where he keeps bees.
Growing Tension
Hereafter, the narrative turns into something more grotesque. The protagonist ties Kang into a makeshift device and inflicts pain while ranting outlandish ideas, eventually driving the innocent partner away. Yet the captive is resilient; driven solely by the certainty of his innate dominance, he can and will to undergo terrifying trials in hopes of breaking free and exert power over the mentally unstable kidnapper. Meanwhile, a deeply unimpressive investigation to find the criminal 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 narrative that comes off as rushed and spontaneous.
A Frenetic Journey
Save the Green Planet! continues racing ahead, fueled by its wild momentum, defying conventions underfoot, long after it seems likely it to find stability or run out of steam. At moments it appears like a serious story regarding psychological issues and overmedication; at other times it becomes a symbolic tale on the cruelty of corporate culture; alternately it serves as a grimy basement horror or a bumbling detective tale. The filmmaker applies equal measure of hysterical commitment to every bit, and the lead actor shines, while the protagonist keeps morphing between wise seer, endearing eccentric, and frightening madman depending on the movie’s constant shifts in tone, perspective, and plot. I think that’s a feature, not a mistake, but it may prove quite confusing.
Purposeful Chaos
The director likely meant to confuse viewers, indeed. Like so many Korean films of its time, Save the Green Planet! is powered by a joyful, extreme defiance for genre limits on one side, and a quite sincere anger about societal brutality additionally. The film is a vibrant manifestation of a society finding its global voice amid new economic and social changes. It promises to be intriguing to observe the director's interpretation of this narrative from a current U.S. standpoint — perhaps, the other end of the telescope.
Save the Green Planet! is available to stream without charge.
