The New Film Isn't Likely to Be More Bizarre Than the Science Fiction Psychological Drama It's Adapted From
Greek surrealist director Yorgos Lanthimos is known for highly unusual movies. His unique screenplays veer into the bizarre, like The Lobster, a film where single people must partner up or risk being turned into animals. In adapting existing material, he frequently picks source material that’s pretty odd as well — stranger, possibly, than the version he creates. This proved true with 2023’s Poor Things, a film version of Alasdair Gray’s delightfully aberrant novel, a pro-female, liberated reimagining of Frankenstein. His film stands strong, but to some extent, his particular flavor of eccentricity and the novelist's cancel each other out.
His New Adaptation
Lanthimos’ next pick for adaptation also came from the fringes. The original work for Bugonia, his recent team-up with leading actress Emma Stone, comes from 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a perplexing Korean fusion of sci-fi, dark humor, terror, satire, psychological thriller, and police procedural. It's an unusual piece less because of its subject matter — even if that's far from normal — but for the wild intensity of its atmosphere and storytelling style. It’s a wild, wild ride.
A New Wave of Filmmaking
There likely existed a creative spirit within the country in the early 2000s. Save the Green Planet!, written and directed by Jang Joon-hwan, belonged to a boom of daringly creative, innovative movies from fresh voices of filmmakers including Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It debuted alongside the director's Memories of Murder and Park’s Oldboy. Save the Green Planet! isn't as acclaimed as those iconic films, but there are similarities with them: extreme violence, morbid humor, bitter social commentary, and defying expectations.
The Plot Unfolds
Save the Green Planet! is about an unhinged individual who captures a chemical-company executive, thinking he's an alien originating in another galaxy, plotting an attack. Initially, this concept is presented as farce, and the young man, Lee Byeong-gu (the actor Shin from Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), appears as a charmingly misguided figure. Alongside his naive acrobat girlfriend Su-ni (the actress Hwang) wear black PVC ponchos and ridiculous headgear adorned with mental shields, and employ ointment as a weapon. But they do succeed in seizing intoxicated executive Kang Man-shik (the performer) and taking him to a secluded location, a ramshackle house/lab assembled at a mining site amid the hills, which houses his beehives.
Growing Tension
Hereafter, the film veers quickly into ever more unsettling. The protagonist ties Kang into a makeshift device and inflicts pain while declaiming absurd conspiracy theories, eventually driving the gentle Su-ni away. Yet the captive is resilient; driven solely by the certainty of his elevated status, he is willing and able to subject himself terrifying trials to attempt an exit and dominate the clearly unwell younger man. Meanwhile, a comically inadequate police hunt for the kidnapper gets underway. The officers' incompetence and clumsiness recalls Memories of Murder, though it may not be as deliberate in a film with a narrative that seems slapdash and improvised.
Constant Shifts
Save the Green Planet! continues racing ahead, propelled by its manic force, trampling genre norms along the way, long after you might expect it to find stability or falter. At moments it appears as a character study on instability and pharmaceutical abuse; at other times it becomes a symbolic tale regarding the indifference of corporate culture; sometimes it’s a dirty, tense scare-fest or a bumbling detective tale. Director Jang brings the same level of hysterical commitment to every bit, and Shin Ha-kyun delivers a standout performance, while Lee Byeong-gu constantly changes from wise seer, charming oddball, and terrifying psycho in response to the movie’s constant shifts in tone, perspective, and plot. One could argue this is intentional, not a flaw, but it can be rather bewildering.
Purposeful Chaos
Jang probably consciously intended to confuse viewers, indeed. In line with various Korean films of its time, Save the Green Planet! is driven by a gleeful, maximalist disrespect for artistic rules in one aspect, and a profound fury about man’s inhumanity to man in another respect. It’s a roaring expression of a society finding its global voice amid new economic and artistic liberties. It promises to be intriguing to witness Lanthimos' perspective on this narrative from a current U.S. standpoint — perhaps, an opposite perspective.
Save the Green Planet! is available to stream at no cost.
