The New Film Couldn't Be More Bizarre Than the Sci-Fi Psychological Drama It's Adapted From
Aegean avant-garde director Yorgos Lanthimos specializes in highly unusual movies. His unique screenplays defy convention, for instance The Lobster, in which unattached individuals are compelled to form relationships or else be changed into beasts. When he adapts another creator's story, he frequently picks source material that’s pretty odd also — more bizarre, possibly, than his adaptation of it. Such was the situation regarding the recent Poor Things, an adaptation of author Alasdair Gray's wonderfully twisted novel, an empowering, liberated spin on Frankenstein. The director's adaptation is good, but partially, his particular flavor of weirdness and Gray’s balance each other.
His New Adaptation
Lanthimos’ next pick for adaptation also came from unexpected territory. The source text for Bugonia, his latest collaboration with star Emma Stone, comes from 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a bewildering Korean genre stew of science fiction, dark humor, horror, satire, dark psychodrama, and police procedural. It’s a strange film not primarily due to its subject matter — though that is decidedly unusual — rather because of the frenzied excess of its atmosphere and narrative approach. The film is a rollercoaster.
The Burst of Korean Film
There must have been something in the air in South Korea during that period. Save the Green Planet!, the work of Jang Joon-hwan, was part of an explosion of audacious in style, innovative movies from a new generation of filmmakers like Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It debuted concurrently with Bong’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, pointed observations, and defying expectations.
Narrative Progression
Save the Green Planet! focuses on a disturbed young man who abducts a corporate CEO, convinced he is an alien from the planet Andromeda, plotting an attack. Initially, that idea is played as slapstick humor, and the lead, Lee Byeong-gu (the performer from Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), appears as an endearing eccentric. Together with his innocent acrobat girlfriend Su-ni (the star) sport slick rainwear and ridiculous headgear adorned with psyche-protection gear, and use ointment in combat. However, they manage in kidnapping inebriated businessman 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, which houses his beehives.
Growing Tension
Hereafter, the story shifts abruptly into ever more unsettling. Lee fastens Kang onto a crude contraption and subjects him to harm while spouting outlandish ideas, eventually driving the innocent partner away. But Kang is no victim; powered only by the belief of his elevated status, he can and will to subject himself terrifying trials to attempt an exit and dominate the disturbed younger man. Simultaneously, a notably inept investigation for the kidnapper commences. The cops’ witlessness and incompetence is reminiscent of Memories of Murder, although it may not be as deliberate in a film with plotting that appears haphazard and spontaneous.
Unrelenting Pace
Save the Green Planet! continues racing ahead, driven by its own crazed energy, breaking rules without pause, long after it seems likely it to either settle down or lose energy. Sometimes it seems as a character study about mental health and pharmaceutical abuse; at other times it becomes a metaphorical narrative on the cruelty of corporate culture; in turns it's a claustrophobic thriller or an incompetent police story. Director Jang applies equal measure of intense focus throughout, and Shin Ha-kyun shines, even though Lee Byeong-gu keeps morphing among savant prophet, endearing eccentric, and frightening madman as required by the movie’s constant shifts in tone, perspective, and plot. One could argue that’s a feature, not a mistake, but it might feel quite confusing.
Intentional Disorientation
The director likely meant to disorient his audience, indeed. Like so many Korean films during that period, Save the Green Planet! is powered by an exuberant rejection for genre limits in one aspect, and a genuine outrage about man’s inhumanity to man on the other. The film is a vibrant manifestation of a culture gaining worldwide recognition during emerging financial and artistic liberties. One can look forward to observe Lanthimos' perspective on the same story from a current U.S. standpoint — arguably, an opposite perspective.
Save the Green Planet! is accessible for viewing for free.
