🔗 Share this article The New Film Couldn't Be More Bizarre Than the Sci-Fi Psychodrama It's Based On Greek avant-garde director Yorgos Lanthimos specializes in extremely strange movies. His original stories defy convention, for instance The Lobster, in which single people must partner up or else be transformed into creatures. Whenever he interprets another creator's story, he often selects original works that’s rather eccentric also — more bizarre, maybe, than his adaptation of it. That was the case with 2023’s Poor Things, a film version of author Alasdair Gray's delightfully aberrant novel, a feminist, open-minded spin on Frankenstein. The director's adaptation stands strong, but to some extent, his specific style of eccentricity and the author's cancel each other out. The Director's Latest Choice His following selection to interpret was likewise drawn from the fringes. The basis for Bugonia, his latest project alongside star Emma Stone, is 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a confounding Korean mix of styles of sci-fi, dark humor, terror, satire, psychological thriller, and cop drama. It's an unusual piece less because of its plot — even if that's highly unconventional — rather because of the wild intensity of its mood and narrative approach. It’s a wild, wild ride. A New Wave of Filmmaking There must have been something in the air within the country in the early 2000s. Save the Green Planet!, helmed by Jang Joon-hwan, was part of an explosion of audacious in style, innovative movies from a new generation of filmmakers including Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It came out alongside the director's Memories of Murder and the filmmaker's Oldboy. Save the Green Planet! isn't as acclaimed as those iconic films, but it’s got a lot in common with them: extreme violence, dark comedy, sharp societal critique, and defying expectations. Image: Tartan Video The Story Develops Save the Green Planet! focuses on an unhinged individual who abducts a corporate CEO, convinced he is a being originating in another galaxy, intent on world domination. Early on, this concept is played as farce, and the lead, 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 naive acrobat girlfriend Su-ni (Hwang Jung-min) sport plastic capes and bizarre masks fitted with mental shields, and use ointment in combat. However, they manage in abducting inebriated businessman Kang Man-shik (the performer) and transporting him to a secluded location, a makeshift laboratory 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 physically abuses him while declaiming bizarre plots, eventually driving his kind girlfriend away. Yet the captive is resilient; driven solely by the belief of his own superiority, he can and will to endure horrifying ordeals in hopes of breaking free and dominate the clearly unwell younger man. At the same time, a comically inadequate manhunt for the abductor commences. The detectives' foolishness and clumsiness is reminiscent of Memories of Murder, though it may not be as deliberate within a story with plotting that seems slapdash and improvised. Image: Tartan Video A Frenetic Journey Save the Green Planet! just keeps barrelling onward, driven by its wild momentum, trampling genre norms along the way, even when one would assume it to calm down or run out of steam. At moments it appears to be a drama regarding psychological issues and pharmaceutical abuse; at other times it becomes a metaphorical narrative regarding the indifference of corporate culture; sometimes it’s a grimy basement horror or a sloppy cop movie. Director Jang applies equal measure of hysterical commitment to every bit, and the performer shines, while Lee Byeong-gu constantly changes between savant prophet, lovable weirdo, and dangerous lunatic in response to the film's ever-changing tone in tone, perspective, and plot. I think that’s a feature, not a mistake, but it may prove quite confusing. Intentional Disorientation It's plausible Jang aimed to unsettle spectators, indeed. Like so many Korean films during that period, Save the Green Planet! is powered by a joyful, extreme defiance for artistic rules in one aspect, and a genuine outrage about man’s inhumanity to man on the other. It stands as a loud proclamation of a nation establishing its international presence 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, an opposite perspective. Save the Green Planet! is accessible for viewing at no cost.