The New Film Can't Possibly Be Weirder Than the Sci-Fi Psychodrama It's Adapted From

Aegean avant-garde filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos has built a reputation on extremely strange movies. The narratives he creates veer into the bizarre, for instance The Lobster, in which singletons are compelled to form relationships or else be transformed into creatures. In adapting another creator's story, he often selects source material that’s rather eccentric also — more bizarre, possibly, than the version he creates. Such was the situation regarding the recent Poor Things, an adaptation of the novel by Alasdair Gray wonderfully twisted novel, a pro-female, liberated spin on Frankenstein. The director's adaptation stands strong, but partially, his unique brand of oddity and Gray’s balance each other.

His New Adaptation

Lanthimos’ next pick to bring to screen also came from unexpected territory. The basis for Bugonia, his latest project alongside leading actress Emma Stone, is 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a bewildering Korean genre stew of science fiction, black comedy, horror, satire, dark psychodrama, and cop drama. The movie is odd not so much for what it’s about — although that's highly unconventional — rather because of the frenzied excess of its mood and storytelling style. It's an insane journey.

A Korean Cinema Explosion

There must have been a certain energy across Korea at the start of the millennium. Save the Green Planet!, written and directed by Jang Joon-hwan, was included in an explosion of stylistically bold, innovative movies by emerging talents of filmmakers including Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It debuted the same year as Bong’s Memories of Murder and Park’s Oldboy. Save the Green Planet! doesn't quite match up as those iconic films, but it shares many traits with them: graphic brutality, dark comedy, bitter social commentary, and genre subversion.

The Plot Unfolds

Save the Green Planet! focuses on a disturbed young man who kidnaps a chemical-company executive, believing he’s an extraterrestrial originating in another galaxy, with plans to invade Earth. Early on, the premise unfolds as broad comedy, and the protagonist, Lee Byeong-gu (Shin Ha-kyun from Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), comes across as a lovably deluded fool. Together with his innocent acrobat girlfriend Su-ni (the star) sport black PVC ponchos and absurd helmets encrusted with anti-mind-control devices, and use menthol rub in combat. But they do succeed in seizing intoxicated executive Kang Man-shik (the performer) and taking him to the protagonist's isolated home, a ramshackle house/lab he’s built in a former excavation amid the hills, home to his apiary.

Growing Tension

Hereafter, the film veers quickly into increasingly disturbing. Byeong-gu straps Kang into a makeshift device and physically abuses him while declaiming bizarre plots, finally pushing his kind girlfriend away. Yet the captive is resilient; fueled entirely by the conviction of his elevated status, he is willing and able to subject himself terrifying trials in hopes of breaking free and lord it over the mentally unstable kidnapper. Simultaneously, a comically inadequate manhunt to find the criminal gets underway. The officers' incompetence and clumsiness echoes Memories of Murder, even if it may not be as deliberate in a movie with a narrative that comes off as rushed and improvised.

Unrelenting Pace

Save the Green Planet! just keeps barrelling onward, propelled by its manic force, trampling genre norms without pause, even when it seems likely it to either settle down or falter. At moments it appears as a character study regarding psychological issues and overmedication; sometimes it’s a symbolic tale about the callousness of the economic system; alternately it serves as a claustrophobic thriller or a sloppy cop movie. Director Jang maintains a consistent degree of feverish dedication throughout, and Shin Ha-kyun delivers a standout performance, even though the character of Byeong-gu constantly changes from savant prophet, charming oddball, and terrifying psycho as required by the narrative's fluidity across style, angle, and events. It seems this is intentional, not a mistake, but it might feel rather bewildering.

Designed to Confuse

It's plausible Jang aimed to confuse viewers, indeed. In line with various Korean films from that era, Save the Green Planet! is powered by an exuberant rejection for artistic rules partly, and a quite sincere anger about human cruelty additionally. It’s a roaring expression of a nation gaining worldwide recognition alongside fresh commercial and artistic liberties. It will be fascinating to observe how Lanthimos views the original plot from a current U.S. standpoint — arguably, the other end of the telescope.

Save the Green Planet! can be viewed online without charge.