🔗 Share this article The New Film Can't Possibly Be Stranger Than the Sci-Fi Psychological Drama It's Adapted From Greek surrealist filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos is known for extremely strange movies. His original stories defy convention, like The Lobster, where singletons are compelled to form relationships or else be transformed into creatures. In adapting someone else’s work, he frequently picks basis material that’s quite peculiar as well — stranger, possibly, than the version he creates. Such was the situation regarding the recent Poor Things, a screen interpretation of Alasdair Gray’s gloriously perverse novel, a pro-female, open-minded reimagining of Frankenstein. The director's adaptation stands strong, but partially, his unique brand of oddity and the author's neutralize one another. His New Adaptation The filmmaker's subsequent choice to interpret was likewise drawn from the fringes. The original work for Bugonia, his newest collaboration with acclaimed performer Emma Stone, is 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a perplexing Korean fusion of science fiction, dark humor, terror, irony, psychological thriller, and police procedural. It’s a strange film less because of what it’s about — even if that's highly unconventional — but for the chaotic extremity of its tone and storytelling style. It's an insane journey. A New Wave of Filmmaking There likely existed a certain energy in South Korea in the early 2000s. Save the Green Planet!, the work of Jang Joon-hwan, was included in a boom of stylistically bold, groundbreaking movies by emerging talents of filmmakers such as Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It was released alongside Bong’s Memories of Murder and the filmmaker's Oldboy. Save the Green Planet! isn’t on the same level as those iconic films, but there are similarities with them: extreme violence, morbid humor, pointed observations, and defying expectations. Image: Tartan Video The Plot Unfolds Save the Green Planet! revolves around a troubled protagonist who captures a chemical-company executive, thinking he's a being from the planet Andromeda, intent on world domination. Initially, that idea is presented as broad comedy, and the young man, Lee Byeong-gu (the performer from Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), comes across as an endearing eccentric. Together with his naive acrobat girlfriend Su-ni (Hwang Jung-min) don plastic capes and absurd helmets adorned with psyche-protection gear, and use balm in combat. Yet they accomplish in kidnapping drunken CEO Kang Man-shik (actor Baek) and bringing him to the protagonist's isolated home, a dilapidated building he’s built at a mining site amid the hills, where he keeps bees. Shifting Tones Moving forward, the narrative turns into something more grotesque. Byeong-gu straps Kang onto a crude contraption and subjects him to harm while ranting outlandish ideas, finally pushing the innocent partner away. But Kang is no victim; powered only by the conviction of his innate dominance, he is prepared and capable to subject himself terrifying trials to attempt an exit and lord it over the mentally unstable younger man. Meanwhile, a deeply unimpressive manhunt for the abductor commences. The officers' incompetence and incompetence is reminiscent of Memories of Murder, although it’s not so clearly intentional in a movie with a narrative that seems slapdash and spontaneous. Image: Tartan Video Unrelenting Pace Save the Green Planet! just keeps barrelling onward, fueled by its manic force, defying conventions along the way, long after one would assume it to find stability or falter. At moments it appears to be a drama about mental health and pharmaceutical abuse; at other times it becomes a metaphorical narrative about the callousness of corporate culture; sometimes it’s a claustrophobic thriller or an incompetent police story. Director Jang brings the same level of feverish dedication to every bit, and Shin Ha-kyun shines, even though the character of Byeong-gu continuously shifts among savant prophet, lovable weirdo, and dangerous lunatic as required by the film's ever-changing tone across style, angle, and events. I think it's by design, not a flaw, but it might feel pretty disorienting. Intentional Disorientation It's plausible Jang aimed to disorient his audience, mind. Similar to numerous Korean films from that era, Save the Green Planet! is powered by a gleeful, maximalist disrespect for artistic rules partly, and a quite sincere anger about human cruelty additionally. It’s a roaring expression of a nation gaining worldwide recognition amid new economic and cultural freedoms. It promises to be intriguing to observe Lanthimos' perspective on the same story through a modern Western lens — arguably, a contrasting viewpoint. Save the Green Planet! is available to stream without charge.