Bugonia Can't Possibly Be More Bizarre Than the Sci-Fi Psychological Drama It's Based On
Greek surrealist filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos is known for extremely strange movies. His unique screenplays are weird, such as The Lobster, a film where unattached individuals must partner up or risk being turned into animals. Whenever he interprets existing material, he frequently picks original works that’s pretty odd also — more bizarre, maybe, than the version he creates. This proved true regarding the recent Poor Things, an adaptation of author Alasdair Gray's delightfully aberrant novel, an empowering, sex-positive reimagining of Frankenstein. Lanthimos’ version stands strong, but partially, his particular flavor of weirdness and Gray’s cancel each other out.
The Director's Latest Choice
Lanthimos’ next pick for adaptation was likewise drawn from far out in left field. The original work for Bugonia, his recent project alongside leading actress Emma Stone, was 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a confounding Korean mix of styles of science fiction, dark humor, terror, satire, dark psychodrama, and police procedural. The movie is odd not primarily due to its plot — even if that's highly unconventional — rather because of the chaotic extremity of its tone and storytelling style. The film is a rollercoaster.
A New Wave of Filmmaking
It seems there was a certain energy within the country in the early 2000s. Save the Green Planet!, helmed by Jang Joon-hwan, was part of a surge of audacious in style, boundary-pushing movies from fresh voices of filmmakers like Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It debuted concurrently with 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, sharp societal critique, and bending rules.
Narrative Progression
Save the Green Planet! focuses on a disturbed young man who kidnaps a business tycoon, thinking he's a being hailing from Andromeda, plotting an attack. Early on, this concept 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), seems like an endearing eccentric. He and his innocent acrobat girlfriend Su-ni (the actress Hwang) don slick rainwear and ridiculous headgear encrusted with mental shields, and wield ointment in combat. Yet they accomplish in kidnapping intoxicated executive Kang Man-shik (actor Baek) and taking him to a secluded location, a ramshackle house/lab assembled on an old mine amid the hills, home to his apiary.
A Descent into Darkness
Moving forward, the story shifts abruptly into something more grotesque. The protagonist ties Kang to a budget-Cronenberg torture chair and physically abuses him while ranting bizarre plots, finally pushing the gentle Su-ni away. Yet the captive is resilient; driven solely by the certainty of his innate dominance, he is willing and able to endure horrifying ordeals to attempt an exit and dominate the mentally unstable younger man. Meanwhile, a comically inadequate police hunt for the kidnapper begins. The cops’ witlessness and incompetence recalls Memories of Murder, even if the similarity might be accidental within a story with plotting that appears haphazard and improvised.
A Frenetic Journey
Save the Green Planet! plunges forward relentlessly, driven by its wild momentum, trampling genre norms underfoot, long after it seems likely it to either settle down or lose energy. At moments it appears like a serious story on instability and overmedication; in parts it transforms into a metaphorical narrative regarding the indifference of the economic system; sometimes it’s a grimy basement horror or an incompetent police story. The filmmaker brings the same level of hysterical commitment to every bit, and the performer delivers a standout performance, even though the protagonist keeps morphing between visionary, endearing eccentric, and frightening madman depending on the movie’s constant shifts across style, angle, and events. It seems it's by design, not a flaw, but it might feel rather bewildering.
Purposeful Chaos
Jang probably consciously intended to confuse viewers, mind. In line with various Korean films of its time, Save the Green Planet! is powered by a gleeful, maximalist disrespect for stylistic boundaries on one side, and a quite sincere anger about societal brutality in another respect. The film is a vibrant manifestation of a nation establishing its international presence alongside fresh commercial and social changes. One can look forward to observe the director's interpretation of the original plot through a modern Western lens — possibly, an opposite perspective.
Save the Green Planet! can be viewed online at no cost.
