Bugonia Couldn't Be Weirder Than the Science Fiction Psychological Drama It's Inspired By
Aegean surrealist filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos specializes in highly unusual movies. The narratives he creates veer into the bizarre, such as The Lobster, where singletons need to find love or risk transformed into creatures. When he adapts someone else’s work, he frequently picks basis material that’s pretty odd as well — stranger, possibly, than his adaptation of it. This proved true regarding the recent Poor Things, a film version of the novel by Alasdair Gray delightfully aberrant novel, a pro-female, liberated reimagining of Frankenstein. His film stands strong, but partially, his particular flavor of oddity and the author's neutralize one another.
His New Adaptation
The filmmaker's subsequent choice for adaptation was likewise drawn from the fringes. The original work for Bugonia, his recent project alongside leading actress Emma Stone, was 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a confounding Korean fusion of sci-fi, dark humor, terror, irony, psychological thriller, and police procedural. It's an unusual piece not primarily due to its subject matter — although that's far from normal — rather because of the wild intensity of its mood and directorial method. The film is a rollercoaster.
A Korean Cinema Explosion
It seems there was a certain energy across Korea in the early 2000s. Save the Green Planet!, the work of Jang Joon-hwan, belonged to an explosion of daringly creative, groundbreaking movies from a new generation of filmmakers like Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It was released the same year as the director's Memories of Murder and the filmmaker's Oldboy. Save the Green Planet! doesn't quite match up as those two crime masterpieces, but there are similarities with them: extreme violence, morbid humor, bitter social commentary, and defying expectations.
Narrative Progression
Save the Green Planet! is about a disturbed young man who abducts a chemical-company executive, convinced he is an alien hailing from Andromeda, with plans to invade Earth. At first, that idea unfolds as farce, and the protagonist, Lee Byeong-gu (the actor Shin from Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), appears as a lovably deluded fool. He and his innocent acrobat girlfriend Su-ni (the star) wear plastic capes and ridiculous headgear fitted with mental shields, and employ balm as a weapon. Yet they accomplish in kidnapping drunken CEO Kang Man-shik (actor Baek) and bringing him to a secluded location, a dilapidated building constructed in a former excavation amid the hills, where he keeps bees.
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 subjects him to harm while spouting bizarre plots, ultimately forcing the gentle Su-ni away. Yet the captive is resilient; powered only by the conviction of his own superiority, he is willing and able to undergo horrifying ordeals in hopes of breaking free and exert power over the mentally unstable kidnapper. Meanwhile, a comically inadequate manhunt for the abductor commences. The officers' incompetence and clumsiness echoes Memories of Murder, even if it may not be as deliberate within a story with plotting that appears haphazard and improvised.
A Frenetic Journey
Save the Green Planet! plunges forward relentlessly, propelled by its own crazed energy, breaking rules along the way, well past you might expect it to find stability or run out of steam. At moments it appears as a character study regarding psychological issues and overmedication; in parts it transforms into a metaphorical narrative regarding the indifference of capitalism; alternately it serves as a claustrophobic thriller or a bumbling detective tale. Director Jang maintains a consistent degree of hysterical commitment in all scenes, and Shin Ha-kyun shines, even though the protagonist constantly changes from visionary, lovable weirdo, and frightening madman depending on the narrative's fluidity in tone, perspective, and plot. I think it's by design, not a bug, but it can be quite confusing.
Intentional Disorientation
It's plausible Jang aimed to disorient his audience, mind. In line with various Korean films from that era, Save the Green Planet! is driven by an exuberant rejection for stylistic boundaries in one aspect, and a profound fury about man’s inhumanity to man in another respect. It’s a roaring expression of a culture finding its global voice alongside fresh commercial and social changes. It promises to be intriguing to witness the director's interpretation of this narrative from a current U.S. standpoint — possibly, the other end of the telescope.
Save the Green Planet! is available to stream for free.
