Bugonia Couldn't Be More Bizarre Than the Sci-Fi Psychological Drama It's Based On
Aegean avant-garde filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos has built a reputation on extremely strange movies. The narratives he creates are weird, for instance The Lobster, where singletons must partner up or else be transformed into creatures. When he adapts another creator's story, he often selects original works that’s quite peculiar too — odder, perhaps, 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 take on Frankenstein. Lanthimos’ version stands strong, but to some extent, his particular flavor of eccentricity and Gray’s cancel each other out.
His New Adaptation
His following selection to interpret was likewise drawn from unexpected territory. The original work for Bugonia, his newest team-up with acclaimed performer Emma Stone, was 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a perplexing Korean fusion of science fiction, black comedy, horror, satire, dark psychodrama, and cop drama. The movie is odd less because of what it’s about — though that is far from normal — but due to the chaotic extremity of its tone and storytelling style. It’s a wild, wild ride.
A Korean Cinema Explosion
It seems there was something in the air in South Korea during that period. Save the Green Planet!, written and directed by Jang Joon-hwan, was included in a surge of stylistically bold, innovative movies from a new generation of filmmakers including Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It debuted the same year as the director's Memories of Murder and Park’s Oldboy. Save the Green Planet! isn’t on the same level as those iconic films, but there are similarities with them: graphic brutality, dark comedy, sharp societal critique, and genre subversion.
The Story Develops
Save the Green Planet! focuses on an unhinged individual who captures a business tycoon, thinking he's a being originating in another galaxy, with plans to invade Earth. At first, that idea is presented as farce, and the lead, Lee Byeong-gu (the performer known for Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), comes across as a lovably deluded fool. He and his childlike circus-performer girlfriend Su-ni (the star) sport slick rainwear and bizarre masks adorned with anti-mind-control devices, and wield menthol rub for defense. However, they manage in abducting inebriated businessman Kang Man-shik (the performer) and taking him to a secluded location, a makeshift laboratory he’s built on an old mine in the mountains, where he keeps bees.
Growing Tension
From this point, the narrative turns into ever more unsettling. Lee fastens Kang onto a crude contraption and physically abuses him while ranting bizarre plots, finally pushing his kind girlfriend away. But Kang is no victim; fueled entirely by the conviction of his elevated status, he can and will to undergo horrifying ordeals in hopes of breaking free and exert power over the clearly unwell younger man. At the same time, a deeply unimpressive police hunt to find the criminal gets underway. The cops’ witlessness and lack of skill recalls Memories of Murder, though it’s not so clearly intentional in a movie with a narrative that appears haphazard and spontaneous.
Constant Shifts
Save the Green Planet! plunges forward relentlessly, propelled by its wild momentum, defying conventions underfoot, well past you might expect it to either settle down or run out of steam. Sometimes it seems as a character study about mental health and excessive drug use; at other times it becomes a metaphorical narrative regarding the indifference of the economic system; alternately it serves as a claustrophobic thriller or a sloppy cop movie. The filmmaker maintains a consistent degree of intense focus throughout, and Shin Ha-kyun delivers a standout performance, although the protagonist continuously shifts from wise seer, charming oddball, and dangerous lunatic as required by the narrative's fluidity across style, angle, and events. One could argue that’s a feature, not a mistake, but it may prove rather bewildering.
Intentional Disorientation
Jang probably consciously intended to confuse viewers, indeed. In line with various Korean films of its time, Save the Green Planet! is driven by an exuberant rejection for artistic rules on one side, and a profound fury about societal brutality in another respect. It stands as a loud proclamation of a culture finding its global voice during emerging financial and artistic liberties. It promises to be intriguing to witness how Lanthimos views the same story from a current U.S. standpoint — perhaps, a contrasting viewpoint.
Save the Green Planet! is available to stream at no cost.