Bugonia Can't Possibly Be More Bizarre Than the Science Fiction Psychological Drama It's Adapted From
Aegean avant-garde filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos has built a reputation on distinctly odd movies. His unique screenplays veer into the bizarre, such as The Lobster, a film where unattached individuals must partner up or else be being turned into animals. In adapting someone else’s work, he often selects source material that’s rather eccentric as well — stranger, perhaps, than his adaptation of it. This proved true with 2023’s Poor Things, an adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s gloriously perverse novel, a pro-female, sex-positive reimagining of Frankenstein. His film is effective, but to some extent, his particular flavor of oddity and Gray’s balance each other.
The Director's Latest Choice
His following selection to interpret was likewise drawn from far out in left field. The basis for Bugonia, his newest project alongside leading actress Emma Stone, is 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a perplexing Korean genre stew of sci-fi, dark humor, terror, irony, dark psychodrama, and cop drama. It's an unusual piece not so much for its subject matter — although 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
There must have been a creative spirit within the country in the early 2000s. Save the Green Planet!, the work of Jang Joon-hwan, was part of a boom of audacious in style, innovative movies by emerging talents of filmmakers like Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It was released alongside 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 bending rules.
The Story Develops
Save the Green Planet! focuses on an unhinged individual who kidnaps a corporate CEO, thinking he's an alien originating in another galaxy, plotting an attack. Initially, this concept is played as broad comedy, and the protagonist, Lee Byeong-gu (the performer known for Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), appears as a charmingly misguided figure. He and his naive entertainer girlfriend Su-ni (Hwang Jung-min) wear plastic capes and bizarre masks encrusted with mental shields, and use ointment as a weapon. But they do succeed in abducting inebriated businessman Kang Man-shik (Baek Yun-shik) and transporting him to Byeong-gu’s remote property, a makeshift laboratory constructed at a mining site in the mountains, where he keeps bees.
Growing Tension
Hereafter, the film veers quickly into increasingly disturbing. The protagonist ties Kang into a makeshift device and inflicts pain while spouting bizarre plots, finally pushing his kind girlfriend away. Yet the captive is resilient; fueled entirely by the belief of his elevated status, he is willing and able to endure awful experiences just to try to escape and exert power over the mentally unstable protagonist. Meanwhile, a notably inept manhunt for the kidnapper gets underway. The officers' incompetence and incompetence is reminiscent of Memories of Murder, even if it may not be as deliberate within a story with a narrative that appears haphazard and unrehearsed.
Unrelenting Pace
Save the Green Planet! just keeps barrelling onward, fueled by its manic force, breaking rules without pause, even when one would assume it to calm down or lose energy. Occasionally it feels like a serious story regarding psychological issues and pharmaceutical abuse; in parts it transforms into a symbolic tale regarding the indifference of capitalism; sometimes it’s a grimy basement horror or a bumbling detective tale. Jang Joon-hwan brings the same level of hysterical commitment in all scenes, and the performer is excellent, while the character of Byeong-gu constantly changes among wise seer, endearing eccentric, and frightening madman in response to the film's ever-changing tone in tone, perspective, and plot. I think this is intentional, not a bug, but it can be quite confusing.
Designed to Confuse
Jang probably consciously intended to confuse viewers, indeed. In line with various Korean films of its time, Save the Green Planet! draws energy from a joyful, extreme defiance for stylistic boundaries partly, and a genuine outrage about human cruelty additionally. It stands as a loud proclamation of a society gaining worldwide recognition alongside fresh commercial and cultural freedoms. It will be fascinating to observe how Lanthimos views the same story from contemporary America — arguably, a contrasting viewpoint.
Save the Green Planet! is accessible for viewing without charge.
