Bugonia Couldn't Be Weirder Than the Science Fiction Psychological Drama It's Based On
Aegean surrealist director Yorgos Lanthimos is known for extremely strange movies. His original stories veer into the bizarre, like The Lobster, a film where unattached individuals need to find love or face changed into beasts. Whenever he interprets existing material, he frequently picks source material that’s quite peculiar as well — stranger, possibly, than his cinematic take. That was the case with 2023’s Poor Things, a film version of author Alasdair Gray's gloriously perverse novel, a feminist, sex-positive reimagining of Frankenstein. Lanthimos’ version stands strong, but in a way, his specific style of oddity and the novelist's neutralize one another.
Lanthimos’ Next Pick
His following selection to interpret was likewise drawn from unexpected territory. The source text for Bugonia, his latest team-up with star Emma Stone, comes from 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a perplexing Korean mix of styles of science fiction, black comedy, horror, satire, dark psychodrama, and police procedural. It's an unusual piece not primarily due to what it’s about — although that's highly unconventional — but for the frenzied excess of its tone and narrative approach. It's an insane journey.
The Burst of Korean Film
It seems there was a certain energy within the country during that period. Save the Green Planet!, the work of Jang Joon-hwan, was part of a boom of audacious in style, groundbreaking movies by emerging talents of filmmakers including Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It came out the same year as the director's Memories of Murder and Park’s Oldboy. Save the Green Planet! doesn't quite match up as those celebrated works, but it’s got a lot in common with them: extreme violence, dark comedy, pointed observations, and defying expectations.
The Plot Unfolds
Save the Green Planet! revolves around a disturbed young man who kidnaps a corporate CEO, convinced he is an alien originating in another galaxy, intent on world domination. Early on, that idea is presented as broad comedy, and the young man, Lee Byeong-gu (the performer known for Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), seems like an endearing eccentric. Alongside his innocent acrobat girlfriend Su-ni (the star) wear plastic capes and absurd helmets adorned with psyche-protection gear, and use ointment as a weapon. Yet they accomplish in kidnapping drunken CEO Kang Man-shik (actor Baek) and taking him to Byeong-gu’s remote property, a dilapidated building assembled on an old mine in the mountains, home to his apiary.
A Descent into Darkness
Hereafter, the film veers quickly into something more grotesque. Lee fastens Kang onto a crude contraption and inflicts pain while declaiming bizarre plots, ultimately forcing the gentle Su-ni away. However, Kang isn't helpless; powered only by the conviction of his elevated status, he can and will to undergo horrifying ordeals in hopes of breaking free and dominate the mentally unstable protagonist. Simultaneously, a deeply unimpressive police hunt to find the criminal begins. The detectives' foolishness and incompetence echoes Memories of Murder, although the similarity might be accidental in a film with a narrative that comes off as rushed and improvised.
Constant Shifts
Save the Green Planet! just keeps barrelling onward, fueled by its own crazed energy, trampling genre norms without pause, long after you might expect it to calm down or run out of steam. At moments it appears as a character study about mental health and overmedication; sometimes it’s a metaphorical narrative about the callousness of corporate culture; sometimes it’s a dirty, tense scare-fest or a bumbling detective tale. The filmmaker brings the same level of intense focus throughout, and Shin Ha-kyun is excellent, even though the character of Byeong-gu keeps morphing from wise seer, endearing eccentric, and terrifying psycho depending on the narrative's fluidity in mood, viewpoint, and story. I think it's by design, not a bug, but it may prove pretty disorienting.
Designed to Confuse
The director likely meant to unsettle spectators, mind. Similar to numerous Korean films during that period, Save the Green Planet! is powered by a gleeful, maximalist disrespect for stylistic boundaries on one side, and a profound fury about societal brutality in another respect. The film is a vibrant manifestation of a society finding its global voice alongside fresh commercial and artistic liberties. One can look forward to observe Lanthimos' perspective on the original plot from a current U.S. standpoint — arguably, the other end of the telescope.
Save the Green Planet! is accessible for viewing for free.
