Bugonia Isn't Likely to Be More Bizarre Than the Science Fiction Psychological Drama It's Inspired By
Aegean surrealist filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos is known for highly unusual movies. The narratives he creates veer into the bizarre, for instance The Lobster, in which single people need to find love or risk transformed into creatures. Whenever he interprets existing material, he tends to draw from source material that’s quite peculiar also — more bizarre, possibly, than his cinematic take. This proved true regarding the recent Poor Things, an adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s gloriously perverse novel, a feminist, liberated reimagining of Frankenstein. His film is effective, but in a way, his unique brand of eccentricity and the author's balance each other.
Lanthimos’ Next Pick
Lanthimos’ next pick for adaptation was likewise drawn from the fringes. The original work for Bugonia, his latest team-up with leading actress Emma Stone, was 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a confounding Korean fusion of sci-fi, black comedy, terror, irony, psychological thriller, and police procedural. The movie is odd not so much for what it’s about — although that's far from normal — but due to the frenzied excess of its tone and directorial method. It’s a wild, wild ride.
The Burst of Korean Film
It seems there was something in the air within the country at the start of the millennium. Save the Green Planet!, written and directed by Jang Joon-hwan, was included in a boom of audacious in style, boundary-pushing movies from fresh voices of filmmakers including Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It came out alongside the director's Memories of Murder and Park’s Oldboy. Save the Green Planet! isn’t on the same level as those two crime masterpieces, but there are similarities with them: extreme violence, dark comedy, pointed observations, and bending rules.
The Story Develops
Save the Green Planet! is about an unhinged individual who kidnaps a corporate CEO, thinking he's a being from the planet Andromeda, plotting an attack. Initially, the premise is presented as slapstick humor, and the protagonist, Lee Byeong-gu (the performer from Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), appears as a charmingly misguided figure. Alongside his innocent acrobat girlfriend Su-ni (Hwang Jung-min) wear slick rainwear and ridiculous headgear encrusted with psyche-protection gear, and wield balm in combat. But they do succeed in kidnapping intoxicated executive Kang Man-shik (Baek Yun-shik) and transporting him to a secluded location, a dilapidated building assembled at a mining site amid the hills, home to his apiary.
A Descent into Darkness
From this point, the film veers quickly into ever more unsettling. Lee fastens Kang to a budget-Cronenberg torture chair and inflicts pain while spouting bizarre plots, eventually driving the gentle Su-ni away. Yet the captive is resilient; powered only by the conviction of his elevated status, he is prepared and capable to undergo terrifying trials in hopes of breaking free and dominate the mentally unstable younger man. At the same time, a notably inept investigation for the abductor commences. The cops’ witlessness and lack of skill recalls Memories of Murder, though it may not be as deliberate in a film with a plot that appears haphazard and unrehearsed.
Constant Shifts
Save the Green Planet! just keeps barrelling onward, fueled by its wild momentum, defying conventions underfoot, well past one would assume it to find stability or lose energy. Occasionally it feels like a serious story regarding psychological issues and excessive drug use; in parts it transforms into a symbolic tale about the callousness of the economic system; sometimes it’s a dirty, tense scare-fest or a sloppy cop movie. Director Jang maintains a consistent degree of intense focus in all scenes, and Shin Ha-kyun shines, even though the protagonist keeps morphing among wise seer, lovable weirdo, and dangerous lunatic depending on the narrative's fluidity across style, angle, and events. One could argue it's by design, not a mistake, but it may prove pretty disorienting.
Intentional Disorientation
The director likely meant to disorient his audience, indeed. Like so many Korean films from that era, Save the Green Planet! is powered by a gleeful, maximalist disrespect for stylistic boundaries in one aspect, and a profound fury about human cruelty in another respect. The film is a vibrant manifestation of a nation finding its global voice during emerging financial and cultural freedoms. It will be fascinating to see how Lanthimos views the same story from a current U.S. standpoint — arguably, the other end of the telescope.
Save the Green Planet! is accessible for viewing at no cost.
