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Greek surrealist filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos is known for extremely strange movies. The narratives he creates defy convention, like The Lobster, a film where single people must partner up or else be being turned into animals. When he adapts someone else’s work, he frequently picks basis material that’s rather eccentric also — more bizarre, perhaps, than his adaptation of it. Such was the situation for last year's Poor Things, a film version of Alasdair Gray’s delightfully aberrant novel, a feminist, sex-positive reimagining of Frankenstein. The director's adaptation is good, but to some extent, his specific style of oddity and the author's neutralize one another.

Lanthimos’ Next Pick

Lanthimos’ next pick to bring to screen similarly emerged from the fringes. The original work for Bugonia, his newest team-up with leading actress Emma Stone, comes from 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a perplexing Korean fusion of sci-fi, black comedy, horror, satire, psychological thriller, and police procedural. It's an unusual piece not primarily due to its subject matter — although that's far from normal — but for the chaotic extremity of its tone and storytelling style. It's an insane journey.

A Korean Cinema Explosion

There must have been a creative spirit within the country during that period. Save the Green Planet!, helmed by Jang Joon-hwan, belonged to a boom of audacious in style, innovative movies from a new generation of filmmakers including Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It was released 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 shares many traits with them: extreme violence, dark comedy, sharp societal critique, and defying expectations.

The Plot Unfolds

Save the Green Planet! focuses on a disturbed young man who captures a chemical-company executive, convinced he is a being originating in another galaxy, intent on world domination. At first, the premise is played as farce, and the young man, Lee Byeong-gu (Shin Ha-kyun known for Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), appears as an endearing eccentric. Alongside his innocent acrobat girlfriend Su-ni (Hwang Jung-min) don slick rainwear and absurd helmets adorned with psyche-protection gear, and employ menthol rub for defense. Yet they accomplish in seizing inebriated businessman Kang Man-shik (the performer) and bringing him to Byeong-gu’s remote property, a dilapidated building constructed in a former excavation amid the hills, where he keeps bees.

Growing Tension

From this point, the story shifts abruptly into something more grotesque. Byeong-gu straps Kang into a makeshift device and physically abuses him while declaiming bizarre plots, finally pushing the innocent partner away. Yet the captive is resilient; driven solely by the conviction of his innate dominance, he is prepared and capable to undergo awful experiences in hopes of breaking free and lord it over the clearly unwell protagonist. Meanwhile, a deeply unimpressive manhunt for the abductor commences. The detectives' foolishness and lack of skill recalls Memories of Murder, though it may not be as deliberate in a film with a plot that comes off as rushed and improvised.

Constant Shifts

Save the Green Planet! plunges forward relentlessly, driven by its manic force, breaking rules along the way, even when you might expect it to either settle down or falter. Occasionally it feels like a serious story about mental health and excessive drug use; at other times it becomes a metaphorical narrative regarding the indifference of corporate culture; alternately it serves as a grimy basement horror or a sloppy cop movie. Jang Joon-hwan applies equal measure of feverish dedication in all scenes, and the lead actor is excellent, while the protagonist keeps morphing between wise seer, lovable weirdo, and frightening madman as required by the film's ever-changing tone in tone, perspective, and plot. One could argue that’s a feature, not a flaw, but it can be pretty disorienting.

Designed to Confuse

The director likely meant to confuse viewers, mind. In line with various Korean films of its time, Save the Green Planet! draws energy from an exuberant rejection for genre limits in one aspect, and a quite sincere anger about man’s inhumanity to man in another respect. The film is a vibrant manifestation of a society establishing its international presence alongside fresh commercial and social changes. It promises to be intriguing to observe how Lanthimos views the same story through a modern Western lens — arguably, a contrasting viewpoint.

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Save the Green Planet! is available to stream without charge.