Bugonia Can't Possibly Be Stranger Than the Science Fiction Psychological Drama It's Based On
Aegean avant-garde filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos specializes in extremely strange movies. His unique screenplays defy convention, like The Lobster, where unattached individuals are compelled to form relationships or risk changed into beasts. In adapting someone else’s work, he frequently picks source material that’s quite peculiar also — more bizarre, maybe, than the version he creates. This proved true for last year's Poor Things, an adaptation of the novel by Alasdair Gray delightfully aberrant novel, a pro-female, open-minded reimagining of Frankenstein. The director's adaptation is effective, but partially, his unique brand of weirdness and the author's balance each other.
His New Adaptation
The filmmaker's subsequent choice to bring to screen similarly emerged from the fringes. The original work for Bugonia, his latest team-up with star Emma Stone, comes from 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a perplexing Korean fusion of sci-fi, black comedy, terror, satire, dark psychodrama, and police procedural. It’s a strange film not so much for its plot — though that is highly unconventional — but due to the frenzied excess of its atmosphere and narrative approach. It’s a wild, wild ride.
The Burst of Korean Film
There likely existed a certain energy in South Korea in the early 2000s. Save the Green Planet!, the work of Jang Joon-hwan, was included in a boom of stylistically bold, innovative movies by emerging talents of filmmakers such as Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It debuted alongside the director's Memories of Murder and Park’s Oldboy. Save the Green Planet! isn't as acclaimed as those two crime masterpieces, but it shares many traits with them: extreme violence, morbid humor, sharp societal critique, and bending rules.
Narrative Progression
Save the Green Planet! revolves around a troubled protagonist who kidnaps a corporate CEO, thinking he's a being originating in another galaxy, intent on world domination. At first, this concept unfolds as farce, and the young man, Lee Byeong-gu (the performer known for Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), appears as a charmingly misguided figure. Alongside his childlike circus-performer girlfriend Su-ni (the star) wear plastic capes and absurd helmets encrusted with mental shields, and use menthol rub for defense. Yet they accomplish in seizing drunken CEO Kang Man-shik (actor Baek) and taking him to a secluded location, a dilapidated building assembled on an old mine amid the hills, where he keeps bees.
Shifting Tones
Moving forward, the story shifts abruptly into ever more unsettling. Byeong-gu straps Kang onto a crude contraption and inflicts pain while spouting absurd conspiracy theories, ultimately forcing his kind girlfriend away. However, Kang isn't helpless; fueled entirely by the certainty of his elevated status, he is willing and able to endure terrifying trials to attempt an exit and exert power over the mentally unstable protagonist. Simultaneously, a comically inadequate manhunt for the abductor gets underway. The detectives' foolishness and incompetence recalls Memories of Murder, though the similarity might be accidental in a movie with a narrative that appears haphazard and unrehearsed.
Constant Shifts
Save the Green Planet! continues racing ahead, driven by its own crazed energy, trampling genre norms underfoot, well past you might expect it to find stability or run out of steam. At moments it appears to be a drama 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 dirty, tense scare-fest or a sloppy cop movie. Director Jang maintains a consistent degree of hysterical commitment to every bit, and Shin Ha-kyun delivers a standout performance, even though the character of Byeong-gu keeps morphing from visionary, lovable weirdo, and dangerous lunatic depending on the film's ever-changing tone in tone, perspective, and plot. One could argue it's by design, not a mistake, but it may prove quite confusing.
Purposeful Chaos
It's plausible Jang aimed to disorient his audience, mind. In line with various Korean films during that period, Save the Green Planet! is driven by an exuberant rejection for stylistic boundaries partly, and a profound fury about societal brutality in another respect. It stands as a loud proclamation of a society finding its global voice during emerging financial and artistic liberties. It promises to be intriguing to see how Lanthimos views the same story through a modern Western lens — perhaps, the other end of the telescope.
Save the Green Planet! can be viewed online for free.
