Bugonia Couldn't Be Weirder Than the Science Fiction Psychological Drama It's Inspired By
Greek surrealist director Yorgos Lanthimos is known for extremely strange movies. The narratives he creates veer into the bizarre, for instance The Lobster, a film where single people are compelled to form relationships or else be being turned into animals. In adapting someone else’s work, he frequently picks basis material that’s rather eccentric too — odder, maybe, than his cinematic take. This proved true for last year's Poor Things, a screen interpretation of Alasdair Gray’s gloriously perverse novel, a feminist, sex-positive reimagining of Frankenstein. The director's adaptation stands strong, but partially, his unique brand of weirdness and the novelist's neutralize one another.
The Director's Latest Choice
The filmmaker's subsequent choice for adaptation was likewise drawn from the fringes. The source text for Bugonia, his latest collaboration with leading actress Emma Stone, comes from 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a bewildering Korean genre stew of sci-fi, black comedy, terror, irony, psychological thriller, and cop drama. It's an unusual piece not primarily due to its subject matter — though that is decidedly unusual — rather because of the frenzied excess of its atmosphere and storytelling style. It's an insane journey.
A New Wave of Filmmaking
There likely existed a creative spirit within the country at the start of the millennium. Save the Green Planet!, written and directed by Jang Joon-hwan, belonged to a boom of audacious in style, groundbreaking movies from a new generation of filmmakers like Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook. It was released the same year as Bong’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: graphic brutality, dark comedy, bitter social commentary, and genre subversion.
The Story Develops
Save the Green Planet! is about an unhinged individual who kidnaps a corporate CEO, convinced he is a being hailing from Andromeda, plotting an attack. Early on, this concept is played as slapstick humor, and the lead, Lee Byeong-gu (the performer from Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), appears as a lovably deluded fool. He and his naive acrobat girlfriend Su-ni (the star) don black PVC ponchos and ridiculous headgear adorned with psyche-protection gear, and employ ointment in combat. Yet they accomplish in seizing inebriated businessman Kang Man-shik (the performer) and taking him to a secluded location, a dilapidated building constructed on an old mine in a rural area, which houses his beehives.
A Descent into Darkness
From this point, the narrative turns into ever more unsettling. The protagonist ties Kang into a makeshift device and inflicts pain while ranting bizarre plots, eventually driving his kind girlfriend away. But Kang is no victim; fueled entirely by the certainty of his own superiority, he is prepared and capable to endure horrifying ordeals to attempt an exit and dominate the mentally unstable kidnapper. Meanwhile, a deeply unimpressive manhunt to find the criminal begins. The officers' incompetence and incompetence is reminiscent of Memories of Murder, though the similarity might be accidental within a story with a plot that seems slapdash and spontaneous.
A Frenetic Journey
Save the Green Planet! continues racing ahead, fueled by its manic force, breaking rules without pause, long after it seems likely it to either settle down or falter. Sometimes it seems to be a drama about mental health and overmedication; in parts it transforms into a symbolic tale regarding the indifference of the economic system; in turns it's a dirty, tense scare-fest or a sloppy cop movie. Jang Joon-hwan brings the same level of intense focus to every bit, and the lead actor shines, even though the protagonist constantly changes between savant prophet, lovable weirdo, and terrifying psycho depending on the movie’s constant shifts across style, angle, and events. I think it's by design, not a mistake, but it may prove rather bewildering.
Purposeful Chaos
It's plausible Jang aimed to confuse viewers, of course. Similar to numerous Korean films of its time, Save the Green Planet! is driven by an exuberant rejection for artistic rules on one side, and a profound fury about human cruelty in another respect. The film is a vibrant manifestation of a society gaining worldwide recognition alongside fresh commercial and artistic liberties. It will be fascinating to observe the director's interpretation of this narrative from contemporary America — possibly, an opposite perspective.
Save the Green Planet! is available to stream for free.
