Bugonia Can't Possibly Be Weirder Than the Science Fiction Psychodrama It's Based On
Aegean avant-garde director Yorgos Lanthimos is known for distinctly odd movies. His unique screenplays are weird, for instance The Lobster, a film where single people must partner up or risk being turned into animals. When he adapts existing material, he tends to draw from original works that’s rather eccentric too — odder, perhaps, than the version he creates. Such was the situation for last year's Poor Things, a film version of Alasdair Gray’s wonderfully twisted novel, a pro-female, sex-positive take on Frankenstein. The director's adaptation is good, but partially, his unique brand of eccentricity and the novelist's cancel each other out.
Lanthimos’ Next Pick
His following selection to bring to screen similarly emerged from unexpected territory. The basis for Bugonia, his recent project alongside leading actress Emma Stone, was 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a confounding Korean genre stew of science fiction, black comedy, horror, irony, psychological thriller, and cop drama. It's an unusual piece less because of what it’s about — although that's highly unconventional — but due to the wild intensity of its tone and directorial method. It’s a wild, wild ride.
A New Wave of Filmmaking
It seems there was a certain energy within the country at the start of the millennium. Save the Green Planet!, written and directed by Jang Joon-hwan, belonged to an explosion of stylistically bold, boundary-pushing 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 the filmmaker's Oldboy. Save the Green Planet! doesn't quite match up as those two crime masterpieces, but it shares many traits with them: extreme violence, morbid humor, sharp societal critique, and defying expectations.
The Story Develops
Save the Green Planet! focuses on a troubled protagonist who abducts a chemical-company executive, thinking he's a being originating in another galaxy, intent on world domination. At first, that idea is presented as farce, and the young man, Lee Byeong-gu (the actor Shin from Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), appears as a charmingly misguided figure. Together with his childlike circus-performer girlfriend Su-ni (the star) wear slick rainwear and bizarre masks encrusted with psyche-protection gear, and employ balm for defense. But they do succeed in kidnapping intoxicated executive Kang Man-shik (the performer) and bringing him to the protagonist's isolated home, a dilapidated building assembled in a former excavation in a rural area, home to his apiary.
A Descent into Darkness
Moving forward, the narrative turns into increasingly disturbing. Lee fastens Kang onto a crude contraption and physically abuses him while spouting bizarre plots, ultimately forcing the gentle Su-ni away. Yet the captive is resilient; fueled entirely by the conviction of his own superiority, he can and will to endure terrifying trials to attempt an exit and exert power over the disturbed younger man. At the same time, a comically inadequate manhunt for the kidnapper begins. The detectives' foolishness and lack of skill echoes Memories of Murder, although it’s not so clearly intentional in a movie with a plot that comes off as rushed and spontaneous.
A Frenetic Journey
Save the Green Planet! plunges forward relentlessly, driven by its wild momentum, trampling genre norms underfoot, well past one would assume it to either settle down or lose energy. At moments it appears like a serious story about mental health and pharmaceutical abuse; 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. The filmmaker brings the same level of intense focus throughout, and the lead actor is excellent, even though the character of Byeong-gu constantly changes between savant prophet, endearing eccentric, and terrifying psycho as required by the narrative's fluidity across style, angle, and events. I think this is intentional, not a mistake, but it might feel quite confusing.
Intentional Disorientation
It's plausible Jang aimed to confuse viewers, indeed. Like so many Korean films from that era, Save the Green Planet! draws energy from a gleeful, maximalist disrespect for artistic rules on one side, and a quite sincere anger about societal brutality in another respect. It’s a roaring expression of a culture establishing its international presence alongside fresh commercial and cultural freedoms. It will be fascinating to observe how Lanthimos views the same story from contemporary America — perhaps, an opposite perspective.
Save the Green Planet! is accessible for viewing for free.
