Bugonia Isn't Likely to Be More Bizarre Than the Sci-Fi Psychodrama It's Inspired By
Greek surrealist filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos has built a reputation on distinctly odd movies. His unique screenplays defy convention, for instance The Lobster, where unattached individuals are compelled to form relationships or face being turned into animals. In adapting another creator's story, he often selects source material that’s pretty odd too — odder, perhaps, than his adaptation of it. Such was the situation for last year's Poor Things, a film version of author Alasdair Gray's delightfully aberrant novel, an empowering, sex-positive spin on Frankenstein. His film is good, but to some extent, his unique brand of oddity and the author's neutralize one another.
His New Adaptation
Lanthimos’ next pick for adaptation also came from far out in left field. The basis for Bugonia, his latest project alongside star Emma Stone, comes from 2004’s Save the Green Planet!, a bewildering Korean genre stew of science fiction, dark humor, horror, irony, dark psychodrama, and police procedural. The movie is odd less because of its subject matter — even if that's far from normal — but for the chaotic extremity of its atmosphere and narrative approach. It's an insane journey.
A New Wave of Filmmaking
There must have been something in the air across Korea in the early 2000s. Save the Green Planet!, helmed by Jang Joon-hwan, belonged to a surge of daringly creative, innovative 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 the filmmaker's Oldboy. Save the Green Planet! isn’t on the same level as those celebrated works, but it’s got a lot in common with them: graphic brutality, morbid humor, pointed observations, and defying expectations.
The Plot Unfolds
Save the Green Planet! revolves around a troubled protagonist who kidnaps a chemical-company executive, convinced he is an alien originating in another galaxy, plotting an attack. Initially, this concept unfolds as slapstick humor, and the young man, Lee Byeong-gu (Shin Ha-kyun from Park’s Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), seems like an endearing eccentric. Together with his naive acrobat girlfriend Su-ni (the star) wear slick rainwear and bizarre masks fitted with psyche-protection gear, and wield menthol rub for defense. However, they manage in seizing inebriated businessman Kang Man-shik (the performer) and taking him to a secluded location, a ramshackle house/lab assembled in a former excavation amid the hills, where he keeps bees.
Growing Tension
From this point, the film veers quickly into increasingly disturbing. The protagonist ties Kang onto a crude contraption and inflicts pain while declaiming absurd conspiracy theories, ultimately forcing the gentle Su-ni away. Yet the captive is resilient; powered only by the certainty of his innate dominance, he can and will to undergo terrifying trials just to try to escape and lord it over the clearly unwell younger man. Simultaneously, a notably inept police hunt to find the criminal commences. The officers' incompetence and clumsiness recalls Memories of Murder, even if it’s not so clearly intentional within a story with a narrative that appears haphazard and improvised.
Constant Shifts
Save the Green Planet! plunges forward relentlessly, driven by its manic force, breaking rules without pause, even when it seems likely it to find stability or falter. At moments it appears as a character study on instability and excessive drug use; at other times it becomes a metaphorical narrative about the callousness of capitalism; alternately it serves as a claustrophobic thriller or a sloppy cop movie. The filmmaker brings the same level of feverish dedication throughout, and the performer delivers a standout performance, while Lee Byeong-gu keeps morphing among savant prophet, charming oddball, and dangerous lunatic as required by the movie’s constant shifts in tone, perspective, and plot. It seems it's by design, not a flaw, but it might feel pretty disorienting.
Intentional Disorientation
The director likely meant to disorient his audience, of course. In line with various Korean films of its time, Save the Green Planet! draws energy from an exuberant rejection for stylistic boundaries partly, and a quite sincere anger about societal brutality additionally. It stands as a loud proclamation of a society establishing its international presence amid new economic and cultural freedoms. One can look forward to see the director's interpretation of the same story through a modern Western lens — possibly, the other end of the telescope.
Save the Green Planet! is accessible for viewing for free.
