Yorgos Lanthimos, after the success of Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness, will be directing an English-language remake of Jang Joon-hwan’s 2003 Korean film Save the Green Planet! The film, which Lanthimos has unveiled will be called Bugonia, will star Emma Stone as a CEO who is captured by conspiracy theorists, with a script adapted by Will Tracy of The Menu and Succession. Jang’s black comedy is an ideal fit for Lanthimos to remake– it has exactly the sort of off-kilter, weird tone that Lanthimos excels at.
Save the Green Planet! stars Shin Ha-kyun as Lee Byeong-gu, a part-time beekeeper who is convinced that aliens from the planet of Andromeda are plotting to destroy Earth on the next lunar eclipse. With the help of his circus performer girlfriend Su-ni (Hwang Jung-min), Byeong-gu captures and tortures a prominent pharmaceutical company executive (Baek Yoon-sik) to stop the perceived threat. As the plot continues to thicken, the audience learns that Byeong-gu has suffered a deeply traumatic past, which has led to his declining mental health and serial 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ings. We also learn in a twist ending that Byeong-gu was not delusional, and that aliens are, indeed, plotting to destroy the planet.
ComedyCrimeDramaRelease DateAugust 14, 2004DirectorJang Joon-hwanCastShin Ha-kyun , Baek Yoon-sik , Hwan Jeong-min , Lee Jae-young , Lee Ju-hyeon , Gi Ju-bong , Ye Soo-jungRuntime118 Minutes’Save the Green Planet!’ Breaks All the Genre Rules
Save the Green Planet! progresses like a fever dream, with absurd, unexpected twists happening at every turn. Jang directs the torture scenes with a Tarantino level of gore that is somehow comedic. There is also an absurd, comic book-style fight scene that happens entirely in Byeong-gu’s mind while he’s having a conversation. In these moments, Save the Green Planet! feels like a black comedy, but it is not strictly that. When the executive stumbles deeper into Byeong-gu’s lair, he finds horrific photographs of mutilated bodies and body parts floating in jars, along with a claustrophobic amount of mannequins. These are horror scenes that give disturbing Korean thrillers like Oldboy and Memories of Murder a run for their money.
Byeong-gu is also a complicated character who is not strictly a villain or a hero. When the executive finds Byeong-gu’s journals, he discovers his devastating backstory. Among other things, Byeong-gu suffered physical abuse from teachers and peers in school, his father attempted to attack him and his mother, his mother was poisoned in a drug test administered by the executive’s company, and his former girlfriend was beaten to death during a protest. With this context, Byeong-gu’s deranged, cheerful smile and earth-savior persona feel all the more tragic.
Jang Joon-hwan’s Visual Style is Stunning and Eccentric
If there’s one thing that immediately stands out about Save the Green Planet!, it is the film’s visuals. The color palette is made up of mostly dark colors contrasted with vibrant, glowing textures which make the characters stand out like neon signs at night. These stunning visuals amplify the larger-than-life, fantastical feeling of the film. Jang also adds a DIY, gritty aesthetic to the film which complements its anti-capitalist satire. In one of the early scenes, right after Byeong-gu and Su-ni have captured the executive and are driving back to their rural underground torture chamber, a hardcore punk cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” plays while Byeong-gu grins at his captive. In the intro credits scene, a Monty Python-reminiscent cartoon spaceship zooms onto the screen to land on the film’s title, which is composed of scribbled letters on tattered paper.
And it’s waiting to be watched on Shudder.
In terms of the science fiction elements of the film, they occupy a largely humorous place in the plot. In the epic plot twist at the end, the executive explains the Andromeda aliens’ origin story through a very silly 2001: A Space Odyssey parody sequence featuring animated dinosaurs looking up at UFOs and a person in a gorilla costume banging on bones. While it jumps around so much that it is hard to follow what exactly Jang is going for stylistically, Save the Green Planet! is consistently unusual from start to finish.
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Ultimately, Lanthimos’ stylized, tonally strange body of work makes him an ideal choice to remake this deeply weird cult classic. In The Lobster, Lanthimos dipped his feet into magical realism while still maintaining a dramatic core. In Poor Things, he showcased his s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 at visually striking world-building. Finally, his most recent project, Kinds of Kindness, is an absurdist black comedy of the same timbre as Save the Green Planet! From its mind-boggling and outlandish plot to its bright color palette and world-building, Jang Joon-hwan’s Save the Green Planet! has a little bit of everything. This film’s remake deserves a director who can match its freak, to quote Tinashe. And while audiences have reason to be cautious about remakes, in Lanthimos we trust.
