‘Save the Green Planet” Korean Theatrical Poster
Director: Jang Joon-Hwan
Writer: Jang Joon-Hwan
Cast: Shin Ha-Kyun, Baek Yoon-Sik, Hwang Jung-Min, Lee Jae-Yong, Lee Joo-Hyun
Running Time: 117 min.
By Alexander
Leave it to South Korean filmmakers to provide us yet another wholly original, oft shocking, slickly produced, torture-filled revenge fantasy in the vain of Old Boy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and The Isle–yet this time with a sci-fi twist. And like 3-Iron, Arahan, JSA and a host of others before and after, Save the Green Planet similarly impressed me with its originality. You just don’t get films like these in the States.
But as much as I enjoyed the first 22 chapters on Green Planet’s DVD, the last two absolutely ruined my enjoyment of it. The film’s first 101 minute, while short in character development, were entertaining with an unusual mix of gore, humor, slapstick, David Lynch-esque plot twists and imagery and innovative camera work. While the extended torture scenes are becoming old-hat in Korean cinema, I still liked the film’s ocassional quirks and references to Hollywood classics (2001: A Space Odyssey, for example) and religion. So the actual production and look of the film was enough to keep me interested in the somewhat contrived story. (Essentially, deranged beekeeper kidnaps executive in effort to thwart an alien takeover of Earth. Much torture ensues. Weighty themes are pondered.)
But the last two chapters? Sucked f’ing ASS. I’m not going to say much about them here because I’d end up revealing far too much about the film’s ending. I will note, however, for those of you who have seen the film, that Green Planet completely lost my interest immediately after the inspired bit about Earth’s dinosaurs. Within seconds, however, I basically just held up my middle finger to the screen and said, “Fuck you, filmmakers.” What was, to that point, a quirky film bursting with originality sunk to inexcusable depths by including a series of clips meant to illustrate man’s violent nature. Graphic scenes of concentration camps had no place in a film that should otherwise have been a silly diversion that lamely attempted to comment on humanity’s viciousness. Instead, we’re offered gruesome stock footage of violence that had no business being in a movie that also featured a fat, tutu-wearing tight-rope walker as the psycho dude’s lady friend.
Lest you think I’m writing this film off because of a few short clips of depravity, the ensuing scenes are a fucking joke. A FUCKING joke. A complete lack of subtlety. Had the filmmaker’s stuck to their obvious X-Files influences, they could have avoided the ghastly, ill-conceived, poorly costumed, heavy-handed, completely ridiculous, silly-as-all-fuck resolution. Be forewarned: You WILL be disappointed.
Alexander’s Rating: Minutes 1-101, an 8.5/10; Minutes 102 to the film’s conclusion: 0/10.
By Equinox21
Should you decide to watch Save the Green Planet, be prepared to see one of the absolute most eclectic movies that has ever been made. That’s not to say it isn’t a good movie, it is. It’s better than good, it’s brilliant. From what I understood from the trailer and descriptions of the movie I thought this was going to be a simple movie about a guy that everyone believes is insane, but there would be small things that happen to question that presumption. I thought we’d be left with a movie similar to Twelve Monkeys, by the genius that is Terry Gilliam, ultimately questioning “is he insane or isn’t he?” Well, this is exactly that type of movie but at the end there seems to be no question about the answer… however, thinking about it a bit, I realize that it can be interpreted in a couple of different ways. Obviously, I’m not going to tell you how it ends so you’ll just have to do yourself a favor and watch it.
Everyone thinks that Lee Byung-gu (Shin Ha-kyun [Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, J.S.A.]) is insane. Of course, he doesn’t think so; he knows something the rest of us don’t. He knows that aliens are plotting an invasion of Earth and it’s up to him to stop them, by finding their leader posing as the head of a large corporation, Kang (BaekYoon-shik). So, with the help of his somewhat dim but completely convinced girlfriend, Sooni (Hwang Jung-min), Byung-gu kidnaps Kang, locks him up in his basement, and proceeds to torture him… badly. Meanwhile, the police are searching for Kang, as he’s a rather prominent local businessman, but it’s down to one ostracized detective and his protégé to follow the right track in the search. The story jumps between leading on that Byung-gu is insane and leading on that he might know something that the rest of us don’t, and back and forth many times. This makes it really interesting to watch.
Save the Green Planet is all over the board for genre classification. It’s a bit of a comedy (though not a lot of it, at all), a psychological serial killer movie, a goofy science-fiction thriller, a torture-filled horror flick, a drama and a mystery. One moment will be funny and the next moment you’ll be cringing at the torture poor Kang is enduring. Which brings me to the torture… there’s a lot of it. There is a lot of blood in this movie. It’s quite gory. Thankfully, some the torture that goes on isn’t painful to watch (for instance, spraying something into Kang’s eyes), but some of it is just downright sick. I can’t say that this movie is as bloody as a movie like Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, but it is still pretty rough.
I’d say the feel of Save the Green Planet is a very loose mixture of movies like Se7en, Silence of the Lambs, Twelve Monkeys, Psycho, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, 2001: A Space Odyssey and many more. But don’t think this movie isn’t original, it is. It’s completely unique, even though it borrows minor elements, atmosphere or visual style from other movies. Speaking of the visual style, this movie has nearly the best interaction between what is happening on screen and quality CGI of any movie I’ve ever seen. It was really effective and sometimes fairly amusing.
If you can take bloody, violent movies, put Save the Green Planet high on your list of movies to watch. The ending appears to have been completely unambiguous; however, not only is it really, really funny, but it can also be interpreted in a few different ways which will undoubtedly lead to very interesting discussions. Ultimately, Save the Green Planet couldn’t have been better. It is one of the best Korean films I’ve seen yet.
Equinox21’s Rating: 10/10
