SAVE THE GREEN PLANET! (S. Korea / 2003)



"I sometimes feel as if movies from all over the world have melted inside me." That Tarantino-esque musing came from young South Korean filmmaker Jang Jun-hwan, whose debut feature, a wild genre mishmash titled Save the Green Planet! (Jigureul Jikyeora!), does give one a feeling that this man has had an unhealthy appetite. His protagonist in the film, Lee Byeong-gu (Shin Ha-gyun), is also not quite well, but a recent tragedy or two in his life is to blame for that. Lee has become convinced that Kang Man-shik (Baek Yun-shik), a CEO of a chemical plant, is an alien from planet Andromeda whos here to destroy the "Green Planet." So, with the help of his portly tightrope-walker girlfriend (Hwang Jung-min), he kidnaps Kang, and subsequently tortures him for more info. Things go from humorously bizarre to darkly berserk after a righteous detective, who had been sniffing around for Kang, meets his grizzly end. And from that point on, the film turns on itself by becoming something altogether serious and, dare I say, meaningful. While Save the Green Planet!s violent content could be toned down (this alone would shave off a few minutes from the overlong film), but that was perhaps just one of the various means employed by Jang to not let his film enter the "crazy-Korean-comedy" zone. The film skillfully carries its heavy genre baggage throughout and, for the most part, does so without drawing attention, which is because Jang seems to have an overall plan, not unlike a few of his "characters." Though Jangs visual panache, not to mention the intricately detailed set-designs and sci-fi theories, only confirm a remarkable flaw: Save the Green Planet! has a few too many ideas up its sleeve.

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*Available on DVD in the U.S. (Koch Lorber).