Save The Green Planet (2003)

[Mr_Vindictive]

Finally got my imported DVD of STGP on Friday.  Here's my review:

 Summary
A young beekeeper believes aliens are living on Earth, and are planning to destroy it. He and his girlfriend kidnap a chemical mogul whom they believe to be the alien king.

Review
Did you ever wonder what would happen if David Fincher, Takashi Miike and Chan-wook Park had an orgy?

Well, I'm pretty sure the result would look like Save The Green Planet.

The film starts with Lee Byeong-gu telling his girlfriend Su-ni about aliens that are currently living on our planet and how they plan to destroy us all. Su-ni believes him and before you know it, they are kidnapping Kang Man-shik, the owner of the largest chemical company in Korea.

Byeong-gu is determined to make his captive reveal the alien plot to destroy the Earth and plans on stopping it. He uses some of the most inventive torture techniques I've seen in a while, and his means of disabling his captive are quite flinch inducing.

The film doesn't play out as a full on thriller though. I'm still not quite sure what the film was, and if it could even be placed in one genre. It has some extremely dark humor peppered throughout, some horror elements and definently some thriller elements but it keeps a pretty good balance of all throughout.

The only problem I had with the film was the ending, which really let me down. The film had been smart throughout, but the last five minutes were ham fisted. The film would have gotten a 9 or 10 if the last five minutes had been completely cut.

If you don't know wether or not to check out this film, then find the trailer and see how it strikes you. If you dig on it, then this film is definently for you. The trailer really captures the overall feel of the film.

Overall it's well worth seeing.

[nobody]

I apologize for rehashing an old subject, but I just finished watching "Save the Green Planet" myself only moments ago. I thought it was an outstanding movie. I'd definitely recommend it to everyone.

I agree that the ending was a bit goofy, but so were a few other minor parts as well throughout the movie (like the bee-related death). I enjoyed the humor. I think it would've been a much harder movie to watch if it took itself completely serious- like "Misery" was, only ten-fold. Or "Oldboy", which I also watched for the first time today- a great movie that left me feeling a bit terrible afterwards.

Keeping in roughly the same theme, I watched "Kung Fu Hustle" on Saturday. I can't remember the last time I've laughed so hard. That movie had some insanely funny moments. That was very unexpected. I thought it would be absolute garbage.

[Mr_Vindictive]

No need to feel sorry about rehasing an older post.  I'm just glad that someone else finally saw it!

It's a great flick, and I really wish that more people would check it out.  As you mentioned, it does have some goofy moments, which my favorite would have to be the cop shooting at the bees.  Hilarious stuff.

Glad you enjoyed Oldboy as well.  It's my favorite film that I saw last year, even if it does leave you wanting to vomit.

[Mofo Rising]

"Because you never get used to pain."

So I finally saw SAVE THE GREEN PLANET!  What a great movie.  I'm really going to have to start paying more attention to Korea.  They're churning out exactly the kind of demented filmmaking I've been looking for.

Other than a few flaws and a long running time, SAVE THE GREEN PLANET is definitely worth checking out.  That is, if you can stomach a queasy mix of every genre and many, many torture scenes.

***SPOILERS***
The ending is a bit ham-handed, but my only real disagreement is that the head alien blew the planet up.  The screen said something like 4500 test experiments.  If the alien had let the experiment continue then the title could have been taken as an actual statement.  SAVE THE GREEN PLANET, because who else is going to?
***END SPOILERS***

Update: My short take on Korean film.



Post Edited (11-04-05 23:09)