Save the Green Planet (2003) flopped at the box office when it was released in Korea. The year 2003 was tough for any movie to perform well financially.
Old Boy, Memories of Murder, Silmido, which broke the barrier of 10 million attendees for the first time, and Scandal, a Korean remake of Dangerous Liaisons (1988), were all competing for cinema-goers’ attention. Some critics called 2003 the blossoming year for Korean movies. But probably the real reason for its failure to win the audience’s hearts was because it was lost in the experimentation of film styles. There was a criticism that the film was an excellent representation of the current status of Korean cinema where all sorts of creative energies are flowing but not an engaging storytelling. How befitting a statement to describe the film that was loved by critics but shunned by the audience.
What Should the Mystery Be in the Remake of Save the Green Planet?
Mr. Lanthimos, it is now up to you to craft something remarkable from this film with its varied history. To do so, you might first have to tackle a significant challenge. The question that created an intriguing mind game for the original film’s audience is now publicly accessible information. It is no longer exciting to ponder whether the CEO of the chemical company that Byung-ku kidnapped is an alien from Andromeda because we now know the answer. The police’s line of inquiry for the missing CEO suggests that someone with a grudge against him could be the culprit. The light bulb goes off for the viewer when they discover that Byung-ku’s mother is in a coma due to an accident at the company’s factory. Yet, the possibility that the CEO is an extraterrestrial cannot be entirely dismissed. This creates the thrill of being torn between two different conclusions: one reasonable and logical, the other fantastical and enthralling. With this thrill gone, due to the ending revealed 21 years ago, what new overarching questions can engage the viewers? To me, this is the crucial question that needs a compelling answer.
Save the Green Planet in the Form of a Greek Tragedy
I can imagine you incorporating an element of Greek tragedy, as in your film The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), to layer the story with an unsolvable mystery. In the film, Martin (Barry Keoghan), a 16-year-old boy, terrorizes Steven (Colin Farrell), a cardiologist, by claiming that his wife and two children will suffer paralysis and eventually die with bleeding eyes because his father died on an operating table due to Steven’s drunken scalpel. To Martin, it is only fair that a life be taken for a life lost.
Just as Byung-ku kidnaps the CEO, on assumption that he is an alien to destroy the world, when the most reasonable explanation is that he wants to wage a personal vendetta for his ill mother, Martin threatens to make Steven’s family suffer for his father’s death, under the pretense that this family suffering is an act of intervention from a power beyond humane grasp. Is he a messenger of a god? Or a devil himself exacting punishment for the hubristic and lazy Steven? The allusion to Iphigenia, combined with abstract dialogues that don’t sound like real conversation and emotionless acting styles reminiscent of Bresson’s Ladies of the Park (1945), adds a layer to the film that goes beyond the story of a teenage boy seeking revenge for his father.
Incorporating Greek mythological elements invites one to see a connection between the two seemingly unrelated incidents: the death of Martin’s father and the paralysis of Steven’s children. Under the powerful influence of the Iphigenia mythology, the death of Martin’s father is perceived as a sin that should be redeemed by the sacrifice of Steven’s children.
Myth or Madness?
However, the effect of Greek mythology diminishes, giving way to doubts that the connection between the two incidents is merely the result of grief and guilt playing monkeys in the head. When the tension between Martin and Steven escalates to the extreme point where Steven imprisons Martin in his basement and his wife kisses Martin’s foot, the viewer, who initially thought they were witnessing an ancient and peculiar story unfolding in a modern family, suddenly realizes it might be a concoction of overly dramatic individuals or a fable illustrating how grief and guilt can warp one’s perception of self and others, creating a delusional understanding of life events. The mythical elements in the film elevate Steven’s family’s experiences to a level of fantastical mystery at the beginning, but ultimately highlight the absurdity of life through complex emotions by implying that the myth itself is absurd. Mr. Lanthimos, are you by any chance considering the use of myth in the remake of Save the Green Planet?
