| Shin Ha-kyun, Baek Yun-shik, Hwang
Jeong-min, Lee Jae-yong, Lee Ju-hyeon.
The genre-bending black comedy sci-fi thriller Save the Green Planet!
marks the feature debut of writer/director Jang Jun-hwan. Shin Ha-kyun
of Joint Security Area stars as Byun-gu, an eccentric beekeeper
who, with the help of his tightrope walker girlfriend, Sooni (Hwang
Jeong-min), kidnaps a powerful and successful businessman, Man-sik
(Baek Yun-shik). Byun-gu believes that Man-sik is an alien from
the planet Andromeda, one of many hiding among us and plotting to
destroy the Earth in a few days. Amphetamine-popping Byun-gu sees
himself as the planet's last hope, and sets about torturing Man-sik
with relish, trying to convince him to contact the "Royal Prince"
and call off Armageddon. A battle of wits and wills ensues, with
Man-sik trying to convince his captors that he's human and attempting
to escape. Man-sik recognizes Byun-gu as a disgruntled former employee
whose comatose mother suffers from a mysterious illness. It begins
to seem that Byun-gu's true motivation may be personal, but he's
still ruthlessly determined to get Man-sik to confess and cooperate,
even if he has to risk killing him. Meanwhile, a disheveled detective,
Chu (Lee Jae-yong), and his young acolyte, Inspector Kim (Lee Ju-hyeon),
discover that the person who kidnapped Man-sik may have struck several
times before, always with deadly results. The distinctly offbeat
Save the Green Planet! was a box-office flop in South Korea, but
it won some acclaim on the festival circuit. The film had its U.S.
premiere at the 2004 New York Korean Film Festival.
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