| Save the Green Planet! | |
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Theatrical poster |
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| Hangul | 지구를 지켜라! |
| RR | Jigureul jikyeora! |
| MR | Chigurŭl chik‘yŏra |
| Directed by | Jang Jun-hwan |
| Produced by | Sidus Pictures |
| Written by | Jang Jun-hwan |
| Starring | Shin Ha-kyun Baek Yoon-sik |
| Music by | Lee Dong-jun |
| Cinematography | Hong Kyung-pyo |
| Editing by | Park Gok-ji |
| Distributed by | CJ Entertainment Koch-Lorber Films |
| Release date(s) | April 4, 2003 |
| Running time | 118 min. |
| Country | South Korea |
| Language | Korean |
| Budget | US$3,000,000 |
Save the Green Planet! (Korean title: 지구를 지켜라!, Jigureul Jikyeora!) is a South Korean film, written and directed by Jang Jun-hwan, released on 4 April 2003 . The movie mixes elements of multiple genres, including comedy, science fiction, horror and thriller. The basic story begins when the main character, Lee Byeong-gu, kidnaps another man, convinced that the latter is an alien.
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The film's main character is Byeong-gu, a man who believes that aliens are about to attack Earth and that he is the only one who can prevent them. With his childlike circus-performer girlfriend, he kidnaps a powerful executive whom he believes to be a top ranking extraterrestrial who can contact the prince of these aliens during the upcoming eclipse. After imprisoning the man in his basement workshop, he proceeds to torture the executive and slowly Byeong-gu's true intentions are revealed.
It seems that the executives company poisoned his mother in a pharmacy test, and though Byeong-gu does seem to believe that the executive is an alien, he's deluding himself to his obvious act of revenge. When a detective comes calling to investigate the disappearance, the executive tries to escape but is thwarted by the psychotic Byeong-gu. The detective at first finds nothing unusual but on his way out sees Byeong-gu's dog (appropriately named Earth) gnawing on the bones of his master's past victims. After contacting a partner in the police force he is killed by the psycho's bees, is hacked up and fed to the dog. Byeong-gu then crucifies the executive and breaks his leg with his axe butt, to punish him for his attempted escape. In a desperate move, the executive convinces Byeong-gu that the bottle of benzene in his trunk is the antidote for his comatose mother.
As Byeong-gu races to the hospital to deliver the antidote, the executive frees himself by pulling his hands through the nails. He then travels deeper into his captor’s lair, finding evidence of his grim research. Photos of mutilated corpses are littered with blood scrawled notebooks, while hands and brains of past ‘subjects’ reside in jars. Reading through the journals the executive discovers Byeong-gu's traumatic past: his father was a coal miner who lost one of his arms due to his dangerous work and was killed by his wife when he attempted to attack her and his son. He was beaten in school and was a victim to the sadistic whims of his cruel teachers. He showed early signs of violence, such as stabbing a fellow school mate with a kitchen knife. His mother was then poisoned in the aforementioned incident and at a protest, his former girlfriend was beaten to death. He slowly went mad from the violence that surrounded him.
At the same moment, the dead detective's partner arrives and finds the frantic executive as Byeong-gu, after desperately rushing to the hospital, feeds the so-called antidote to his comatose mother, inadvertently killing her. Infuriated, he returns home with intention of killing the executive but finds the detective there. After a brief struggle and a bizarre turn of events, he captures both of them and plans on killing them both. The frantic executive then admits to being an alien and proceeds to spin an exotic tale which stretches back to the time of the dinosaurs, about how his race was trying to save humanity by experimenting on the genetic code of his mother. He also agrees to contact the alien prince at the executive's company factory.
Byeong-gu leaves the detective all his notes, saying that if he does not make it, he will have the responsibility of saving the planet. At the factory, the executive triggers a computer controlled robotic arm to kill Byeong-gu's girlfriend, and after a long struggle, he beats his captor near to death. When the police arrive, they shoot Byeong-gu, and as he bleeds to death he wonders aloud, "Now who will save the earth?"
In the end aliens do arrive and take the executive, who is in fact the alien prince himself, aboard their ship. After failing his mission, he deems Earth a failed experiment and blasts it from creation. As the credits roll a video recaps the entire journey of Byeong-gu's life.
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Shin Ha-kyun | Lee Byeong-gu |
| Baek Yoon-sik | Kang Man-shik |
| Hwang Jeong-min | Su-ni |
| Lee Jae-yong | Inspector Choo |
| Lee Ju-hyeon | Inspector Kim |
| Gi Ju-bong | Squad Leader Lee |
Jang first conceived of the idea for Save the Green Planet! while watching the film Misery.[1] He enjoyed it, but was disappointed with the lack of depth of the Annie Wilkes character, and accordingly decided that if he made a film about a kidnapping, it would be staged from the point of view of the kidnapper.[1] Later, Jang stumbled across a crank website accusing actor Leonardo DiCaprio of being an alien who wanted to conquer Earth by seducing all of its women, and he decided to combine the two concepts.[1]
Save the Green Planet was nominated for seven awards and won six:[2]
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