지구를 지켜라! (Save the Green Planet!). 2003. South Korea. Written and directed by Jang Joon-hwan. With Shin Ha-kyun, Baek Yoon-sik, Hwang Jung-min. In Korean; English subtitles. 117 min.
Jang Joon-hwan’s debut premiered weeks before Memories of Murder and A Tale of Two Sisters, in what would prove a watershed year for Korean cinema, yet its genre-defying audacity initially baffled domestic audiences. Beekeeper Lee Byeong-gu, convinced that aliens from Andromeda plan Earth’s destruction, kidnaps wealthy industrialist Kang Man-shik, whom he believes is an extraterrestrial agent. What begins as absurdist comedy—complete with DIY science-fiction production design and slapstick torture sequences—gradually reveals itself as harrowing social critique, with flashbacks exposing Byeong-gu’s childhood trauma in a chemical plant. Jang marshals influences from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 to Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds while maintaining a uniquely Korean sensibility, using bright primary colors and comic-book compositions to sugarcoat his examination of industrial capitalism’s casualties. Shin Ha-kyun and Hwang Jung-min navigate wild tonal shifts from horror to slapstick, while Baek Yoon-sik’s performance as the captive executive depends entirely on his ability to maintain ambiguity about his true nature. Though it flopped commercially due to misleading marketing as romantic comedy, the film has achieved cult status internationally and inspired an English-language remake, Bugonia, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. Selected by art director Ryu Seong-hie.