Save the Green Planet!

Save the Green Planet!
Theatrical release poster

Hangul	지구를 지켜라!
Hanja	地球를 지켜라!
Revised Romanization	Jigureul jikyeora!
McCune–Reischauer	Chigurŭl chik‘yŏra

Directed by	Jang Joon-hwan
Written by	Jang Joon-hwan
Produced by	Seoung Jae-cha Kim Seon-a
Starring	Shin Ha-kyun Baek Yoon-sik
Cinematography	Hong Kyung-pyo
Edited by	Park Gok-ji
Music by	Lee Dong-jun
Distributed by	CJ Entertainment
Release date	April 4, 2003 (2003-04-04)
Running time	118 minutes
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean
Budget	$3 million
Box office	$15,516 (U.S)^[1]

Save the Green Planet! (Korean title: 지구를 지켜라!, Jigureul Jikyeora!) is a South Korean science fiction comedy film written and directed by Jang Joon-hwan, released on 4 April 2003. 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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Transcription

Plot

Byeong-gu, a childish man who believes that aliens from Andromeda PK 45 are about to attack Earth, is sure that he is the only one who can prevent them. With his childlike circus-performer girlfriend Su-ni, he kidnaps a powerful pharmaceutical executive, Kang Man-shik, whom he believes to be a top ranking extraterrestrial able to contact the Andromedan prince during the upcoming eclipse. After imprisoning the man in his basement workshop, Byeong-gu proceeds to torture him (he initially attempts to nullify the alien's transmitters using a Korean liquid painkiller, mulpad, which contains chlorpheniramine maleate and a "Italy towel" used by korean Ttaemiris.)

It soon seemingly appears that the executive's company poisoned Byeong-gu's mother in a pharmaceuticals test, and that it is in a vengeance fueled psychosis that causes Byeong-gu to believe the executive is an alien; not just childishly delusional, he also is clinically insane and hateful despite his happy “Earth savior” demeanor and loving relationship with Su-ni.

When a detective comes calling to investigate the disappearance of Man-shik, the executive tries to escape but is thwarted by Byeong-gu. The detective at first finds nothing unusual thanks to Byeong-gu’s attempts to hide his involvement, but on his way out sees Byeong-gu's dog (appropriately named Earth) gnawing on the leg bones of his master's past victims. After contacting a partner in the police force he is killed by Byeong-gu's pet bees, then hacked up and fed to the dog. Byeong-gu then crucifies the executive and breaks his leg with the back of his axe to punish him for his attempted escape. In a desperate move, the executive convinces Byeong-gu that the bottle of benzene in his car 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. The child was beaten in school and was a victim of 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. The child would grow up to be Byeong-gu.

As this is happening, the dead detective's partner arrives and finds the frantic executive. And Byeong-gu, after desperately rushing to the hospital to give the 'antidote' to his comatose mother, killing her, becomes ever more enraged. He returns home to kill the alien, only to find the detective there as well. 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 outlandish tale which stretches back to the time of the dinosaurs (the story heavily inspired from the biblical story and parodies scenes from the 2001:Space Odyssey), about how his race was originally trying to save humanity from a suicide gene (that leads to killing a member of their own species) by experimenting on the genetic code of his mother. He also agrees (while realizing the story might be based on the alien research notes he read about), in what appears to be a time-buying move, to contact the alien prince at the pharmaceutical 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 Su-ni, and after a long struggle, he beats his captor almost 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?"

When the aliens, who were real all along, do arrive and beam up the executive aboard their ship, we learn he is in fact the alien king himself. Disgusted and angered by the torture and corruption and evils of the world, he deems Earth a failed experiment and blasts it from creation. As the credits roll still photographs recap the entire journey of Byeong-gu's life, focusing instead on the beautiful, happy moments of a young boy and man with his father and mother and Su-ni.

Cast

Actor	Role
Shin Ha-kyun	Lee Byeong-gu
Baek Yoon-sik	Kang Man-shik
Hwang Jeong-min	Su-ni
Lee Jae-yong	Detective Choo
Lee Ju-hyeon	Detective Kim
Gi Ju-bong	Squad Leader Lee
Ye Soo-jung	Byung-goo's mother

Production

Jang first conceived of the idea for Save the Green Planet! while watching the film Misery.^[2] 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.^[2] 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.^[2]

Remake

In May 2020, it was announced that CJ Entertainment would be producing an English-language remake of the cult film with film-making duo Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen, whose credits include Midsommar and Hereditary.^[3]^[4] In February 2024, it was reported that Yorgos Lanthimos was set to direct the remake, with Aster producing alongside Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe from Element Pictures.^[5]