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Save the Green Planet!

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Save the Green Planet!

Released Apr 4, 2003

1h 56m

Comedy

Drama

Sci-Fi

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

90%

Tomatometer

40 Reviews

88%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

Lee Byeong-gu (Shin Ha-kyun) is convinced that there are aliens from Andromeda among us, plotting to destroy Earth. He believes that Kang Man-shik (Baek Yun-shik), the head of a chemical production company, is their leader, and he kidnaps him. Holing up in his secret lair, Byeong-gu interrogates and tortures the supposed alien, hoping that he will confess to his crimes against humanity and call off the planned destruction of the planet before it is too late.

Critics Consensus

A funny and wildly inventive hybrid of various genres, Save the Green Planet! is definitely a unique viewing experience.

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Andrea Gronvall

Chicago Reader

Punk graphics and a snaking camera add zest to the story, which is alternately heartbreaking, suspenseful, and darkly funny.

Jun 6, 2007

Full Review

Derek Adams

Time Out

The film oscillates between wild humour, suspense, horror and pathos, sometimes all in one shot. It's quite something.

Feb 9, 2006

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Noel Murray

AV Club

Save The Green Planet has a free-ranging mood, mixing tragedy and comedy irregularly, but Jeong's film is equally free with genre, and entertains its audience openly before pouring on the astringent.

Sep 26, 2005

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Panos Kotzathanasis

HanCinema

Additionally featuring a great finale, and a number of twists better left unsaid in this review, "Save the Green Planet" is a masterpiece curio, and at the same time, so much more.

Apr 7, 2019

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Ian Berriman

SFX Magazine

Clearly designed to win a cult following, its "chuck everything, including the kitchen sink in" approach to weirdery treads a fine line between "endearingly bat's-arse" and "trying a bit too hard".

Apr 19, 2011

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Ethan Alter

Film Journal International

Part thriller, part dark comedy, part sci-fi epic, Save the Green Planet is both insanely addictive and completely insane.

Mar 1, 2007

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jack d

Totally bonkers - very Korean.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

Save the Green Planet is a mash-up of genres; it is sci-fi with light elements of horror and comedy, but most notably, tragedy. In such an over-the-top outlandish film like this, it's the human elements, the moral ambiguity, and the tragic reflection on cycles of violence and self destruction that stand out. However, without spoiling anything, I will say that my most pointed criticism of Green Planet is that the aforementioned subtleties are overshadowed--and perhaps weakened by--some late game twists that border on nihilism and are at best absurdist. An intended contrast for sure when there's such stark realities at play here, but a contrast that made the film's messages a little uneven.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

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Audience Member

An annoying, grating mess of a movie. Amateurish junk. No sympathetic characters. Wretched script. Miserable direction with no sense of pacing. Everyone constantly shouting. I couldn't wait for it to end.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

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Audience Member

A violent hope-killing tragedy that brilliantly makes fun of how Hollywood often make one-dimensional characters with one innocent hero and one merciless villain all the time, here in SAVE THE GREEN PLANET!, the kidnapper is all three a complete idiot, a psychopath and a tragic man and even though SAVE THE GREEN PLANET is science fiction, it is very self-aware it's science fiction, only using such science fiction regarding aliens, UFOs, dinosaurs and mind control to create a twisted unbelievably bizarre alien victim for the kidnapper. It should be noted that South Korean filmmakers hate science fiction and/or consider it to be lazy writing, they favor romance, drama, comedy, tragedy so much that it makes up 99% of their entertainment industry, 1% is science fiction or fantasy.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

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Audience Member

Gratuitous Bull Twaddle!

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

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Audience Member

this film most wonderful !

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

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Jang Joon-hwan

Director

Shin Ha-kyun

Byeong-gu

Baek Yun-shik

Kang Man-shik

Hwang Jeong-min

Sun-i

Lee Jae-yong

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Lee Joo-hyun

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Synopsis

Lee Byeong-gu (Shin Ha-kyun) is convinced that there are aliens from Andromeda among us, plotting to destroy Earth. He believes that Kang Man-shik (Baek Yun-shik), the head of a chemical production company, is their leader, and he kidnaps him. Holing up in his secret lair, Byeong-gu interrogates and tortures the supposed alien, hoping that he will confess to his crimes against humanity and call off the planned destruction of the planet before it is too late.

Director: Jang Joon-hwan
Screenwriter: Jang Joon-hwan
Production Co: Sidus Corporation
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
Original Language: Korean
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 4, 2003, Original
Release Date (DVD): Sep 20, 2005
Box Office (Gross USA): $14.6K
Runtime: 1h 56m