Save the Green Planet

Writer/director Jang Jun-Hwan throws elements of movie sci-fi, Internet conspiracy theories, murder mysteries, and revenge dramas into a blender and comes up with this eye-popping, breathtaking film, a highly disturbing look at the legacy of human violence throughout history, and where it's leading us: to the destruction of the planet. Lee Byeong-Gu (Shin Ha-Gyun) thinks his old boss (Baek Yun-Shik), the big cheese at a major chemical corporation, is an alien from the planet Andromeda who's also part of a global conspiracy to experiment on humans. To make matters worse, the Andromedans are planning to destroy the Earth during the next lunar eclipse--just a few days away--so Byeong-Gu kidnaps the "alien" in a bid to foil the plot. But just when you think you've got a grip on the story, Jang switches gears, as the film morphs from incisive drama to hilariously gory splatter-flick and into an extended parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Instead of merely poking fun, however, Jang wields his film like a saber, slicing through the many justifications and explanations for human nastiness that these various genres have explored, coming to a startling and compelling conclusion you may not agree with but are unlikely to forget. Recommended. (M. Johanson)