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| Images courtesy of Focus Features |
Jang Joon-hwan's 2003 film Save the Green Planet! has turned into a cult hit over the decades, though it is not talked about as much in film circles due to it being harder to find on physical media and not available on streaming. It is remembered fondly for its mixture of wacky comedy and brutal torture scenes, as well as its divisive twist ending. In 2020, work began on an English-language remake to be helmed by Jang, but due to health issues, Yorgos Lanthimos took over directing duties. Thus, Bugonia (2025) was born, with screenwriter Will Tracy keeping many of the story beats from the original film while remixing other elements to keep it fresh and distinct.
Teddy Gantz (Jesse Plemons), a disturbed conspiracy theorist, and his mentally challenged cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) manage to kidnap Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, who Teddy also happens to be employed by. Teddy is convinced that Michelle is an Andromedan alien complicit in the destruction of the human race, and he is prepared to force her to take him to their mothership by any means necessary to save planet Earth.
The central tension of the film simmers in the interplay between Teddy and Michelle as she tries to play into his delusions and accusations. Whether she is actually an alien ultimately doesn't matter because her status as a millionaire CEO ensures that her life experience differs entirely from that of a regular person. She might as well be from a different planet, as the gulf between the rich and the poor is so vast that they exist in separate realities. Stone's cold, calculated performance is the perfect contrast to Plemons' jittery paranoia, and their ideological differences make for intriguing, intense exchanges.
The title of the film, Bugonia, may seem like a play on the word "begonia," a type of flower, but it actually refers to an ancient Greek ritual for creating a bee nest. In this ritual, a cow is killed by being struck with clubs, and its carcass is placed inside a sealed clay structure. This structure is kept sealed for several weeks and then aired out. If the process is done correctly, the house is expected to be filled with bees, supposedly via spontaneous generation. Obviously, this is not how bees work, but the symbolism of destruction and decay bringing forth new life is compelling.
Bee imagery and metaphors play a big role in this film, not only because Teddy is a beekeeper as a hobby, but also because he is worried about Colony Collapse Disorder, a phenomenon in which bees suddenly abandon their hive. On a micro level, bee die-offs can throw the entire ecosystem out of balance, subsequently endangering humans, and on a macro or existential level, humans would be on the same level as bees, if they are being perceived by a higher, alien lifeform, and perhaps they are similarly worried about us dying off.
All of these heavy themes aside, like any Lanthimos film, everything drips with sardonic humor. The original film relied more on wacky tone shifts and grim torture scenes, while the remake maintains a consistent tone and dials back the violence somewhat. Both versions are scathing critiques of capitalism and even though they were made over twenty years apart, the story remains relevant. What can one man do in the face of annihilation and absurdity?
--Michelle Kisner