D V D C R Y P T

SAVE THE GREEN PLANET

Directed & Written by Jang Jun-Hwan
Produced by Cha Seung-Jae
Cinematography by Kyung-Pyo Hong
Music by Dong-jun Lee
Cast: Shin Ha-kyun, Baek Yun-Sik & Hwang Jeong-min

2003/117 mins/Color/DTS
1.85:1 anamorphic/Korean/Korea/NTSC Region 3

Review from the CJ Entertainment DVD

In this superbly told sci-fi/black comedy/horror/thriller Korean film, Byeong-gu (Shin Ha-kyun) believes that aliens are amongst us and are planning to take over the Earth when the lunar eclipse will happen in a few days. He also believes that the head of the alien clan is Kang Man-shik (Baek Yun-Sik), a rich and powerful boss of a chemical company. According to Byeong-gu, Kang is from the planet Andromeda and only him can get Byeong-gu intouch with the alien prince. Byeong-gu is aided by his ballet dancing girlfriend Su-ni (Hwang Jeong-min) and kidnaps Kang... they take him to their isolated home in the mountains which has a huge underground basement where Byeong-gu shaves the hair of Kang (because aliens communicates through their hair!) and undress him so he will be able to torture the guy if necessary.

While in the beginning of the film it is obvious that Byeong-gu is absolutely insane, mainly because of all the crazy theories he talks about and the pills he takes, there's so many twists and turns in the story that you never know who to believe... Perhaps the whole alien thing is only part of Byeong-gu's mind or maybe its actually real. This is what makes SAVE THE GREEN PLANET one of the most interesting and involving film i have seen this year! Director and writer Jang Jun-Hwan knows how to handle the story and how to slowly let us know what to think and believe, it is manipulation at its best.

CJ Entertainment's edition of STGP is another must own package. The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and features an anamorphic transfer. The image is sharpless and without any imperfection, it features rich and vibrant colors, no artifacts or compression whatsoever. There's three audio tracks; DTS, 5.1 Dolby Digital and 2.0 Surround. I listened to the DTS track and its very active, loud and crystal clear making great use of the DTS capabilities. There are Korean and English subtitles which are easy to read. The film is separated in 24 chapters, comes with a nicely done 4 pages booklet and features great looking animated menus with music playing in the background.

The second disc is jam packed with extras which are all in Korean and unfortunately without any English subs. In 'Making Of Save The Green Planet' we get a cool behind the scene feature narrated by a woman, we also get a look at how the stunts were done and cast and crew opinions about Ufos. 'Interview with the Aliens' is basically well... interviews with cast and crew members. In 'Art of the Green Planet' we get an interview and behind the scene look at the two artists who did all the conceptional work for the film. We get a look at the drawings, sketches, model kit of the house, torture chair, the suits and more! There's a featurette on how the good old latex fx and puppetery were done. And finally a look at how the cgi fx were done and added to the final product. 'Music from STGP' is exactly what it says it is with an interview with the composer of the soundtrack. In 'Preview' there's an interesting behind the scene at the world premiere of the film and small inputs about the film from people in attendance. There's a music video but it is not for "Over the Rainbow', the very cool trailer, the even better teaser trailer and tv spot. There is 9 deleted scenes each featuring introduction by the director and some even getting a storyboard to film comparaison! In 'Behind the Story' we learn how the story for the film came about. You'll need a password to enter the 'X-File' section, 'Real Circus' takes a look at the circus that was used for the film and 'End Credits' is exactly what the title says.

But wait there's more! If you get yourself the limited pack you'll get the soundtrack on a separated cd which features 22 tracks, an original film negative and two special weapons to "fight" the aliens! It all comes in a very nice special card box. This is without a doubt one of the best dvd edition I have ever seen and one of the best film of 2003, get yours now and be prepare to save the green planet.

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