An unforgettable love story

Literally and figuratively one of the quietest films you’ll ever see, the award-winning Korean documentary “Planet of Snail” offers a precious moment of clarity and simplicity amid a chaotic and poisonous summer, and tells an unforgettable love story to boot. Director Yi Seung-jun’s gorgeously photographed slice-of-life film is a contemplative experience, to be sure, but never a taxing or challenging one. If “Planet of Snail” implies or suggests profound questions about love and the human condition and how we think about ability and disability, it does so in 88 minutes and without sentimentality or heavy philosophy.

About halfway through the film, Young-chan and Soon-ho, the married couple at the center of “Planet of Snail,” need to change an overhead fluorescent bulb in their bedroom. This task poses logistical problems for them that few of us can imagine. Soon-ho is a tiny, gnomelike person with a spinal deformity, probably less than 4 feet tall. Young-chan is a long-limbed, lanky fellow with the distracted air of an intellectual; he’s easily tall enough to reach the light fixture, but he can neither see nor hear.

Between them they eventually manage to get the bulb changed, with no major mishaps. It takes quite a while, since every time Young-chan gets something wrong — a cord is in the way, or the bulb is incorrectly mounted — Soon-ho must tug on his sleeve so he’ll lower himself enough for her to offer advice by tapping on the backs of his fingers, using a system known as finger Braille or tactile sign language. They never, however, resort to the cursing or impatience or constant distraction that might attend you or me trying to do the same task much more quickly.

If you’re guiltily thinking that there might be some inherent comedy in the spectacle of a blind man changing a light bulb, you needn’t worry. Soon-ho, who seems to have a wry, detached perspective on the difficulties of her life with Young-chan, quietly gets the giggles several times. It might sound faintly condescending to say that the whole scene is one of the most inspiring things I’ve ever seen in a motion picture, as if I were marveling at the fact that people with severe disabilities can cope with everyday chores. Honestly, what I felt was gratitude: to Yi, the filmmaker, for allowing me to share this time with the couple, and to Soon-ho and Young-chan, for the reminder that the really important thing about being alive is how you relate to other people and the world around you, rather than how many tasks you complete or how quickly.

Last year, a lowly university parking garage won high praise for reducing its energy use by 63 percent, saving almost $35,000 in utility costs. How did the University of Central Florida do it? By replacing the lights in the parking garage with a combination of fluorescent and LED bulbs. Not only did the school save money but the new bulbs produced better light as well. Collectively, the 245 participants in the 2011 contest saved $5.2 million on their utility bills and prevented nearly 30,000 metric tons in carbon dioxide emissions.

The EPA contest focuses on commercial buildings because they're responsible for about 20 percent of the nation's energy use and greenhouse gas emissions at a cost of more than $100 billion annually in energy bills. By improving the energy efficiency of schools, offices, hospitals and retail stores, competitors can reduce energy waste and save on utility bills while protecting the environment and people's health, says the EPA. Competitors range from a Kmart store on the island of St. Thomas to a crime lab in Phoenix to a federal office building in Nome, Alaska.