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The Moon Blu-ray Review

 

  • Director ‏ : ‎ Kim Yong Hwa
  • Actors ‏ : ‎ Sul Kyung-gu, Doh Kyung-soo, Kim Hee-ae, Park Byung Eun, Cho Han Cheul
  • Language ‏ : ‎ Korean (DTS 5.1)
  • Studio ‏ : ‎ Well Go Usa
  • MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
  • Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
  • Media Format ‏ : ‎ Widescreen
  • Run time ‏ : ‎ 2 hours and 9 minutes
  • Release date ‏ : ‎ February 27, 2024



        The plot of the South Korean space drama, The Moon, sounds like something created in response to the success of Hollywood blockbusters like The Martian or Gravity, grounding the spectacle in relatively realistic scenarios and the human responses to them. While this sounds great on paper, the execution of the narrative falls short due to sloppy filmmaking and sub-par visual effects. Little about The Moon feels complete, from the rudimentary effects to the underdeveloped plot that leans too heavily on a few melodramatic twists.

 

        The film begins with news footage interviews as the South Korean space program makes plans to send their first space shuttle to the moon in the near-future of 2030, seven years after a disastrous mission ended the life of multiple astronauts. As any regular science fiction film-viewer could probably guess, the newest mission suffers its own tragic accident, resulting in young astronaut Hwang Seon-woo (Do Kyung-soo) being stranded on the moon alone. While former head of the space center Kim Jae-guk (Sol Kyung-gu) desperately attempts to find a solution to save Hwang, numerous technical failures and obstacles stand in the way. Feeling responsible for the failing of the previous mission, Kim becomes determined even when all other experts believe a rescue mission is impossible.

 

        Writer and director Kim Yong-hwa makes some conscious choices in telling the story, though they aren’t always as effective as intended. Attempting to start the film off with excitement, it isn’t long before the mission has difficulties which result in the loss of life. While this seems like a smart way to get the audience invested quickly, it doesn’t allow enough time for them to care about the characters involved. And efforts to personalize the mission by making a connection between Kim and the stranded astronaut may have been effective, but the manner in which it is handled ends up feeling merely melodramatic and more than a little contrived.

 

        The Blu-ray release for The Moon has a couple of extras, including a behind-the-scenes featurette and character bios. This isn’t much, but it is more than is often included with foreign language genre films such as this. Even more important is the Blu-ray disc’s high-definition presentation of the film, despite the fact that the visual effects look terrible in any format.

 

Entertainment Value: 6.5/10

Quality of Filmmaking: 6/10

Historical Significance:  3/10

Special Features: 4/10




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