- 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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