The Moon — The Moon( VOD/ Blu Ray/ DVD)
The Moon , an epic space survival thriller from South Korea is released on Blu-ray, DVD and 4K UHD/BD Steelbook as well as digital platforms in the UK and Ireland from 27 May 2024.
Directed by Kim Yong-hwa, The Moon continues the director's run of slick but intelligent multi-genre movies that have wowed the domestic box office. The film is set in the near future and follows South Korea's initial crewed missions to the moon. The first ends in disaster with an explosion killing the entire team. Five years later the second is launched successfully but a solar wind partially paralyses the spacecraft and two of the three men crew also perish. The rest of the film concerns the efforts of the Naro Space Center as it attempts to return the surviving junior astronaut, Sun-woo (Doh Kyung-soo) to safety.
Watching The Moon the first thing that strikes the viewer is how familiar it feels; a tyro pilot navigates an endangered airplane/spacecraft to a safe landing while air traffic control/mission control personnel fret about the hazards of achieving this. It's basically the template for famously the 'Airport' series of films (1970-1979) and for movies as far back as Zero Hour in 1957, the credited basis for Airplane (1980), Abraham's and the Zuckers'inspired spoof of the genre. Also in common with this sub-genre of the disaster film The Moon relies on heady soapy elements. Sol Kyung-gu plays Kim Jae-gok, the managing director of the original abortive mission, a grizzled figure brought back in against his will due to guilt over his part in the disaster which was also the catalyst for Sun-woo's technician father's suicide. Kim"s ex-wife, Yoon Moon-young (Kim Hee-ae) is, astonishingly, the general director of the NASA space station. This position allows her to get extra help to Sun-woo in spite of the American authorities who generally regard the Korean flight as unwelcome competition. Despite these elements, The Moon generally steers clear of cheesiness although sometimes it sails quite close.
Doh Kyung-soo, originally a K-Pop star, is well-cast as the young astronaut. His androgynous looks help make his vulnerability credible and his bursts of energy also make his competence and resourcefulness believable. In order to fill it's almost two hours and ten minutes running time, the film is almost ridiculously full of incidents. Sun-woo's catalogue of woes makes him the Korean deep space equivalent of Unlucky Alf from The Fast Show.
After seeing his crew mates die, he survives several crashes, a vicious meteor storm, a disintegrating spacecraft and a broken arm. However he manages to secure a sample of the lunar crust (the mission) and some sentimental trinkets before returning to the near side of the moon and the safety of an international space station.
A lot of The Moon's good press has been on account of it's excellent special effects. Certainly achieved on a fraction of what they would have cost in Hollywood, many of these are realised with model work and practical effects, creating crisp realistic images free of the fuzziness which often dogs CGI.
Despite some moments of Jerry Bruckheimer type overkill the drama in The Moon generally works and it's big emotional moments land. At the film's moving end you will find yourself tearing up with the cast.