At The Movies: Space rescue story The Moon struggles to lift off

The Moon (PG13)

129 minutes, opens on Aug 9
2 stars

The story: It is a moment of national glory: On its second try, South Korea launches a manned mission to the moon. Disaster strikes and young astronaut Sun-woo (Do Kyung-soo) is stranded in space. The national space centre turns to former managing director Dr Kim (Sol Kyung-gu), a man who years earlier had left the agency under a cloud. He and the man he is trying to save share a past, adding emotional complications to the rescue. 

The Moon has a lot going for it. A science-fiction action movie based in reality needs good special effects and set design, and this film has it.

It also needs to be grounded in a fictional world that feels credible by today’s technology standards, and this depiction of a South Korean-manned moon mission looks right – the rocket hardware and radio chatter between mission control and the space vehicle feel authentic.

But it is all undone by a sloppily applied hyperbole typical of K-drama. There is an overwrought backstory between the two leading male characters, for example. It involves anguished hashing out over the radio during a hairy space rescue.

The backstory has to do with shame and honour carried by the men of the family, issues that would not have troubled Matt Damon’s Mark Watney in The Martian (2015) as he tried to stay alive on Mars.

Weird age differences exist, such that a female supporting character drips with K-pop cuteness while her maybe-lover (it is never explicitly stated) and mentor is old enough to be her father.

A politician character barges in, shouts and leaves after doing his comic relief bit – and in case one forgets that this is set in South Korea, managers publicly berate subordinates. 

And of course, the character of a heroic astronaut is played by eye-candy singer-actor Do Kyung-soo, known professionally as D.O., who looks barely old enough to drive, let alone be a fighter pilot and astronaut.

The unlikely space jockey is meant to be like a Top Gun pilot, but appears to have skipped classes teaching emotional control in stressful situations. Steely-eyed and tight-lipped, he is not.

Writer-director Kim Yong-hwa has a brace of commercial hits behind him, including the comedy 200 Pounds Beauty (2006) and two Along With The Gods fantasy movies (2017 and 2018). 

Other films have shown it is possible to blend hard science-fiction with another tone successfully, as China’s Moon Man (2022) did when it put a castaway on the moon and

made the whole thing a comedy.

And, like The Moon, Moon Man also features a lot of flag-waving (for China, naturally). 

Oddly, those moments of patriotism are one of the best things here. When one sees that rocket lift off, with the entire space centre cheering and the news anchors proclaiming history being made, it will be impossible not to feel like a proud South Korean. 

Hot take: Strong beats of suspense and action are wasted in a story awash in sentiment and K-drama cliches.