The Moon

The film is set in 2029, sixty years after Neil Armstrong's first step. Vast energy resources have been found beneath the lunar surface, and that discovery has restarted the Space Race. South Korea is determined to take part. Its space agency launches the Woori-ho with a three-man crew, aiming to make Korea only the second country to send people to the Moon. The mission's goal is to land near a permanently shadowed crater and collect ice samples.

The youngest crew member is Hwang Sun-woo (Doh Kyung-soo), a former soldier. Partway to the Moon, a severe solar storm hits the spacecraft and the mission falls apart. Sun-woo ends up stranded far from home and faces one disaster after another.

On Earth, Kim Jae-guk (Sul Kyung-gu) is pulled back into the effort. He is a former director who resigned in disgrace after an earlier failed mission. As the rescue attempt spreads across agencies and borders, the film becomes a race against time. It is also a story about redemption, national pride and the human cost of reaching for the stars.

Kim Yong-hwa uses a big-budget space disaster story to tell a Korean tale of guilt, atonement and collective hope. The film treats space exploration as more than a technical contest. It is a test of whether a nation, and the people who failed it before, can find the courage to try again and to value one human life above prestige.

The director openly accepts shinpa, the emotional, tear-driven melodrama typical of Korean cinema. He talked about this directly in interviews around the release. The film suggests that the cold logic of spaceflight can be answered by human solidarity: people on the ground who refuse to let one person drift away.

As national allegory: The mission can be read as a stand-in for South Korea's wish for global recognition, with failure and rescue reflecting a collective national psychology.

The film arrived as South Korea's real space program was growing, and it imagines Korea as a major player in a revived lunar race. Technically it was a milestone for Korean blockbusters. It was the first Korean film to use the 1.90:1 IMAX digital ratio, and its native 4K VFX came from Dexter Studios, the effects company founded by Kim Yong-hwa.

Commercially it was a major disappointment. It cost about $21.8 million and earned only around $5.2 million, during a crowded 2023 summer season. Some commentators said the failure had more to do with studio hubris and an inability to read the audience than with craftsmanship. The film is now often cited in discussions of the risks of expensive Korean tentpole films after the pandemic.

Critics and audiences gave the film mixed to negative reviews. It holds an IMDb rating of about 5.8.

• Praised: the polished, convincing visual effects and space imagery, which many called world-class for a Korean production, and Doh Kyung-soo's committed lead performance.
• Criticized: pacing and plot that many felt could not hold interest over 129 minutes, a heavily derivative structure borrowed from Gravity and The Martian, a crowded opening full of exposition, and heavy shinpa melodrama.

Verdict: The film is technically impressive and emotionally sincere, but many viewers found it overlong and too familiar.