The Moon (2023)

Filming standard à la Hollywood meets melodramatic narrative, emotionally firmly rooted in SK soil

“The Moon” could have easily been titled “The Dark Side of the Moon”. At least we as audience learn quite something about it... But it's actually about much more. The KMovie is delivering action within the high-tech world of space travel. On top of that it is touching, thought-provoking and thus gnawing at fundamental, existential and political questions, too. We get a remarkably balanced production between ´international´ filming standards à la Hollywood and a melodramatic narrative with its emotional roots firmly planted in South Korean soil. So eventually, this lunar expedition is neither/nor, as this KMovie offers something in between. For hard-core fans of Hollywood blockbusters it might be offering too much melodrama. For the hard-core KMovie fan it might not be enough. Well, I simply enjoyed it as the lunar expedition as it is.

The focus is on the ambitious national program that South Korea has recently set up in terms of space research (you may check side note below). With its technological innovations, South Korea is starting to present itself as an increasingly self-confident G7 space power. That is where this story is coming from. And it is against this background that the particularly high level of filmmaking effort must be seen, by which the experience of space is brought almost hyper-real within the audience's grasp.

The special ambience is staged first-class thanks to the applied highly developed audiovisual filming technology and expertise. Seemingly, the production team has spared no effort or expense - with 3D rig camera recordings, premium HDR video technology, Dolby Cinema technology (for the first time in a KMovie), innovative spatial audio technology and sophisticated rendering processes for the finest color nuances. The demand was for high-end cinema quality. And it is surely impressive. Everything in this distant, highly technological, alien world, far way within the orbit of the moon, comes as close to the audience as it can get.

Despite the enormous spatial distance, dense emotional intensity is provided, even though the protagonists are located so far away from each other. This delicate emotional bridging, requiring high-end performance skills, has been the big challenge on the actors´ side. In addition to the proven, first-class veterans Sol Kyung-gu and Kim Hee-ae on the ground at the rather clinically clean setting with high-tech computers and screens of both Aerospace Centres Naro and NASA, especially Doh Kyung-soo (D.O.) offered magnificent top performance as an astronaut lost in space. Mainly those three create and maintain an impressively emotional density (in addition to the overall action).

The plot of "The Moon" revolves around South Korea´s international profile as capable space power, while the eyes of the world are set on their (fictive) second trial of a manned lunar mission. Whereas unfortunately it didn't work out the first time... It's also about politics and tons of money. And in the end, it's all about survival... or rather, whether a human's life in the face of groundbreaking missions for humankind is worth ignoring chains of command, nationalities and costs.

Breathless action on unusual terrain. Intense scenes in an isolated space capsule 380,000 km away from earth, surrounded by darkness and severe cold. Desperate helplessness. The struggle for the 'right' decision – what´s actually the measure of what is right? Maybe ultimately just what I can live with in the end?







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SIDE NOTE: --- KSpace ---

Korean movie oder drama productions set in space have so far been few, and for good reason. The KMovie “The Moon” from 2023 as well as i.e. the KDramas “The Silent Sea” (from 2021) and “Ask the Stars” (planned for 2023) are, so to speak, a start. They reflect current (or better: hoped for further) developments regarding KSpace.

After rather unsuccessful endeavors at the beginning of the new millennium, South Korea as the 13th country to have its own space center by now, is increasingly well positioned in the KSpace segment. 2021 was marking the first attempt to launch their own test satellites into the orbit by their launch vehicle Nuri, which had been developed over the past ten years. Yet it failed. Nevertheless, in 2022 and 2023 it succeeded at last. Three more Nuri launch vehicles are already scheduled to be launched into orbit by 2027. According to the plans of the country and the Korea Aerospace Research Institut (KARI) at Naro space center, South Korean spacecraft will be collecting data on the moon in 2032 already. Additionally, the country has Mars scheduled for 2045.

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this is so good i love it like hollywood

the CGI is too good for anything. second i love dohkyungsoo so much that i will support him till the day i die. third there is waikiki lee yikyung, the most loved hilarious man. for sure this movie will make you burst out laughter! and the plot is so good and makes me cried. it is about humanity guys. i think korean sci fic movies are distinct from hollywood because they could express humanity better than hollywood and i love it. its aura is different from other stories and i just love it. mr director, im waiting for along the gods 3 and 4 with dohkyungsoo acting in it. please make kyungsoo happy everyday!

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Crying for 2 hours straight

The Koreans have proven their ability to produce world class VFX standards and without a doubt they've done it again in this movie, but what surprises even more is how the moon expedition story was written in such a direct yet highly emotional way, the script is almost perfect and acting performance is just unbelievable. The action sequences were designed to move the audience's heart and the director succeeded it by keeping the tension at maximum level throughout the whole movie tragically. My tears keep rolling in my eyes for 2 hours straight while I'm gripping the edge of my seats, as it propels to become one of the best movies I've ever watched in theaters.

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Mind Blowing!

Just watched "The Moon" ! I feel like everyone should watch it atleast once! I can't believe CGI of Korea have so improved, it actually felt like watching a hollywood movie. It deserves a lot more recognition than it has now. I was quite indulged in this movie. I cheered with them, got stressed out with them, got emotional with them. I wish if I could've watched it in the theatres, in 4DX, it would've been such a wholesome experience. Now I even want to learn more about the moon, its craters, physics and everything.
As weknow, Korean movies specialise on emotional part in each movie or drama and never fails it. The same happens here too. Kyungsoo is proving his acting skills to be unmatched again. Even if every breath,I could feel the tension the scene required. And as always, Sol Kyung Gu nailed it. Kim Hee Ae's Role was such a powerful one. And all the supporting actors did a great job. The political issues about the missions, the worries of every scientists, the hardwork, everything was delivered on point with a little bit of thrill at every bit of the movie.
I feel stupid for us giving metaphors to moon, calling it a symbol of love and as of what is happening there actually, is quite ironic. Its chaos right there.
Anyway, as said in the movie, the moon is for none, its not a place which we could fight for. Rather, its for the whole planet, where every person could undoubtedly say "its ours".

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The Moon, THE BEST!!!

This is a spectacular film with great visualization of the universe and of course the moon itself. If you enjoy watching space movies like Interstellar, Gravity, and The Martian, you will definitely love The Moon for real!! The CGI packaging is very good and the background story makes everyone curious. The flow is very neat and doesn't feel rushed. The explanation of each character is very detailed and not excessive. Tense scenes are followed by brief rests with witty jokes before the tension rises again. As for Kyungsoo's acting, he truly gives his best. I can feel the anxious feelings that Sunwoo experiences through Kyungsoo's acting, even from a single breath he exhales. The other actors are also very capable and make the film very dramatic and of high quality. The Moon, THE BEST!!!

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It's scifi with the human aspect.

This is the best "Moon" to date. The #Kdrama industry once again has proven that they can produce top notch #scifi productions. They never cease to amaze me on how they can keep the human aspect strong in their stories without it turning into a regular drama.

I highly recommend this!

You wouldn't even think it was an Asian production. They surpassed Hollywood here, hands down.

Thank you Viu for providing both a subtitled and dubbed versions. I enjoyed watching both versions. A great 2023 holiday gift for your subscribers.

And congratulations to the production team for giving the world a great film.

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Emotionally I’d have rated it a 10
Kyungsoo’s acting was so on point
kyungo also acted really well and sungmin ahjussi was a nice surprise

Story wise maybe it was too fantasy in the form off misfortune. Everything had to go wrong
Like idk if you can’t read outer space weather to know about the solar thing
Like they knew about the shooting stars if not know where it was exactly gonna hit
Anyway if you don’t know the things that could go wrong then why even try?
Especially wanting to use the moon dry like aren’t the trees enough? They want to take the moon
Filmography wise and acting wise tho it was on point and even the emotions were played well
My mom at first was like if it’s not a comedy I don’t want it and after a while she was also invested and I told her that’s my exo baby and she was also impressed
tho she thought it was suho and I had to tell her the brief history
Also kyungsoo’s English was a league of its own

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The Martian and Apollo 13 Meets Murphy's Law

Let me start off by saying that I am a huge fan of DO Kyungsoo and I was eagerly waiting to watch this.

I've watched a lot of the space and sci-fi genre and if anyone has ever watched The Martian, Apollo 13, Armageddon, The Core, Lost In Space, etc, you will find that The Moon is very similar to all these films/series. It's already difficult to make a space movie taken in the "present" time and not have some similarities found in other films and TV series and that's to be expected.
And of course, just like Murphy's Law, everything that could go wrong went wrong. So much sh*t hits the fan that it becomes hard to believe that he even survives. I think in retrospect, they went a bit overboard with all the unlucky accidents and failures.

Another thing that stood out like a sore thumb was whenever they showed the "NASA" HQ, you felt like you were watching a pep rally where everyone attended the "University of NASA" because mostly everyone working there was wearing NASA hoodies. As if they wanted to make sure the audience knew it was NASA. We got it... the hoodies and jackets told us so. Honestly, they could've just worn regular, normal clothes and we would've still believed it was NASA. But it was pretty obvious that NASA's merchandise branding was everywhere. It was even less convincing when the head FL at the NASA HQ, couldn't speak fluently English. It would've been better if her English was a bit more proficient or at least dubbed. This is NASA after all.

There were other parts I wasn't particularly fond of... apparently no one at the KASC, the Korean space HQ, could make a quick decision or a solution every time a problem arose because there was only that ONE guy from the outside who was the only one capable and there was that one other dude who just f*cked everything up and the Minister who was so incompetent at his job too. It also seemed odd in the beginning that it felt like the other astronauts didn't seem to like the ML. It just didn't fit in with the storyline.

All in all, it was an interesting watch but it just didn't feel very original. I did, however, feel emotionally invested in Maru, the drone. I thought DO Kyunsoo did a good job as usual but I'll be honest and say that I felt he looked too young for the role. I think a more mature-looking and older actor would've been more convincing especially since DO's character was a Navy Seal. Someone like Park Seo Joon or even Gong Yoo, (if he hadn't already been in Silent Sea), would've been more suitable.

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i love it

New plot and I love it!
At the beginning of the story, I was really surprised because the departure process of the rocket was so short, even until the scene when the other two astronauts were thrown into space, I was really surprised because this was not even half of the movie.

I saw this movie without reading any synopsis or trailers, and I didn't even know this movie existed. I was just scrolling through viu and found this movie. So I really didn't expect that the storyline would make D.O the only surviving astronaut.

The storyline is new or I don't know if there's a movie with a similar plot like this. But it was interesting because it was fast-paced with a lot of things happening so it wasn't boring.

It does lack depth in the end, which is a criticism for the movie, but at the end the movie was still good and made me cry.

I like the climax of the movie, every scene always brings hope and then conflict occurs again. So it's not at all predictable what will happen next. I liked the acting of all the actors, they played their roles very well.

For some things in the movie I didn't understand a bit, but I enjoyed the movie. Especially the ending which was so warm.

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So proud of Kyungsoo <333

Just finished watching and I LOVED IT!! It has my two favorite things: Space and Doh Kyungsoo :3 My review is probably a bit biased because I'd enjoy a movie with Kyungsoo just sitting there doing nothing for 2 hours lol but I really enjoyed this! The plot was pretty typical of a space movie (The Martian vibes) but there was never a point where I was bored and I actually cried a lot lol.

Like everyone else is saying in their reviews, the CGI is amazing!! I've never seen a Korean film with this good of CGI (might just be inexperienced though). The acting is also amazing! I loved Sol Kyung Gu as Kim Jae Guk and ofc Kyungsoo (I'll get more into his acting in a sec tho lol). Overall, I definitely recommend watching this film!

(SPOILER WARNING):
One thing I didn't love (but not a huge deal or anything) was the typical english acting lol. I just always find it so cheesy and the actors they chose at NASA were so stereotypically American it was hilarious (especially the big boss guy who keeps trying to sabotage the rescue mission (dad from the Incredibles vibes). Kyungsoo did amazing with his english lines tho omg <3

Now onto the most important part: Kyungsoo's acting <333 he is such an amazing actor, he really pulled this role off spectacularly. I sobbed my eyes out when I got to the part where he almost gives up and turns the oxygen valve off ):: His acting is so convincing, I could sing his praises endlessly!!!! I'm soso proud of how far he's come and I hope to see him in more dramas/films in the future.

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