alisonc-1 Review of Castaway on the Moon

Castaway on the Moon (2009)

Life on an Island in Seoul Can Be Trying!

[8/10 · 19 July 2010]

In Castaway on the Moon, the life of young Kim Seong-geun is falling apart: he lost his job when the company went under, his girlfriend left him and the $75,000 loan he took out from so-called "interest-free" Happy & Cash Loans has morphed into a whopping $209,000 because of missed payments. So, with nothing left to live for, he decides to kill himself by jumping off a bridge into the River Han, which runs through the heart of Seoul. Surprisingly, he finds himself coming awake on what appears to be a deserted island - yet he can see Seoul not more than a few hundred yards away! Unfortunately, he can't swim and for reasons he cannot fathom, people passing by on ferries assume he's waving instead of calling for help. Then, the battery on his cell phone dies - not that anybody he calls believes his story of being stranded on an island in the middle of the city anyway - and he has to decide how he can survive on his own in the "wild"....Meanwhile, there's a young woman in the city who's so agoraphobic that she's stayed in her room in her parents' house for the past three years, creating a fantasy world for herself online and adhering to a strict regimen of diet and exercise; her only hobby is to take photographs of the Moon from her window at night, using a high-powered camera. On only two days of the year - a 20 minute period in the Spring and one in the Fall when the Civil Defense System runs a drill which requires everybody to stop their vehicles or go indoors - does she have the opportunity to take photos of the city, which she loves to do because then it looks as empty of people as the Moon does. On one such special day, however, her camera spots Kim Seong-geun, and because of his, to her, inexplicable behaviour, she immediately decides that he's an alien. She becomes fascinated with him and starts observing him through her camera, as he slowly learns how to catch fish and birds and eventually to cultivate edible plants that he grows from undigested seeds found in the poop of birds. Over time, she finds a way to leave her room without being seen, in order to toss messages in bottles to him; he responds by writing in the sand. For some reason, this communication is only in English, not in Korean, so he assumes the bottle-writer must be a foreigner and since she already believes he's an alien, she doesn't think anything of it at all. How long can this new way of life last for Kim Seong-geun, and will he ever learn the identity of his correspondent? And what might happen when typhoon season approaches? This is a very sweet movie; it's mostly very funny, but occasionally there's a bit of pathos too, and the audience at FantAsia was so taken up with the characters that we all were cheering the moments of triumph that occur throughout. The young woman with social anxiety mirrors what is apparently a serious social problem in Asia: young people who lock themselves in their rooms for years at a time, living vicariously through the Internet and supported only by their parents' continued good will. I thought it an interestingly realistic touch to bring into this surely fantastical film, but the truly wonderful thing about it is its heart. It even made me, no noodle lover at all, feel hungry for black bean noodles!