The subversive optimism of 'Castaway on the Moon'
Contemporary Korean cinema and dramas have become synonymous with a certain brand of high-octane bleakness. Color-graded trauma porn, 4K nightmares about gapjil, psychological torture, zombies, rape and an omnipresent sense of societal rot. Then, there is Lee Hae-jun’s "Castaway
Contemporary Korean cinema and dramas have become synonymous with a certain brand of high-octane bleakness. Color-graded trauma porn, 4K nightmares about gapjil, psychological torture, zombies, rape and an omnipresent sense of societal rot. Then, there is Lee Hae-jun’s "Castaway on the Moon (2009)."
To watch it is to experience friction against modernity. You will be immediately struck by the wonderful blues and greens. The color and cinematography by Kim Byung-seo is fantastic.
As is Jung Jae-young’s face, which gives you fear, disbelief, happiness and boredom all perfectly. But most importantly, I love that it is a film that refuses to treat mental illness as a commodified set-piece. It doesn’t want to you suffer.
It wants you to heal. It dares to approach the fragility of the human condition with color, jazz, humor and, perhaps most radically, a genuine empathy that warms the heart without ever becoming marshmallow-sticky. It is a masterpiece of gentle subversion — the religious metaphors and social criticism stand alongside the numerous poop jokes.
It tells you that boredom
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