Leave it to the co-creator of the eccentric sports film Like a Virgin to make the urban isolation-themed comedy-drama Castaway on the Moon. Writer-director Lee Hae-Joon makes his solo directorial debut with this universal story about a man trapped on a deserted island trying to survive. Thanks to its eccentric Korean humor, the film turns out to be a strange delight that's worth checking out.
The first sign of the film's strangeness is that the deserted island isn’t in the middle of the ocean. – it's actually Bamseom Island, which lies under a bridge in the middle of the Han River in Seoul. Spurred on by mounting credit card debt,
Mr. Kim (Jung Jae-Yeong) tries to commit suicide by jumping into the Han River, only to find that he's floated to Bamseom Island. After trying the usual methods to solve his situation (screaming at passing boats for help, using his cell phone, suicide), he decides that he’s better off living alone on the deserted island, away from his debts and the superficial comforts of modern life.
This seemingly paper-thin plot thickens when Lee introduces another Kim. Played by
Jeong Ryeo-Won, Ms. Kim is an anti-social shut-in who's stayed in her room for three years. Ms. Kim follows a strict set of habits that includes taking 3000 steps for exercise daily and running a fake blog with material stolen from other blogs. Also, she won't even glance outside her window until the street clears during civil defense drills (one of the few exclusively Korean references in this otherwise universal story). It's on one of these occasions that she spots Mr. Kim on the island, and believing that he's some kind of lost alien, she begins to habitually watch him from the comfort of her room. However, as she starts to make an effort to change his life on the island, she starts to change her own life as well.
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