Castaway On The Moon (2009) Review

It´s like Castaway just in Korean. Except not. Not at all actually. The only similarity is that it resolves around a man stranded on an island, the twist here is that it is an island under a bridge in the middle of a major city, only problem is that he can´t swim. His phone is dead and so he has no way of communicating with anyone and since he can´t swim he is stuck there and has to find ways to live on this island. Eventually he starts to communicate with someone through him writing on the sand and her replying with paper. Before arriving on the island the man is suicidal due to all the daily-day stresses, but on the island he starts to gain a new appreciation for life. It´s a fairly obvious message, but it is effective and portrayed in a satisfying way.

The first things you will notice is that the film is visually and audibly beautiful. The score is odd and very unorthodox, but it is very fitting and effective in the film, complementing the sort of quirky, offbeat tone the film has, while staying subtle. The cinematography uses an often shallow focus to enhance the characters isolation. The film is filled with vibrant and popping colours to the point where it almost becomes surreal at times, especially in some of the more surreal sequences.

The film is very humorous and for the most humour hits, though there are some gags that fall flat by just being a tad gross for the sake of gross. The humour often works thanks to great comedic timing by the lead actor, however while he was great on the comedic stuff, he didn´t always hit the emotional notes needed in some scenes.

So far so good yes? Yes, it starts off nothing short of amazing, but the second hour comes along and the film starts to crumble and decay. After an amazing hour on the island, the film starts to shift focus to the girl he is conversing with and the film started becoming a very convectional romance. During the last thirty minutes or so it got so bad that I kept hoping for it end, so to not further ruin what originally seemed to be such a great film.

The problem in the last hour, and particularly the final thirty minutes or so, is that it all of a sudden takes itself far too seriously and so all of a sudden it becomes ridiculous due to how emotional it is trying to be. Not only that, but it also becomes about as cliché as every character in Avatar and it all comes down as a mess.

It is a real shame that the film deteriorated the way it did, as it had the potential to be something uniquely spectacular, but instead become a very mixed bag. However, I would say the first hour alone is so good that the film is worth watching, and you would almost be better off turning off as you enter the self-contradictory and self-destructive, last hour.

3/5