General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

The Moon

The Moon (더 문) is a 2023 South Korean science-fiction disaster film written and directed by Kim Yong-hwa, depicting a lone astronaut stranded on the Moon after a solar storm cripples South Korea's first crewed lunar mission¹. It was the first Korean film set on the Moon², produced on a budget reported at 28.6 billion won² (Yonhap gives the equivalent figure as 28 billion won, about US$21.8 million³), and released in South Korea on August 2, 2023¹.

Key fact	Detail
Director / writer	Kim Yong-hwa, known for the Along with the Gods duology²
Release	August 2, 2023 (South Korea); 129 minutes; rated 12¹
Genre	SF, action, drama¹
Budget	28.6 billion KRW per one report; 28 billion won (US$21.8 million) per Yonhap²^•³
Main cast	Sul Kyung-gu, Doh Kyung-soo, Kim Hee-ae⁴
South Korean admissions	About 510,000, well below break-even for a production of this scale⁵
Worldwide gross	$5,207,157, of which $3,892,117 from South Korea⁶
Critical reception	35% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (17 reviews); 84% audience score⁷

Spoilers

Plot

The story is set in 2029. South Korea's lunar exploration spacecraft Woori-ho launches for the Moon, but a solar storm triggered by a solar flare engulfs the craft, leaving crew member Hwang Sun-woo (played by Doh Kyung-soo) trapped alone on the lunar surface¹. A previous attempt five years earlier had ended when the rocket detonated in mid-air before the watching world¹.

The rescue effort centers on two figures. Kim Jae-guk (Sul Kyung-gu), the space program's surviving engineer and former space center director, had withdrawn to a remote mountain after accepting responsibility for the earlier catastrophe, and now rejoins the team¹^•⁸. Moon Young (Kim Hee-ae), his ex-wife, works at NASA as director of manned lunar orbiters and is drawn into the effort, though the film portrays NASA leadership as reluctant to help directly⁹^•⁸. The stranded craft has enough air for five days⁸.

The premise places South Korea in a race to land an astronaut who can return lunar samples, with a view to a future helium-3 (lunar isotope hoped to fuel fusion power, motive for the mission) mining operation⁸.

Production and visual effects

Dexter Studios handled the visual effects, under a VFX technology supply contract worth 6 billion KRW signed in May 2021 with production company Blaad Studios (reported elsewhere as Vlad Studio); Dexter also invested as a co-producer and supplied virtual production, digital intermediate, and, through its subsidiary Livetone, sound design⁹^•¹⁰. The production introduced ICVFX (in-camera visual effects) virtual production technology to Korean cinema, shooting with VFX footage played on LED screens¹⁰.

The filmmakers worked from scientific constraints. Director Kim described the lunar setting as having about 16% of Earth's gravity and no atmosphere, with explosions and collisions reconstructed by reference to scientific papers and actual footage¹⁰. Yonhap reported that the film's scientific aspects were verified by experts from the Korea Space Aerospace Science, which launched the homegrown Nuri rocket, and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute³. For lunar surface scenes, the crew covered the floor of a 500-pyeong set in Daejeon with simulated lunar soil; tests found basalt closest to real regolith, and since suitable basalt could not be sourced from Jeju Island, a nearly shipload of similar material was imported from Taiwan¹¹. A notable sequence depicts a meteor shower whose impact shock wave sweeps across the lunar surface toward the stranded astronaut⁹.

Kim described his intended mix as five parts audiovisual spectacle, three parts drama, and two parts the actors' performances¹¹.

Reception and box office

The film opened in South Korea on August 2, 2023, on 1,187 screens¹. It underperformed: a KOFIC year-end review counted about 510,000 admissions and grouped it with Ransomed as a summer blockbuster that failed at the box office despite a large production budget⁵. Box Office Mojo records a worldwide gross of $5,207,157, with $3,892,117 from South Korea and $92,718 from a limited United States release beginning August 18, 2023 through Well Go USA⁶.

Critical response was divided. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds 35% among 17 professional reviews against an 84% audience score⁷. Yonhap's review called it a visually stunning space survival film with a predictable, overly dramatic story, while crediting its realistic depiction of conditions on the Moon and its demonstration of Korean visual-effects capability at a budget far below Hollywood equivalents³. The South China Morning Post was sharply negative, calling it one of the worst Korean blockbusters in recent memory¹². Reviewers repeatedly noted its debts to Hollywood space-survival films such as Gravity (2013) and The Martian (2015)³^•¹³.

Significance for Korean cinema

The film is regarded as a milestone in Korean science-fiction production. It was the first Korean film about a crewed lunar mission and the first set on the Moon², and commentators described its attempt at this scale of space story as a measure of how far the Korean film industry had developed¹⁴. A 2025 academic study in Film Studies examined The Moon alongside the Chinese film Moon Man (2022) as examples of East Asian science fiction, arguing that large-capital, high-technology SF films serve as an index of a national film industry's level, and noting that the film mixes family melodrama conventions with the survival genre while reversing that genre's usually tragic formula toward a happy ending¹⁵.

The craft was recognized within the industry: VFX supervisor Jin Jong-hyun received the Technical Award at the 44th Blue Dragon Film Awards on November 24, 2023¹⁶, and the film was a nominee at the 2024 Asian Film Awards and screened at the Florence Korea Film Fest's Orizzonti Coreani section and the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival¹.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works) › Science fiction and fantasy films of the 2020s › Science fiction films of the 2020s › Titles M to X

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

Notice something wrong?