Often, you stumble upon a film you don’t know how to describe in words. Words simply stop working when you try to capture its spirit in words—they do not record it properly.

Castaway on the Moon (2009), titled “김씨 표류기” (Kim-Ssi Pyoryugi) in Korean, is a film from that club. As with so many other Korean films, it is officially a romantic comedy. But unofficially, it deals with mental health, without really stating it explicitly.

It’s a survival drama that also spoofs the genre, a billion light years away from Hollywood flicks like 127 Hours or Shutter Island (both made in 2010). At the same time, it is loaded with hilarious moments that will make the audience burst out in laughter. 

But probably, you will have to be a hopeless romantic to see it and really appreciate its beauty. And perhaps a bit creative, too, to understand it completely.

The People Who Couldn’t Blend In: The Total Outsiders

In 2025, Castaway on the Moon is already in the retro showcase. Korea produced it in an era before BTS debuted and before the Hallyu, or Korean wave, swept across the world.

BTS is barely in their 30s now. Being so young, they climbed to the peak of success. But there are other stories in our generation. There are people who stand in front of the mirror one day and ask themselves, “what have you done to your life?”

Castaway on the Moon was made for them, for people whose lives were out-of-this-world. Its two characters are living their lives as either abandoned on an island or self-imprisoned in an apartment room. And neither has a key to exit.

Hollywood once explored similar themes without the same compassion, and in much more cruel tones. In Death Becomes Her (1992), Helen Sharp (played by Goldie Hawn) overstuffs herself with food while watching TV all day until obesity destroys her. There was an underlying tone of misogyny throughout the film—binding the story together.

Castaway on the Moon does it differently. It portrays the psychological disaster of a generation who are total dropouts from civilization—without ever dishonoring them, even slightly.

The Two Kims

The film has two Kims, a male and a female. Kim Jung-Yeon, the female kim, is living in her room where she locks herself up, without letting the sunlight in. And the male Kim, Kim Seong-Gun, is driven to suicide due to his loans. But he doesn’t manage to die after jumping off the bridge of the Han River, and washes up ashore on Bamseom Island.

Jung-Yeon, is a hikikomori girl. Her mother often knocks on her door, asking if she has eaten. We see her eyes tearing up, looking at what has become of her daughter. But there is no judgment. She simply cooperates and attends to her demands, letting her live the life exactly the way she wants it.

There are quick flashbacks of his memories, from his childhood to becoming an adult, searching for a job and a girlfriend. In all of them, he keeps drowning in a swimming pool. He realizes that the island is the only place where he can live in freedom. 

In one of his flashbacks, his father was teaching him to swim. He was asking him, “everyone else can do it, why can’t you?”

This is exactly it for so many young people. It speaks to them directly. It feels like a scene playing from everyone’s memories. 

The director did not really spell it out. But the story does argue, there will always be some dropouts, some people unfit for survival in the present system, some who will take a huge loan from the bank without ever being able to pay it back.

The film decides to call them Kims, who come in all shapes and sizes and genders.

Destigmatizing Disorganization

For many in Asian societies, probably the first urge would be asking why the hikikomori girl wasn’t admitted to an institution. Castaway on the Moon is a Korean film and it does the opposite.

Kim Jung-Yeon’s room is full of garbage, stacked in plastic bags one above another. She often curls up her entire body in her closet and falls asleep. She only lets the sunlight in two days in a year, both times involving an air raid drill. Meanwhile, the male Kim decides to survive by cultivating plants on the Island and turning parts of it into a harvest field.

Castaway on the Moon does not talk about therapy. It does not send a rescue team to the island. It simply says, this is their world. And this is the beauty, without which probably the picture of our world would have remained incomplete.

It does not give the scope to the audience for any kind of offensive sympathies, either. The comedy just doesn’t leave space for any serious questions. 

And it portrays every frame with dreaminess, almost telling the audience to respect the dream. In a world obsessed with routine, discipline, round-the-clock organization, and top-notch lifestyles, it completely destigmatizes the existence of its two Kims and their disorganization—without attempting to discipline.

And this is what makes the film so strong! Just like some classic literature and poetry, it completely refuses the definition of ‘being normal’. It simply does not care. 

Instead, it whispers: there are more than just ‘normal’ people around you. Respect them. 

The Director’s Profile

The rest of it? You’ll have to watch it yourself. And every minute of its full 1 hour and 57 minutes is worth watching.

It is a dreamy film from the beginning to the end. And quite expectedly, it won a number of awards, with two prizes at the 14th Fantasia International Film Festival. It was written and directed by Lee Hae-Jun, with Kim Byeong-seo serving as its cinematographer.

Hae-Jun went on to write several films but directed only four of them. His other three range from subjects like transgender people in South Korea to the country’s history of political dictatorships. But his last one, Ashfall (2019), is a commercial.

Jung Jae-young won two best actor awards for playing the male Kim. An American remake was announced, too, but was never finished.

Previous reviewers said without hesitation, “I’ve simply never seen anything like it.” It is really a one-of-a-kind film with almost no matches in the mainstream, save probably a few, such as Microhabitat (2017), coming from the Korean film industry itself.

Later in his life, Hae-Jun wrote action thrillers and worked excessively in the mainstream. It does look like he could not always pursue his own artistic taste. But critics noted that he was never a “sold out.”

Castaway on the Moon is a project he ended up making. It tells the audience what cinema can do, and also what the Korean industry can do. When it comes to working with characters who are total outsiders in society, no other mainstream industry can probably beat it.

The film does live up to its name. It immerses the audience in moonlight-like visuals—bearing the signature of Korean artistry in every frame. And if you ever lived the life of a struggling artist, it will be your cup of tea.