--- title: "Castaway on the Moon" year: 2009 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/castaway-on-the-moon" fi1m_id: "castaway-on-the-moon" imdb_id: "tt1499666" tmdb_id: 18438 wikidata_id: "Q485580" fi1m_score: 81 critics_reviews: 3 published: "2026-10-06T04:37:17.987415+00:00" updated: "2026-10-06T04:37:30.901499+00:00" region: "EC" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Castaway on the Moon (2009) Directed by Lee Hae-jun · 1h 59m · Drama, Comedy, Romance ## Identity Castaway on the Moon - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/castaway-on-the-moon - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** castaway-on-the-moon - **IMDb ID:** tt1499666 - **TMDB ID:** 18438 - **Wikidata ID:** Q485580 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1499666/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/18438, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q485580 **Fi1m score: 81** · Critics: 3 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* A man fails at suicide, succeeds at agriculture, and the whole of Seoul drives past overhead without noticing > Lee Hae-jun’s comedy strands a failed suicide on an island in the middle of Seoul and gives him a recluse with a camera for an audience. It is gentle, odd and funnier than its opening suggests. The last stretch leans on a coincidence it has not earned. ## Synopsis Mr Kim (Jung Jae-young) owes money he cannot repay, so he jumps from a bridge over the Han River in Seoul. He does not die. He washes up on a wooded island beneath the bridge, within sight of the blocks of flats, and he cannot swim. His phone lasts for one call to the 119 emergency line, which takes him for a prankster and hangs up. So he lives: an overturned swan pedal boat for shelter, shoreline rubbish for supplies, HELP stamped into the sand. Across the water, Kim Jung-yeon (Jung Ryeo-won), who has not left her bedroom in years and whose mother (Yang Mi-kyung) leaves meals at the door, photographs the moon through a long lens. One night she tilts it down and finds a man. ## Review Mr Kim (Jung Jae-young) owes money he cannot pay, so he goes to a bridge over the Han River in Seoul and jumps. He does not die. He washes up on a small wooded island directly beneath the bridge, close enough to the city to read the lettering on the blocks of flats, and he cannot swim. His phone works long enough for one call to the 119 emergency line, which decides he is joking and hangs up. Lee Hae-jun, who wrote the film as well as directing it, starts from this and asks a plain question: what does a man do, marooned in sight of a city that is not looking? It is a lovely film, and we recommend it, with one reservation about how it ends. Jung Jae-young carries the first stretch almost alone, and he is good at being watched while he thinks. Kim tries to hang himself with his tie and the branch gives way. He goes through the rubbish on the shoreline like a man at a car boot sale. He finds a swan-shaped pedal boat, overturned, and moves in. He stamps HELP into the sand in letters the size of a bus, and later changes it. Kim Byung-seo shoots the island as a wet, over-bright green and keeps the city behind it slightly soft, so the towers look like a backdrop somebody forgot to take down. The joke is scale, and it stays funny for a long time: a desert island film in which the desert island is under a road bridge. Then there is the corn. Kim salvages a packet of instant black-bean noodles with the sauce still sealed in its foil and the noodles themselves long gone, and rather than eat the sauce on its own he decides to grow the grain. He finds seeds in bird droppings, clears a plot and waits a season. We did not expect to be moved by a bowl of noodles and we were, close to tears, because by the time he sits down to eat them the film has made us count the days that went into the bowl, and because Jung plays the moment as a man who has forgotten what it is to have something arrive when he hoped it would. Across the water, Kim Jung-yeon (Jung Ryeo-won) has not left her bedroom in years. Her mother (Yang Mi-kyung) leaves food outside the door. She lives online under a borrowed face, photographs the moon through a long lens because the moon has nobody on it, and one night, tilting the lens down, finds a man on the island. Lee lights her room in dim monitor blue and the island in full daylight, and Nam Na-yeong’s editing starts pairing them: his meals and hers, his message in the sand and her screen. Choi Eui-young’s costumes do a good deal of the storytelling. His suit goes from office to rags over the months. She wears a motorcycle helmet on the few occasions she leaves the flat, which she does only when the streets are emptied for a civil defence drill. Jung Ryeo-won is given the harder part, a character who begins as a set of symptoms, and she makes her a person by the time the first bottle goes over the wall. Her half is the weaker one all the same. The island gives Lee a problem a minute to solve; the bedroom gives him a diagnosis, and the scenes of Jung-yeon at her computer are staged more than once as the same scene. Yang Mi-kyung’s mother is there to be worried and is given nothing else to do. A delivery man (Park Young-seo) sent across the water on an errand gets the film’s best sight gag. The last twenty minutes tighten into a chase that depends on a coincidence of timing we will not describe, and that we did not quite believe. At 119 minutes it would lose nothing at a hundred. Korean cinema of the period was good at this mix of slapstick and sorrow, and Lee’s film sits comfortably alongside it without the knives that usually come attached. What it has that the others do not is patience with a single man and a stick. Watch it on a night when you have not left the house either. It is kinder about that than you might expect. *Fi1m score 81, published 6 October 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Castaway on the Moon worth watching?** *Castaway on the Moon* is worth watching for anyone who likes gentle, odd comedy with some sorrow underneath, and we scored it 81. Jung Jae-young’s stretch alone on the island, solving a problem a minute with rubbish and a stick, is the best of it. The shut-in’s half is thinner, and the last twenty minutes lean on a coincidence we did not quite believe. **How long is Castaway on the Moon, and what is it rated?** *Castaway on the Moon* runs 1h 59m. It is a drama and comedy film. **Where can I watch Castaway on the Moon in Ecuador?** *Castaway on the Moon* is not on any streaming or rental service in Ecuador at the moment. It is available in 4 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How does Castaway on the Moon compare to Cast Away?** *Castaway on the Moon* and [*Cast Away*](https://film.one/film/cast-away) are both films about a man surviving alone, but the Korean film plays it as comedy, with the island sitting under a road bridge in sight of Seoul, while Zemeckis plays it straight. We prefer *Castaway on the Moon*: it is funnier, kinder and lighter on life lessons. *Cast Away* is the one for viewers who want the physical work of survival shown plainly and at length. **What should I watch after Castaway on the Moon?** After *Castaway on the Moon*, try [*Cast Away*](https://film.one/film/cast-away) (2000, Fi1m 81): The island film this one is quietly answering, with a volleyball instead of a telescope. Then [*The Lunchbox*](https://film.one/film/the-lunchbox) (2013, Fi1m 75): Strangers in Mumbai fall into correspondence by accident; food again does the talking; and [*Tampopo*](https://film.one/film/tampopo) (1985, Fi1m 84): Itami’s noodle western, for anyone who understood why Kim cried over his bowl. ### Reviews we read (3) - **Variety**, Derek Elley (85/100, inferred): Elley finds the film a touching, original tragicomedy that develops into a moving love story. He especially praises Jeong Ryeo-weon’s performance in making her initially unsympathetic character likable and central to the story. [Read](https://variety.com/2009/film/markets-festivals/castaway-on-the-moon-1200475332/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Justin Lowe (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the film an empathetic, funny, and emotionally effective comedy despite its bleak subject matter. He praises its tonal balance and the amusing situations that draw the two isolated characters together. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/castaway-moon-film-review-93759/) - **Time Out** (64/100, inferred): The page identifies the film as a review, but its article text is unavailable. The critic’s verdict and any specific praise or complaint cannot be established from the available information. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/newyork/film/castaway-on-the-moon) ## Details - **Director:** Lee Hae-jun - **Director:** Lee Hae-jun - **Writer:** Lee Hae-jun - **Cinematography:** Kim Byung-seo - **Editor:** Nam Na-yeong - **Costume design:** Choi Eui-young - **Producer:** Kang Woo-suk, Kim Moo-ryoung - **Cast:** Jung Jae-young as Mr. Kim; Jung Ryeo-won as Kim Jung-yeon; Yang Mi-kyung as Jung-yeon's Mother; Lee Sang-hun as Seung-geun's Father; Jang So-yeon as Seung-geun's Girlfriend; Park Young-seo as Delivery Man; Koo Kyo-hwan as Public Service Employee; Lee Kyung-joon as High School Kim - **Runtime:** 1h 59m - **First release (South Korea):** 14 May 2009 - **Genres:** Drama, Comedy, Romance ## Where to watch in Ecuador Not streaming, renting or buying in Ecuador at the last check. Also available in: CA, IT, KR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Cast Away* (2000), Fi1m 81: The island film this one is quietly answering, with a volleyball instead of a telescope. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/cast-away.md) - *Oasis* (2002): Lee Chang-dong’s harder, braver Korean love story between two people nobody else will look at. - *The Lunchbox* (2013), Fi1m 75: Strangers in Mumbai fall into correspondence by accident; food again does the talking. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-lunchbox.md) - *Tampopo* (1985), Fi1m 84: Itami’s noodle western, for anyone who understood why Kim cried over his bowl. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/tampopo.md) - *Amélie* (2001), Fi1m 82: A shy woman arranges other people’s lives from a distance, in a prettier city. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/amelie.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/castaway-on-the-moon