In this blog post, we will look at how two characters who are alienated from society understand and communicate with each other through the movie “Castaway on the Moon.”
Director Lee Hae-jun’s “Castaway on the Moon” is a story about two Kims, who were marginalized in modern society and drifted in their own worlds, finding hope and each other. The story revolves around the two main characters, a man named Kim and a woman named Kim, and their worlds and their meeting. The unique and comical setting and the social implications it contains resonate with the audience. The film was first released in 2009, but the themes of loneliness and the suffering of young people with nowhere to turn still resonate today. These themes still evoke a strong sense of empathy in today’s society, and they reflect the isolation and anxiety that modern people face.
Kim, a former company employee who attempted suicide by jumping into the Han River after incurring a large amount of debt, is washed away and arrives at Bamseom Island. He sends a distress signal via his cell phone to passing boats, but no one believes that he is really adrift because of the location. He, who was about to hang himself again to commit suicide, starts to think about how to live on the island, saying that he can die anytime, and eventually gets used to the island, cultivates his own place to live, and continues to live there, avoiding the eyes of people outside. Through Kim’s inner conflict and change revealed in this scene, the director expresses how deeply modern people are living in solitude.
Ms. Kim is a reclusive loner who has not left her room for several years due to the trauma she suffered as a student and who writes a blog pretending to be her daily life by stealing other people’s photos. Refusing to meet people, she has been following her own custom of taking pictures of the moon only and capturing the moment when the streets are empty on the days of civil defense training twice a year. Then, he finds a message that someone left on Bamseom, which should be deserted at night, saying “HELP.” He soon finds a man named Kim, whom he calls an “alien.” Kim’s wife, who had been watching him for several months until “HELP” changed to “HELLO,” makes a big decision one day and goes out at night to throw a glass bottle with a letter saying “HELLO” into Bamseom. After that, the two occasionally communicate through letters and glass bottles on the sandy beach of Bamseom. Eventually, after Mr. Kim finds the Jjapaghetti soup, which he defines as his wish, and the farming for making Jajangmyeon is nearing its end, Ms. Kim asks the delivery driver to send him Chinese restaurant Jajangmyeon, but Mr. Kim refuses, saying that Jajangmyeon is his wish. In the end, Mr. Kim succeeds in winning his hope, but he is soon discovered by people and his hideout is destroyed, and he is forced out into society. Ms. Kim is also accused of identity theft. And Mr. Kim, who has lost everything again, goes to commit suicide by jumping off the 63 Building, while Ms. Kim is able to reach him in time because the road is clear thanks to a civil defense drill.
This film helps the audience understand the characters’ inner lives more deeply by delicately portraying the subtle changes in their psychology. In particular, the moment when Kim, the man, decides to give up on suicide and fight for survival is touching. This is not just a question of survival, but leads to a deeper reflection on human existence. This scene vividly conveys how important it is to find meaning and purpose in modern life, and how difficult it is to do so.
There are many metaphors through the dialogue, direction, and subject matter, but most of it is relatively clear. For example, in this film, drifting means living in a world of one’s own without connecting with others in a crowded urban space. If Kim, the man, had a time of recovery in which he rediscovered his value through such a drift, Kim, the woman, who had been drifting for a long time, was living on the Internet, putting up only a fake identity that would not hurt her, without properly satisfying her desire to reach people. What they had in common was that their drifting began almost involuntarily at first, but later they refused to escape from the situation, whether by inertia or not, at their own will. The woman, Ms. Kim, monologues about why she photographs the moon, saying, “There is no one on the moon, so I don’t feel lonely.” In a scene where she looks at the man, Mr. Kim, with the device she used to photograph the moon and calls him an “alien,” we can see that they chose to drift away, where they would not have to see people and feel negative emotions such as loneliness, because they did not want to be hurt by people.
However, the space of that drift was revealed to be an illusion at the end of the movie. The hideout of Mr. Kim, the man on Bamseom Island, was a space that would eventually be discovered, and the false mini-homepage of Ms. Kim was also not able to escape controversy, and they were destined to suffer repeated pain in human society. Mr. Kim is desperate and wants to choose death again. However, their response to life changes when Ms. Kim, who had previously kept her identity anonymous, runs to Mr. Kim. In the middle of the movie, Mr. Kim tells the scarecrow about Ms. Kim, saying, “It’s better not to know who she is.” This is also an avoidance, just like what Ms. Kim has been doing on her website, rather than a new way of living wisely that he has learned. Ultimately, the film says that the illusion of each person’s own isolated space and the temporary state of drifting are nothing more than a dream, and that we are bound to live in pain and must live in that way, but when we ask each other about each other’s space, in other words, when we try to look into the hearts of others and discover each other, we can somehow live.
Another point to note in this work is how each character tries to recover from the state of drifting. In the case of Kim the man, he chooses to be independent in the midst of drifting and builds his own little world with an independent way of life. This is also related to the efforts to be independent or to protect one’s own space in modern society. On the other hand, Kim the woman chose to hide herself even deeper and cut off her connection with others in the process of drifting. However, as these choices all end in failure, the film once again emphasizes how important it is for us to connect with others as social beings.
So, how should we interpret Kim’s “jajangmyeon”? Kim finds an unopened packet of Jjapaghetti soup in a pile of garbage and is overcome with a powerful desire to eat jajangmyeon. When he fails to make noodles with the ingredients he has, he tries to just eat the soup, but his will to eat the whole Jajangmyeon wins out, and he succeeds after farming for several months and refusing to deliver Chinese restaurants’ Jajangmyeon. It is clear that Kim’s initial driving force was his appetite, but judging from the fact that he later refused to deliver Jajangmyeon, his appetite seems to have changed into something else. What Kim calls “hope for life” is really trivial, but it is also symbolic. In the end, Kim discovered a life attitude that finds meaning in the process rather than in the goal or the result. There is a scene in which she complains about being branded as a “bad” credit person in the beginning and shouts that she is not bad. This reveals his opposition to the way he is judged and stigmatized by social standards. He then attempts to reconstruct his life in a more independent way by making his own jjajangmyeon. Jjajangmyeon is more than just a dish. It is a process of creating his own hope against the world, and a symbol of his will to be recognized as an individual.
For Kim, this “process” is no longer just about survival, but a journey of self-discovery and recovery. In this process, he comes to realize the meaning of hope, which is gained through the experience of forging his own path. In this context, Jajangmyeon can be seen as a symbol of the self-assurance and sense of accomplishment that a person gains in the process of setting a goal and moving towards that goal in modern society. In addition, the reason why Kim refused to make Jajangmyeon for the man was not a simple vanity or pride, but a willingness to cherish his own values that he discovered in the process.
However, the film shows that even after Kim succeeds in making Jajangmyeon, he cannot completely escape from society. He is eventually discovered by people, and the battle against the isolation that he was suffering from continues in a new form. In this part, the film soberly reveals how fragile the freedom and independence we dream of are and how difficult it is to sustain them in the structure of society. Kim, the man, finds hope in an isolated space called Bamseom, but that hope is once again threatened by the huge structure of society.
The transformation of Ms. Kim is also noteworthy. She begins to slowly break out of her own world through indirect communication with Mr. Kim. While Mr. Kim is farming on Bamseom, she also tries to connect with others outside of her own closed-off space. This process is very frightening for her, but at the same time it opens up new possibilities. The jjajangmyeon she delivered to Kim was not just a simple food delivery, but a demonstration of her strong desire to connect with the outside world.
Ultimately, the movie “Castaway on the Moon” is about more than just a simple story of drifting, but also about the isolation and alienation that modern people experience and their efforts to recover from it. The film shows how easily humans can be judged by social standards and lose their sense of self in the process. But at the same time, it also conveys the hope that it is possible to overcome this and rediscover one’s own value. The story of Mr. Kim and Ms. Kim ultimately strongly asserts that we can grow and recover through each other, and that this is one of the reasons we should live.
Finally, the film asks questions about the nature of human existence. Can we find our true selves in society or in isolation from society? The film doesn’t give a clear answer, but it emphasizes that we must constantly strive to find the answer. Drifting is painful in itself, but it gives us the opportunity to face our true selves and find a new meaning in life. This is one of the biggest messages the film conveys.
Director Lee Hae-jun’s “Castaway on the Moon” goes beyond the simple story of drifting, and deals with the isolation and alienation of modern society and the efforts to recover from it, evoking deep empathy from the audience. Although each of us is in a different situation and environment, this film strongly asserts that we can grow and recover through each other, and that is one of the reasons we should live. The journey of the Kims in the film conveys the belief that we can create a better life through the process of recognizing, understanding, and growing together.
