In South Korea, July and August are the summer vacation period, so Korean film production companies release films with large budgets during this time. The film that marked the start of the 2023 summer peak season was "The Moon." This film is the first Korean film to feature a lunar exploration. However, audiences and critics alike harshly criticized the film. July and August are the months when movie tickets sell the most in South Korea, but "The Moon" sold only 500,000 tickets. To recoup the film's production and marketing costs, more than 6 million tickets needed to be sold.**

The plot of the film revolves around the events that unfold when South Korea's first lunar probe drifts in space. Three astronauts boarded the spacecraft, but due to a technical malfunction, two of them died in space, except for Hwang Sun-woo (Do Kyung-soo). Alone in space, Hwang Sun-woo successfully landed on the moon despite the pleas of the Earth headquarters, and returns to Earth alive.

However, this film spends more time on the characters' past lives and the emotional conflicts they experience than on lunar exploration. The theme of humanity's journey to the moon has been used since the first science fiction film, "A Trip to the Moon" (Le Voyage dans la Lune, 1902). This is likely due to the tension and curiosity that comes with the unknown. However, this film does not utilize the space of the moon in a (bad sense) traditional way. Instead of showing adventure and discovery in a strange world, it keeps showing close-up shots of Korean funeral parlors and characters shedding tears.**

Even when Hwang Sun-woo (Do Kyung-soo) lands on the moon, the film doesn't show what one would expect from a lunar exploration film. In the scene where Hwang Sun-woo lands on the moon, the voice of a news anchor explaining how this moment is incredibly significant for South Korea is inserted. It would have been better to show the quietness of space. Instead of expressing the awe or fear one would feel in an extraterrestrial space, the film forces patriotism on the audience. **The space of the moon doesn't feel like a strange new world at all, and it is only used as another device to unleash the characters' sad stories.**

The film's Rotten Tomatoes score is 23%, and it has been criticized for being not only illogical, but also xenophobic. However, the film has its own advantages. It makes even the least favorite Marvel movie feel like a work like "Citizen Kane" (Citizen Kane, 1941). The actual footage of the Apollo 11 crew running around on the lunar surface in 1969, humming "dada-da," is much more entertaining than this film.**