Castaway on the Moon

Castaway on the Moon (2009) is a South Korean drama directed by Lee Hae-jun — watch it online on iFILM. Kim is broke, dumped, and done. He jumps off a bridge into Seoul's Han River and, unable to swim, expects that to be the end. Instead, he washes up on a tiny uninhabited island wedged between the bridge pylons, invisible to the city rushing past above him.

He builds a shelter from river debris, teaches himself to grow corn from a discarded cob, and slowly stops trying to get rescued. A young woman who hasn't left her apartment in two years spots him from her window, starts filming him with her phone, and eventually begins dropping messages in bottles into the water below. Two people who opted out of the world — each for their own reasons — start talking.

Director Lee turns what sounds like a quirky gimmick into a genuinely affecting story about isolation and the small acts that pull people back. It earns its warmth without sentimentality. Stream Castaway on the Moon online on iFILM.