Here are five things to know about what might prove South Korea’s answer to Star Wars.

Song Joong-Ki and Kim Tae-ri are the stars

Space Sweepers is being touted as the first Korean space epic

For all the creativity that abounds in South Korean cinema these days, there is a surprising dearth of major sci-fi movies. Wikipedia only lists eight Korean sci-fi films and each of those are rooted on Earth. Put simply, Korean filmmakers haven’t tried anything like this before.

Why? Arguably, the local audiences simply aren’t interested. South Korea’s box office tends to be dominated by romance and drama – it was noted that when Star Wars was rebooted with The Force Awakens in 2015, South Korea was one of the few countries where the film failed to top the box office upon opening. Local drama The Himalayas, denied it that honour.

The film carries a political message about environmentalism 

Although some sci-fi movies are little more than popcorn entertainment filled with spaceships and lasers, many films in the genre use their setting to offer up poignant critiques of the contemporary era. There’s Wall-E with its message about taking better care of our planet and not filling it with junk, District 9 with its focus on minority groups, Starship Troopers with its satire of militarism and fascism, Godzilla with its fears of nuclear weapons and radiation, and the list goes on.

Space Sweepers seeks to join that list of illustrious sci-fi films with a message. The setting is 2092 and Earth is no longer habitable thanks to waste and pollution. Humans have fled into space and our main characters are four misfit salvagers (including the characters played by Song Joong-Ki and Kim Tae-ri) who collect space debris for money on board their spaceship, The Victory. It’s during a day’s work when the crew come across a young girl floating out in space. The crew soon learn that the girl is in fact an android, and a lethal one at that, being hunted by the Space Guards.

It is directed by Jo Sung-hee of A Werewolf Boy and Phantom Detective

The film was intended for a cinema release first

Viewers might be forgiven for thinking that Space Sweepers was originally intended as a Netflix production. However, that’s not the case. The film was meant to be screened in cinemas like almost every other big budget film, but Covid-19 shutting cinemas in Korea meant that idea was scrapped.

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