Space Sweepers

In the year 2092, the earth has become almost uninhabitable, and the effects of environmental destruction are now too great. Technology has also made enormous advances. James Sullivan ( Richard Armitage ) and his company UTS have succeeded in opening up new habitats in space. But space is limited, so only a relatively small part of humanity can live there. Especially since life in space has its pitfalls, scrap is floating around everywhere, the consequences of previous accidents. But where there is a need, there is also someone who benefits from it. And that’s how Tae-ho ( Song Joong-ki ), Captain Jang ( Kim Tae-ri ), and Tiger Park ( Jin Seon-kyu ) earn themselves) and the robot Bubs make a living by scavenging the area for scrap with their spaceship Victory. This works more badly than well, until one day they find the robot girl Dorothy ( Park Ye-rin ) and smell the deal of a lifetime in her…

In recent years, South Korean cinema has gained a lot of attention internationally. Not only since the triumph of Parasite have we regularly released titles from the Far Eastern country, which has developed into one of the most important and best-selling film nations of all. However, there are still some major gaps in the offering. While some genres such as action thrillers or comedies are being pursued very strongly, others are still quite weak. One of them is the science fiction area, which generally leads to a shadowy existence as a live-action variant in East Asia – not least because of the astronomically high costs that such stories often entail.

It is all the more gratifying that Space Sweepers, which appears on Netflix due to the difficult cinema situation, has now taken the risk. Sure, a $21 million budget is nothing by Hollywood standards. It almost falls under independence there. Compared to other South Korean films, that’s quite a lot of money. You can also tell from the cast that they have squinted a bit towards the West and hope to jump on South Korea’s triumphal march there. In addition to the South Korean main crew, there are a number of Western actors and actresses. At least Richard Armitage, known from The Hobbit among other things, could be won for the role of Sullivan and I am silent for you.

• Space Sweepers