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Moon Man (2022 film)

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Moon Man
Traditional Chinese獨行月球
Simplified Chinese独行月球
Hanyu PinyinDúxíng Yuèqiú
Directed byZhang Chiyu [zh]
Written byZhang Chiyu [zh]
Qian Chenguang
Dai Si'ao
Shen Yuyue
Based onMoon You by Cho Seok
Produced byLiu Hongtao
Li Zhang
StarringShen Teng
Ma Li
CinematographyDu Jie
Edited byTu Yiran
Music byPeng Fei
Production
companies
Mahua FunAge
China Film Co.,Ltd.
Alibaba Pictures
Shanghai Ruyi Film and Television Production Co., Ltd.
Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Culture Media
Xihongshi Film and Television Culture (Tianjin) Co., Ltd.
Distributed byMahua FunAge
Release date
  • 29 July 2022 (2022-07-29)
Running time
122 minutes[1]
CountryChina
LanguageMandarin
Box office$460.3 million[2]

Moon Man (Chinese: 独行月球) is a 2022 Chinese science fiction comedy film co-written and directed by Zhang Chiyu [zh], and starring Shen Teng and Ma Li.[3][4][5] The film is an adaptation of South Korean illustrator Cho Seok's webcomic series Moon You.[6] It tells the story of "the last human in the universe" as a taikonaut finds himself stranded on the moon after an asteroid seems to wipe out life on Earth.[4][5]

The film premiered in China on 29 July 2022 and grossed over $460 million worldwide.[7]

Plot

Dugu Yue, a former flight dynamics engineer, is hired as a maintenance man for Project United Nations Moon Shield (UNMS), an operation spearheaded by the Chinese government which is intended to protect the Earth from an incoming asteroid named "π". The plan is to deploy a group of new super missiles, called the Cosmic Strike Hammers, to shatter the asteroid and then use the moon to shield Earth from its fragments. Eight years after their launch, the Cosmic Strike Hammers successfully shatter "π"; but one of the missiles was thrown off course by a solar storm, leaving some of the asteroid fragments heading towards the UNMS moon station. The facility is hastily evacuated, and in the chaos Yue is accidentally left behind. Arriving too late to board the last evacuation rocket, he witnesses one major fragment striking Earth, seemingly wiping out all of humanity.

Considering himself the only human being left, Yue spends his time living out his unrequited crush on Ma Lanxing, his base commander, not suspecting that some UNMS operators, including Lanxing herself, have been watching him through the station's video surveillance feed. A portion of humanity has survived the disaster in pre-built underground bunkers, but Earth's situation is rendered desperate by a global dust cloud blocking off the Sun's radiation. UNMS chairman Sun Guangyang urges to establish a public livestream link to the station in order to portray Yue as a role model and thus raise hope among the surviving population. Because the audio links to the station have been severed, it is decided to add overdubbing and outside narration.

Yue discovers that he has company in the form of a temperamental red kangaroo named "King Kong Roo", left behind by the UNMS research division. Thus, the UNMS' first attempts to portray Yue as a survivalist go comically wrong as the two begin fighting over the station's food stores. During a brief lull, Yue notices some static sounds which leads him to believe that some people on Earth are still alive. He decides to reach some equipment left over from an 18th, abandoned Apollo mission to reach the UNMS space station in the moon's orbit and use an escape capsule to return to Earth. Yue begins repairing the lunar lander, but to initiate liftoff, he needs the first Strike Hammer prototype, which is stored in another station at Lacus Perseverantiae.

Yue and Kong begin a journey on a solar-powered rover to obtain the prototype, and after several mishaps on the way, they make it back to the station. Yue discovers the static sounds were caused by Kong's accidental meddling, making him believe that he has apparently been living on false hopes. Despairing, he abandons his efforts, but Lanxing calls upon humanity's survivors to send him a combined light signal, thus telling him that he is not alone.

With his confidence renewed, Yue establishes full audio-visual contact with Earth's UNMS headquarters, who help him in coordinating his repair efforts. In a private moment, Yue confesses to Lanxing that she was the sole reason for him to be hired on the UNMS mission, and a deeply touched Lanxing apologizes for leaving him behind. Yue finally completes the liftoff module and reaches the lunar space station, but just then the UNMS learns that another major fragment of "π", designated "π+", is on a collision course with Earth, threatening to completely annihilate all life on the planet. Overhearing the news, Yue volunteers to guide his lander towards "π+" so that the Strike Hammer's warhead can destroy it, but on his way there he hits leftover debris from "π", which disables the missile's engine. Knowing he is humanity's last hope, he heroically sacrifices himself by personally directing the warhead using his spacesuit's thrusters, destroying "π+".

Over ten years later, after the dust around the globe has cleared away naturally, human civilization has rebuilt itself and even started advancing beyond its pre-impact levels. Lanxing returns to the moon station, where she imagines being joined by Yue's spirit to watch the remains of "π+" settling in a stable orbit around the Earth as a planetary ring.

Cast

Soundtrack

No.TitleLyricsMusicSinger(s)Length
1."Tell You Softly (轻轻地告诉你)" (Promotional song)Bi XiaoshiBi XiaoshiShen Teng/ Ma Li251 seconds
2."The Love You Left Behind (你留下的爱)" (Opening theme)Li CongPeng FeiCoco Lee 
3."Moon Doesn't Go, I Have To Go (月亮不走我得走)" (Ending theme)Wang YaoguangJin ZhiwenJin Zhiwen220 seconds
4."I Don't Feel Good Lately (最近比较烦)" (Interlude)Jonathan LeeJonathan Lee/ Wakin Chau/ Pin GuangShen Teng/ Ma Li/ Chang Yuan/ Huang Cailun 

Release

Moon Man was released on 29 July 2022, in China.

Reception

Douban, a major Chinese media rating site, gave the drama 6.8 out of 10.[8] Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes listed three reviews of the film, all of which are positive.[9] Particular praise came from reviewer Carla Hay who says that the film "takes some familiar elements of “stranded survivor” stories and delivers a unique spin that people of many different generations can enjoy."[10]

Box office

Moon Man grossed a total of $460.3 million at the Chinese box office.[11] On its opening weekend, the film grossed $147.93 million, making it the highest-grossing opening weekend in China since The Battle at Lake Changjin II.[12] By August 3, the film passed $200 million at the box office.[13] The film dropped 54.6% in its second weekend, and passed $300 million by August 8.[14][15] On August 19, the film dropped from the number one spot at the box office after 22 days, being beat by New Gods: Yang Jian. On August 22, the film passed $400 million.

It was the eleventh-highest-grossing film of 2022, earning $460.3 million.[16]

References

  1. ^ "Moon Man (2022)". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  2. ^ "Du Xing Yue Qiu (独行月球) (2022)". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
  3. ^ Patrick, Brzeski (31 July 2022). "China Box Office: Sci-Fi Comedy "Moon Man" Revives Local Industry With $148M Opening". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
  4. ^ a b Patrick, Frater (7 August 2022). ""Moon Man" Holds Off "Warriors of Future" on Another Strong China Box Office Weekend". variety.com. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Chinese sci-fi movie "Moon Man" becomes biggest movie in the world after $129 million weekend". Yahoo. 5 August 2022. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
  6. ^ Xu, Fan (11 August 2022). "Space odyssey Moon Man soars as China's latest box-office champion". asianews.network. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
  7. ^ Zhang, Rui (30 July 2022). "'Moon Man': Off-the-wall sci-fi comedy to hook audiences". china.org.cn. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
  8. ^ 独行月球 (2022). douban.com (in Chinese). 25 July 222. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
  9. ^ Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/moon_man_2022. Retrieved 26 October 2022. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. ^ Hay, Carla. "REVIEW: 'MOON MAN' (2022), STARRING SHEN TENG AND MA LI". Culture Mix. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  11. ^ http://english.entgroup.cn/boxoffice/cn/daily/?date=10%20/21%20/2022
  12. ^ http://english.entgroup.cn/boxoffice/cn/daily/?date=07%20/31%20/2022
  13. ^ http://english.entgroup.cn/boxoffice/cn/daily/?date=08%20/03%20/2022
  14. ^ http://english.entgroup.cn/boxoffice/cn/daily/?date=08%20/07%20/2022
  15. ^ http://english.entgroup.cn/boxoffice/cn/daily/?date=08%20/08%20/2022
  16. ^ "2022 Worldwide Box Office". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
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