Daily Recco, July 15: Space Sweepers, the working-class for the space-bound
With Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and Japanese fashion billionaire Yusaku Maezawa holidaying in outer space, it is but natural that you want to experience the thrill as well. However, unless you are an astronaut or have millions of dollars to spare, you’re Earth-bound — at least for now. But nothing stops you from fantasising about life in the great beyond.
And to help you fantasise better, there a whole list of space movies to choose from. Our pick for today is the visually fantastic K-movie Space Sweepers.
For starters, our reason for choosing this is because it is set in the not-so-distant future. The premise goes that in 2092, Earth has become a totally polluted wasteland and uninhabitable — not too difficult to imagine. The chosen few, elite richest on the planet have shifted to a utopian orbital space station — again, not too difficult to imagine considering the billionaires’ race to the final frontier.
But once settled in space, they don’t stop littering. So, it is but natural that an army of space sweepers is needed to clear the orbital junk and collect space debris floating in Earth's orbit. They remain on Earth, breathe polluted air and eke a living out by selling the junk to the company factory for survival — the typical gap between the haves and have not.
However, the lives of the sweepers take an unexpected turn when they discover a little girl in the trash. Not an ordinary girl, but a trans robot who has a weapon of mass destruction inside her. The movie is all about how their existence gets intertwined with hers. The movie is all about how their existence is intertwined with hers and how the sweepers try to capitalise on her to their benefit. After all, human behaviour, instinctive callousness and greed don’t change — on Earth or beyond.
You must watch Jo Sung-hee’s Space Sweepers for the amazing visuals — top-notch CGI and brilliant cinematography is unparalleled. The storyline, though not entirely innovative, has a certain charm and relatability to it. And the exploration of human nature making the first Korean space blockbuster more believable than most movies of similar genres.
So, what’s stopping you? Jet, set and go on this two-hour sci-fi journey to outer space streaming on Netflix.