Review - Space Sweepers
Words by Liam Horgan
Space: the final frontier. At least that’s what Star Trek would have you believe, but at this stage in cinema, audiences have been to space many times. We’re veterans of the place ‘where no man has gone before’. For South Korean cinema however, space is yet unconquered territory.
Until now.
With Jo Sung-hee’s space epic, Space Sweepers, Korean cinema finally enters the space race. Distributed on Netflix due to Covid, there’s a lot to unpack in Sung-Hee’s blockbuster. Dealing with themes of classism, equality, greed, and environmentalism, Space Sweepers pulls from many different threads. Set in the far future where Earth has been ravaged due to ecological disaster and only a select few are allowed to ascend to the heavens to a cleaner world. We follow a rag-tag team of space junk collectors who encounter a young girl, who is actually a robot capable of mass destruction. Seeing a chance to make money and pay off their debts, the crew find themselves in a web of conspiracy and lies
Space Sweepers is being billed as South Korea’s first space opera and boy does it go all out. This isn’t a minimalist, esoteric science fiction epic àla Ad Astra, this is an action packed space opera with all the camp corniness you expect from the genre. What’s so stunning about Sung-Hee’s film is that it never feels limited by its scope or budget. The film truly feels like an international production with many different languages featured in the film's 2 hour runtime. Sung-Hee eschews the trope of space being dominated by the English language, and instead common understanding occurs due to handy translator devices (that look remarkably like bluetooth headsets). The cast features Russian, Spanish, Filipino, French and English dialects all to show the spread of Humanity in space. This isn’t the only innovative aspect of Space Sweepers, which features interesting ship designs, killer armor and one sassy robot companion. Indeed the film’s strengths lie in its predecessors. There’s aspects of Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy and even Cowboy Bebop but ultimately Space Sweepers carves its own path.
Like other great space operas, the key to Space Sweepers success lies in its core squad. Led by The Handmaiden’s Kim Tae-ri as Captain Jang, alongside Song Joong-ki and Jin Seon-kyu as Tae-ho and Tiger Park respectively. The troublesome trio are joined by Yoo Hae-jin as the Robot Bubs. Featuring peak robot character design (instead of a mouth, Bubs shows emojis), Bubs provides a fun, heartfelt foil to Tae-ri’s no nonsense captain. Rounding out the group is seven-year old (at the time of filming) Park Ye-rin as Dorothy. Sung Hee’s film shines when it spends time with the crew, who are all slowly won over by the young child. Sure there’s things in the film that don’t work; Richard Armitage barely makes an impression as evil space entrepreneur Elon Musk, and the plot is so packed full it threatens to buckle under its own weight. But ultimately Sung Hee’s film is a fun, entertaining romp in outer space. Whose strengths outweigh its flaws. When dealing with space operas is there much more to ask for?
With some touching performances and some impressive special effects given the budget, Space Sweepers is worth your attention and your time. In a year that’s seen blockbusters disappoint and be delayed, Space Sweepers feels like familiar territory even when it’s taking us somewhere new.
Space Sweepers is available to watch on Netflix now.
