Seoul's Han River should be familiar to anyone who's watched The Host as the breeding waters for monster entertainment. But did you know there's also a nature preserve island smack in the middle of the river? That's where Mr. Kim (Jung Jae Young) ends up when he attempts to drown himself, and instead wakes up a castaway on the deserted island. The cityscape shines brightly from the opposite bank, but Kim - who can't swim - is preposterously stranded. Desperation and suicidal thoughts, however, give way to glee when he realizes that he's found his escape from all the debt, heartbreak, and worldly problems that drove him to seek death. Enjoying a newfound life of "perfect boredom", he lives by his wits, scavenges for food, converses with inanimate objects, and unrolls his obsessive master plan to somehow make a bowl of jajangmyeon, black bean noodles.

The first third of Castaway on the Moon is almost all Jung Jae Young, and he more than fills up the screen by himself with wacky castaway adventures and hilarious madman rants. The contrast between Jung's dry narration and loud island antics is especially amusing and effective. The film is frequently laugh-out-loud funny and prone to off-the-wall train of thoughts, while never abandoning the less laughable emotional and social subtext that drive people to prefer isolation. Jung got the Daejong Best Actor nomination for The Divine Weapon, but he's even better in Castaway on the Moon, balancing the slapstick and the serious into an empathetic, idiosyncratic everyman.

The other side of the story is quirky hikikomori Miss Kim, which just may be the perfect role for the alarmingly thin Jeong Ryeo Won. The moon-gazing recluse hasn't stepped out of her high-rise apartment in two years and lives vicariously through fake internet identities. Through her telescope, she discovers island alien Mr. Kim, and soon revolves her daily life around observing him. Her growing interest in Mr. Kim motivates her to step out of her home and make contact. The gradual crossover of Mr. and Miss Kim's lonely worlds moves the story forward, and the two protagonists reluctantly back into insecure reality. Behind the eccentric designs and humorous details, there is a genuine emotional urgency to the film when the protagonists' carefully constructed, deceptively charming existences are punctured by outside forces.

There's no sophomore slump for Like a Virgin co-director Lee Hae Joon who again turns social castaways into oddball cinematic heroes in Castaway on the Moon. This uncanny comedy is truly a pleasant surprise - funny, affecting, and unpredictably zany within the confines of its small eccentric world. Don't let the alluring flood of big Korean movies bury this small charmer, because Castaway on the Moon definitely ranks as one of the most amusing, well-written, and lovable pictures I've seen this year in any language.