'Goodbye Earth' Review: Netflix's dystopian masterpiece finds soul in the apocalypse
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA: 'Goodbye Earth' aka 'Jongmalui Babo' is streaming on Netflix from Friday, April 26. The Korean dystopian sci-fi series is about the chaos that ensues when an asteroid is about to strike the Earth and people realize that they have only 200 days to live.
The plot of 'Goodbye Earth' centers around Jin Se-Kyung (Ahn Eun-jin) and her story as she tries to protect former students from a calamity. The deuteragonist is Kang In-ah (Kim Yoon-Hye) who plays a security officer. Yoon-sang (Yoo Ah-in) is a laboratory researcher in the series however, the series had to be re-edited after actor Yoo Ah-in was involved in a controversy related to drug abuse and significant parts of Yoo's character had to be cut. The story's focus then shifted to Se-Kyung and her character arc along with a priest Sung-Jae (Jeon Seong-woo), and a police officer In-a (Kim Yoon-Hye).
While the impending apocalypse remains the focal point of the series, 'Goodbye Earth' is about human emotions and how chaos brings about the true nature of human beings. Here's our detailed review of the series.
Relatable Characters make 'Goodbye Earth' a beautiful show
The show's plot deals with a dystopian event but what makes the show beautiful is how relatable characters behave in the wake of such an event. The feeling of living with the knowledge that the world is coming to an end brings out different emotions in different people and director Kim Jin-min has allowed those emotions to surface for most characters of the series over 12 episodes.
From its writing to the execution of the show, it is a sequence of photorealistic events with moments sliced from everyday life. These moments stay with you as an audience after the show ends and continue to linger in the back of your mind for a while. The show depicts society as a whole reacting to a dire situation and those diverse reactions create conflict.
Technical execution makes 'Goodbye Earth' impactful
The show has a few scenes that are extremely difficult to execute. For instance, the scene in the middle of the road where chaos ensues and it all falls apart. The visual storytelling in the scene is top-notch as you can see the crumbling into shreds right in front of your eyes. The makers of the series create an environment where you begin to feel surrounded by chaos even as an audience
From the choice of camera movements to the composition to the textures and mise en scene and then the color grading choices in post-production, 'Goodbye Earth' is technically executed perfectly. The makers also make you feel a constant vacuum throughout the series.
The big drawback of this series is the length of the series. While the pacing of the series is good, the length could have been trimmed down. Also, the VFX sequences could have been done a little better and made to look realistic.
Ahn Eun-jin carries the series on her back with an exceptional performance
Ahn Eun-jin plays the layered character of a school teacher and emotes a whole spectrum of feelings throughout the series. She is strong and vulnerable when she needs to be but she is the kind of protagonist that an audience will want to get behind and root for. The entire arc of her personal revenge with an apocalypse looming gives her a lot to do as an actor and she performs her part very well.
Jeon Seong-woo and Kim Yoon-hye are brilliant in their performances and have great character arcs to work with. They are the perfect foil for Ahn Eun-jin's character in the series.
'Goodbye Earth' trailer
'Goodbye Earth' is streaming on Netflix from April 26, 2024.
