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Between the massive library of existing Korean content available on Netflix these days and the new series vying for our attention semi-weekly, it’s easy for older stories to get lost in the button-pressing shuffle. 2021’s limited series The Silent Sea is one of those overlooked gems, a harrowing clash of dystopian dread, claustrophobic ambiance, and gruesome horror thrills — and an 80% positive critical score on Rotten Tomatoes, to boot. Well worth your attention, be it through a binge session or at a more sedate pace to match the series’ creeping menace, The Silent Sea is an especially appealing option for fans of director Yeon Sang-ho’s Train to Busan, the 2016 horror epic widely considered the magnum opus of contemporary zombie movies. Although these projects hail from different creators (writer Park Eun-kyo and director Choi Hang-yong helmed The Silent Sea), they share deeper similarities than you might assume. For one, both include an apocalyptic setting, a mutating virus, life-or-death stakes, more moral quandaries than you could shake a stick at, and the same leading man.
What Is ‘The Silent Sea’ About?
In 2075, humanity exists a heartbeat away from extinction. Environmental changes have contaminated the majority of Earth’s drinking water and sparked a planet-wide drought. Human beings can’t survive more than a few days without proper hydration, and no matter how frantically our most brilliant minds try to invent a viable solution, they can’t manufacture enough to go around; the rapidly rising death toll is already in the millions. However, a Korean space agency called the SSA has one final option up their sleeves. The SSA deploys a team of scientists and military soldiers to Balhae Station, an advanced research center on the moon. Led by astrobiologist Song Ji-an (Rebel Moon‘s Bae Doona) and Captain Han Yoon-jae (Gong Yoo), their orders are to retrieve a top-secret experimental substance that might create an endless supply of safe water.
Balhae was abandoned years earlier after a radiation accident claimed the lives of 117 personnel, one of whom was Song’s sister. Convinced that the SSA is withholding information about what truly happened, Song’s curiosity overcomes her initial reluctance. The situation only grows more suspicious when their newly appointed pilot crash lands their space shuttle miles away from Balhae. And if being stranded on the moon’s surface with a broken shuttle and an injured crew isn’t bad enough, once the team explores Balhae station, they discover hundreds of corpses that died by drowning — not a radiation leak. What’s more, the station isn’t as empty as they thought. An unnaturally powerful creature living inside Balhae seems determined to stop their mission at any cost. Oh, and those corpses? They spread a lethal airborne virus.
‘The Silent Sea’ Is a Claustrophobic Nightmare in the Best Way
The Silent Sea‘s eight episodes might take a slow burn path to its horror destination, compared to Train to Busan, but having approximately eight hours at its disposal instead of two hours benefits this kind of project. Park and Choi weave suspense, thriller, and mystery cornerstones into their sci-fi horror, as well as environmental, philosophical, and socioeconomic commentary, without ever once feeling bogged down. The Silent Sea‘s opening episode might be tinged with a funereal air, but the series’ defining features would feel lacking if it didn’t have enough runtime to establish this situation’s impossibly high stakes. The same goes for the broken people pushing their way through their doomed, stagnating world and toward the smallest flicker of hope. Both projects hinge upon the different ways flawed individuals react when they’re facing down the end of the world.
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Likewise, when The Silent Sea‘s tone shifts from a pensive sci-fi mystery to a nail-biting thriller, it runs headfirst into its grim final stretch without passing Go or collecting $200. If Train to Busan traps humans and zombies together on a cramped moving train, then The Silent Sea crushes its ensemble into one location with an intimidating foe and a virus that brutally warps the human body. Song, Han, and the rest of their group are constantly vulnerable, trying to outrun their pursuers, find and secure the liquid sample, and fix the station’s broken communications network. Worse still, certain characters can’t be trusted. There’s more than a hint of Ridley Scott‘s Alien in both the Balhae setting and how its terrors unfold through constantly escalating apprehension and a restrictive atmosphere. The series feels like a metaphorical noose tightening around your neck.
Every Gong Yoo Performance Is Worth Watching
It would be quite remiss to compare Train to Busan and The Silent Sea without mentioning their most obvious connection: Gong Yoo, a star of Korean film and television who almost doubles as a living legend at this point. Also known to international audiences for his memorably short-and-sweet role as the Recruiter in Squid Game, The Silent Sea offers viewers who are less familiar with his body of work a different viewing experience. Han is a stoic, firm leader who prioritizes the mission above anyone else’s personal concerns. That said, and without going into explicit spoiler territory, his motivations for accepting the SSA’s offer are just as personal and profound as Song’s reason; they just take a different familial shape. Because of his underlying compassion, Han quickly transforms into a self-sacrificial hero.
Any Gong performance is too good to miss, even if a certain story doesn’t match his other career heights. Thankfully, The Silent Sea backs up his presence with a cast of other industry veterans (Bae Doona and Kim Sun-young are just as iconic, if not more so) and the high production standard we’ve come to expect from Korea’s Netflix collaborations.
The Silent Sea
During a perilous 24-hour mission on the moon, space explorers try to retrieve samples from an abandoned research facility steeped in classified secrets.
- Release Date
- December 24, 2021
- Cast
- Bae Doona , Gong Yoo , Joon Lee , Kim Sun-young
- Main Genre
- K-Drama
- Seasons
- 1
- Studio
- Netflix
The Silent Sea is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.
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