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[HanCinema's Film Review] "The Basement Satellite"

Normally only governmental, scientific, or business organizations bother launching satellites because they're the only groups with any real reason to. Song Ho-joon, by contrast, just wants to create some artistic inspiration so that people all over the world know that anything is possible. Like the man's motto says, "Science Is Fantasy", and if Song Ho-joon can launch his own satellite, it could mean a brave new world where all of us can take science into our own hands.

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The phrase takes on a rather dispirited meaning as "The Basement Satellite" goes on, because there's actually three prongs to his quest- financial, bureaucratic, and scientific, and not a single one of them is particularly interesting. Actually building a satellite mostly just means building a small box that's capable of beaming signals back to Earth. And by design, Song Ho-joon has to make this simple because it would be illegal for him to give the satellite very many practical, useful abilities. Space regulation is taken very seriously.

The financial element too is rather dispiriting. It's fortunate that Song Ho-joon speaks good English, because this is exactly the kind of project that would have lots of appeal to international nerds. The initial plan to fund the satellite works best when he actually manages to attend nerd conferences in person to hawk t-shirts. And even then it doesn't really work all that well. As time goes by it's increasingly obvious that all Song Ho-joon can really do to push the dream forward is his own sense of perseverance.

The first time I watched "The Basement Satellite" I honestly didn't see much point to it. From a literal perspective, this is just the story of man repeatedly trying and failing to accomplish his dream, because the details of actually launching a satellite into space are way more complicated than the Open Source Satellite Initiative mission statement makes it sound. It's not even a dream with much actual point- just a story to tell schoolchildren so that they can believe anything is possible.

On rewatch, though, knowing that this documentary was mainly an exercise in showing what it's actually like to never give up on your dream, the sense of reality actually manages to be pretty intriguing. Because I do remember being told when I was a kid that anything was in possible. And I also remember being rather disappointed to find that in the real world the uncaring universe constantly throws irrelevant, dispiriting obstacles in your face for pretty much no reason.

So why does Song Ho-joon go to all the trouble? For that one glorious moment. And that's what's left to you to decide at the end. How far are you willing to go for your dream? Is the phrase "Science is Fantasy" inspirational, or an ironic statement on how science can't actually do the things we believe it can? Like any good documentary, "The Basement Satellite" does excellent work allowing for multiple interpretations. Whether this documentary is best suited for science aficandos or dreamers who need to know what they're getting in to, director Kim Hyeong-joo and Song Ho-joon working together have fashioned a fairly informative product.

Review by William Schwartz

"The Basement Satellite" is directed by Kim Hyoung-ju.

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