Space odyssey

A new comedy about a maintenance worker stranded on the moon could see the sector launch back to previous popularity, Xu Fan reports.

The specter of an astronaut stranded on the moon might arouse a sense of panic in many people. However, Mahua Funage-one of the country's most popular comedy troupes-has turned the idea into a story full of joy.

Moon Man, Mahua's latest outing in cooperation with China Film Group and Alibaba Pictures, made debut at mainland theaters in multiple formats, including Imax, on Friday.

Despite the sporadic resurgence of COVID-19 in the country, the film grossed more than 210 million yuan ($31.1 million) to top China's box office charts on its opening day, indicating the potential of the domestic market, according to movie information tracer Beacon.

Adapted from South Korean illustrator Cho Seok's popular comic series Moon You, the movie shot with a localized script shows Dugu Yue, a spacecraft maintenance man, unintentionally left on the moon after the evacuation of the crew of Lunar Shield, a moon-based project aiming to rescue the Earth from an asteroid strike but ending up in failure due to an unpredicted issue.

Witnessing the catastrophic hit from the moon, Dugu believes the Earth is completely destroyed and he's the last human in this universe. However, little does he know that the surviving humankind, including the crew's leader, a woman who Dugu has had a secret crush on for eight years, are all watching his every move from the Earth.