Goodbye Earth (2025)
Starring: Ahn Eun-jin, Yoo Ah-in, Jeon Sung-woo, Kim Yoon-hye
Platform: Netflix
Douban Rating: 8.3
Plot Summary:
Humanity is given 200 days to live after a massive asteroid is confirmed to collide with Earth. As panic and lawlessness spread, Jin Se-kyung (Ahn Eun-jin), a middle school teacher in the small city of Woongcheon, decides to stay behind and care for her students and community.
At her side is her longtime love Ha Yoon-sang (Yoo Ah-in), a researcher who returns from abroad, caught between duty to humanity and his desire to spend his final days with Se-kyung. Meanwhile, Woo Sung-jae (Jeon Sung-woo), a passionate priest, and Kang In-ah (Kim Yoon-hye), a military officer, try to hold society together even as it starts to fall apart.
Rather than focusing on blockbuster-style destruction, the drama slowly unravels how ordinary people—teachers, doctors, soldiers, children—face the inevitable, clinging to love, belief, and dignity in the final chapter of life.
Highlights:
- Ahn Eun-jin is heartbreakingly good as a woman who chooses to care when the world no longer does.
- Yoo Ah-in brings layered vulnerability and intensity to a man torn between hope and scientific resignation.
- The cinematography is haunting, with soft, washed-out tones and abandoned cityscapes conveying the loneliness of a dying world.
- Emotionally rich side stories—from old friendships to broken families—paint a full portrait of humanity’s last stand.
What Could Be Better:
- The pacing is deliberately slow and melancholic, which may not appeal to viewers expecting action-driven apocalypse drama.
- Some characters, while emotionally strong, lack resolution due to the overarching theme of unpredictability.
Verdict:
Goodbye Earth is a deeply human, quietly powerful story about facing the end with compassion, courage, and heartbreak. It avoids clichés and melodrama in favor of intimate storytelling that asks: When there’s nothing left to save, what is still worth holding onto?
Perfect for fans of The Silent Sea, My Mister, or Station Eleven, this drama doesn’t show the world exploding—but the people inside it learning how to say goodbye.