Sky Blue (2003)

"Wonderful Days" strives for so much, it's almost a tragedy that it actually achieves so little. The problem with the film isn't that the plot is thin, nor is it that we've seen these ideas before. The term "variations on a theme" exists for a reason.

Rather, the problem lies with the poorly conceived story and characters that get left out in the cold with horrible dialogue and about as much depth as a kiddie pool.

The opening, for instance, tells us of a gigantic, man-made refuge known as ECOBAN, which is owned and operated by the ruling class. ECOBAN runs on pollution, which of course means that ruling class prey on the beleaguered proletariats to create more pollution to sustain ECOBAN. We are, of course, never told -how- ECOBAN manages to transform pollution into a power source, nor are we told why anyone smart enough to build something like ECOBAN would want to create something that necessitates -more- pollution. I presume it is to keep the upper class fed, but seeing as they already had the resources to build something like ECOBAN in the first place....

But I digress. The point is that ECOBAN exists as nothing more than a plot contrivance to set up some admittedly fantastic visual sequences later on. But you wouldn't know that from the way the movie treats it. Given the background, I would gather that ECOBAN was meant to be a symbol of the upper class' greed and arrogance. That's all well and good, but the very idea of ECOBAN is so implausible and the story thread so inadequate that it quickly becomes nothing more than a neat-looking playground.

This is not the film's only shortcoming. The characters are woefully underdeveloped and uninteresting, so much so that right after I watched the film, I could barely remember their names. When they're not fighting, leaping, driving, or shooting, they're spending most of their time occupying the frame, doing and saying things of absolutely no consequence. New friendships and alliances pop up literally out of nowhere, and some characters disappear and reappear as if the writers had forgotten about them and then remembered just 15 minutes before deadline.

It goes without saying that the animation is great. In general, the CG meshes with the 2D animation quite well, and the action sequences are frenetic and imaginative. While the filmmakers might be brilliant action choreographers, however, they are not writers. Not here, anyway.

Fmovies: I was very privileged to see the world premiere of this at the Waterloo Film for Animated Cinema this weekend. The animation is absolutely amazing. They blended CGI with live animation, matte paintings, and video of miniatures, and accomplished what I say is easily the most amazing animation I have ever seen. In addition to this they managed to have a story that rivals the best of Japanese anime. This film proves that Korea is ready to start producing their own animation rather than just animate for other countries. Do yourself a favor and see this whenever you get the chance.

I don't know why, but there's this overwhelming part of the people who've seen(not seen?) this movie that just takes it for granted that it's just nice cg Effects and no story? Yes, the story can be fuzzy sometimes, but the only thing that bothers me is the near-ending scenes (wich is the great draw-back of the movie) that I can't really figure out what's happening. And that's it.

But anyway, this movie is the most beautiful I've ever seen, and the story ain't to be complained about! The characters are for the most time interesting, but maybe not fully reflectively.

I'd say that you need to see it more then one time and think a bit about what you've seen, not only to see the surface of it. It's way deeper then most of you would ever know.

Well..

Love it or not!

Sky Blue fmovies. A few words of encouragement.

Wonderful Days probably has some of the best animation in the world, and can rival films like Ghost in the shell, Akira and Princess Mononoke. But the story was poorly written and severely underdeveloped.

I hope to see more from Tin House, and Wonderful Days should not set them back. Hopefully they will learn from this mistake and create classic animation that can rival the likes of Production I.G. or Studio Ghibli.

If Moon - Saeng Kim is reading this, get out there and show us what you're really made of, we know you can do much better. Also hire a team of world class scriptwriters for a change.

6.5 / 10

i was waiting a long time for this masterpiece. now that i've finaly watched it i can only confirm my assumption (the trailer was more then beautiful). the plot could be a bit better. luckily the animation and sound (music) make up for that. I can't realy remember a movie that has used such a unique technique. a must see for sure.

WONDERFUL DAYS (2003) Directed by Kim Mun-saeng, this is a stunningly designed and rendered flat animation/CG/model hybrid that only wants for a better story. Despite it's box office failure (still the most successful Korean animated film to date I heard), it's bodes well for future endeavours in the genre. At it's core, its about the `haves' in an environmentally-polluted future world plotting to wipe out the `have-nots' so they can replenish the dwindling energy supplies to their self-contained megacity. Fortunately, the have-nots have a brooding outcast on their side who knows how to put things right. The 2-disc Korean DVD is packed with extras, as is an expanded 3-disc Korean DVD. The films does, I might add, improve greatly on repeat viewings. I give it an 8, largely for artistic merit.