If I were a Netflix executive, I’d be trying to find a way to market my $70 million first-ever Korean-language animated film rather than unceremoniously dumping it, but that’s just me.
You may not have heard yet of Lost in Starlight, a visually spectacular film that’s heavy on romance and light on sci-fi, but it is tracking to be one of the favorite animated movies of the year for audiences who have seen it.
In a year that has suffered numerous blows from anticipated animated projects, Lost in Starlight stands out primarily due to its beautiful visual style and its excellent soundtrack that keeps the mood light and fun through most of the runtime.
The film follows Nan-Young, an astronaut hoping to go on an expedition to Mars in 2050, 25 years after losing her own mother in a Mars expedition. She is tasked with designing a device to identify lifeforms (think EVE from Wall-E). But early on in our story, Nan-Young breaks her old record player, a sentimental object of her childhood, leading to a chance encounter with Jay—who just happens to be a man who can fix it.
Early on, it is clear that Jay has a crush on Nan-Young after three times seeing her finally wins her over by offering her an umbrella in the rain, a seemingly small gesture that we later learn has greater significance to Nan-Young.
The love story is sometimes very real, portraying small human interactions that really resonate as accurate of a dating relationship. Unfortunately, where the movie excels in these small details, it lacks in creating a deeper chord of resonance between the two despite their chemistry. For a story trying to sell you on a love that spans the cosmos, you really have to imagine a lot of depth to the relationship that isn’t shown.
Nagging at the relationship is Nan-Young’s hope to go on the Mars expedition, which leads her not to want to be in a committed relationship. When the opportunity arises, it creates predictable, if brief, friction between the two.
As Nan-Young embarks for Mars, the relationship is tested, and the action kicks into gear as troubles arise on the expedition. The trailer hints at the power of love connecting these two across the cosmos, but it’s not in a sci-fi or magical sense. It’s more just a reason to keep going, which works on one level but also makes the finale a bit strangely anti-climactic.
But the simple and sweet story is enough to underarm the mesmerizing visuals on display as one of the most gorgeous films I’ve seen this year or most years, really. Just that animation achievement alone makes this breezy film worth a watch and catapults it fairly high on my list for the year so far.
I can testify that the film is well-acted in both the Korean and English dubs—I watched the first 20 minutes or so in Korean before deciding to switch to the English dub to pay better attention to the visuals, and then switched back to Korean for much of the finale. Other than Jay’s singing being much better in the Korean version, I found both to be really well done.
I’ll leave most of this to Poll Position, but if Netflix realizes what they have on their hands with the state of the animation race this year, this could easily gain a nomination at next year’s Academy Awards. At least then the $70 million won’t have been for nothing.
