Wonderful Days

"Wonderful Day" is mostly an exercise of style over substance: The plot has some interesting elements and a great atmosphere of melancholy...But sadly most of the story feels flat and forgettable (Despite some memorable and beautifully animated sequences) Kind of like "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within", except that this movie is a bit less boring and it have better characters.

The animation and the designs were pretty good (Despite some brief moments where the expressions in the faces of the characters turn a bit awkward) but overall, the combinations of traditional animation, CGI and miniatures have an incredible looking appearance. The sceneries are beautiful and the movements of the characters are pretty fluid and well done.

If only the plot were as good as the animation...Well I guess it could have been a much worse...This could have been something preachy or emotionless (Like "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within") Despite the boring and melodramatic parts of the story, "Wonderful Days" it's something worth watching, at least for the excellent quality of the animation.

Great great movie...tech-wise. Ok, granted it's not the most elaborate or original of movie plots. It's the eternal story about love and jealousy, power and corruption, good and evil but it has got a Miyazaki twist to its story, or at least tries to emulate the master, rather unsuccessfully I might add. The animation is like nothing I have seen before though, and I HAVE seen Final Fantasy. Main problem: the characters are poorly developed, if not at all. And the story doesn't grab you by the collar and throw you in its world, so you're always "aware" of the animation, it being the masterpiece that it is... But again, it's a movie well worth seeing, some shots will even make your jaw drop and eyes bulge, that's how much the scenes are beautifully drawn and animated. The authenticity of the "small" things (rain dropping pattern, eyes watering) is what I personally marvelled at more than anything else. Oh, and an out-of-this-world soundtrack to top it off, with some exquisite pieces that matched the moods perfectly. It was the only thing that really "sucked me in" a few times... All in all, it is a very promising start to all-korean animations.

Despite never hearing of the film prior to watching it, the opening sequence alone had me hooked. Great visual design, and vehicle animation complemented nicely by a soundtrack that has just the right mix of classical, neo rock, and new age allows this film to surpass similar Animated/Computer Generated feature films. While the story isn't the most innovative amongst Science Fiction anime, it has its high points particularly in the beginning and conclusion. The director shifts perspectives from action scenes towards slower paced dramatic scenes before returning to the action for an excellent tempo. The use of flashback also helps to fill in the backgrounds of the characters.

The use of methodically paced travel sequences coupled with superb music would really have to be experienced on the big screen preferably with Digital Light Processing(DLP) to fully appreciate its beauty.

Fans of the Animatrix, Titan A.E., and Princess Mononoke would probably enjoy this, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to a broader audience because of its superb audio visual design, and landscape sequences. Worth Owning on Video for its high quality. Would be nice to see this given a professional transfer to DVD with known Actors much the way Armitage 2 and Princess Mononoke was given in Europe and North America.

This has become one of my absolute favourite films.

I rented the German dubbed version, which is quite nicely done, apart from some sentences that seem to short for genuine German conversation (our phrases are usually 20% longer than, say, English phrases ... something seemed to be missing in the dub).

The story is nice and a little mysterious, but it is very important to realize that the film tells quite a bit of it with images alone - no dialogue, no narration. Just these absolutely stunning images.

I almost screamed in joy in the scene early in the flick where Shua and Jay sit, handcuffed together, him holding a gun to her face, in front of a beautiful Christian church glass artwork in this museum ("time capsule room"), and just the image tells the audience so much (and yet so delightfully little at the same time!), making this a scene without any dialogue was the best the film makers could have done.

There is so much imagery. They really figured out how to blend excellent Gothic and oriental architecture with the industrial cyberpunk setting of the slums around the city Ecoban, and they made not only every second of it count, no, they give you gratuitous flights and motorcycle drives through the wonderful, desolate landscape that you sometimes wish would never end.

All in all, a film with a definite 10/10 visuals, a 9/10 story, German dub quality 8/10, a soundtrack that's easily a 10/10, and subtle but decent sound effects, 7/10.

The best movie, in my opinion, that I have seen this year.

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