South Korea, 2003
Director: Moon-Saeng Kim
Voices: Ji-Tae Yu, Joon Ho Chung, Hee-Jin Wu

Plot: It is the year 2142 and Earth has been devastated by pollution; the once blue sky has been obscured behind thick dark clouds. A self-sustaining city, ECOBAN, is created which draws upon the pollution for fuel. A resistance fighter named Shua breaks into the ECOBAN data core, stealing important data, which details ECOBAN’s predicament. Of course as fate would have it, Shua encounters a childhood love, Jay, who has become a law-enforcement officer for ECOBAN. She must choose between her duty to ECOBAN and her feelings for Shua, while he struggles to thwart ECOBAN’s plans and restore Earth’s former beauty.

Wonderful Days is wonderful to your eyes. The film uses a mixture of computer models for vehicles and background and traditional animation for the characters. This technique is nothing new to the world of animation. What makes this film unique is the way he treats the film as almost one enormous opera. Sure, some of you may complain about undeveloped the characters and story are. And how it raises some questions and confusion when the world is given fresh birth at the end of the film.

I could easily overlook that. It was so obvious that the filmmakers were way too overjoyed with their post-apocalyptic world they created. When you can feel that much energy, it should give you nothing to complain about while you enjoy the film. I am not saying that would make a good film. That is not enough to make it good. Sure, there is its lack of story and character developments in the film. But putting that aside, the animation is absolutely superb. The design is simply fascinating. The music is fabulous. Wonderful Days is an amazingly detailed alienated world of its own.

Review by Shogo.