In these pessimistic times where dystopian angst is often seen as a supreme virtue, it’s remarkably refreshing to discover a new Netflix movie that can properly deliver a good old-fashioned love story… and especially one revolving around space exploration.
Debuting on Netflix back on May 30, Lost in Starlight is peppered with a soothing and emotional selection of original K-pop tunes courtesy of artists like CIFIKA, Meego, John Park and Wave to Earth’s Kim Daniel.
The sci-fi anime film, which is one of the best Netflix movies with its 88% and 91% Rotten Tomatoes scores from the critics and audiences respectively, confidently carries a distinctive air of romanticism in a star-crossed lovers tale of scientist astronaut Nan-young and a struggling musician named Jay.
The pair become estranged when one of them ventures into the cosmos on a mission to Mars, but the connection they’ve forged on Earth carries across million of miles as she endeavors to perform her astronaut duties to the best of her abilities and return to Seoul safely.
This is Netflix’s first feature-length Korean animated movie and it’s a fantastic beginning to that relationship of working on the best anime with the film’s heartbreaking core of emotionality, immediate resonance, and irresistible charm.
Directed by South Korean filmmaker Han Ji-Won and produced by Climax Studios, Lost in Starlight offers something different with its beautifully rendered backgrounds, crisp and appealing character designs, and a color palette reminiscent of vivid spring bouquets.
The futuristic love story begins in 2026 when a devastating Mars quake causes the collapse of an underground research base, Nan-young’s mother was one of the casualties. Now 25 years later in the year 2051 she’s an astronaut candidate in Seoul, South Korea hoping to be chosen for a fourth expedition to Mars to investigate an immense impact crater.
As she’s waiting to be evaluated and cleared for flight she bumps into Jay, an electronics expert and songwriter who’s capable of fixing her broken record player. The two bond over one of his songs and the transportive power of music just as her Life Form Detector is going to be employed by the Korean Aerospace Administration on the next NASA mission to the Red Planet, and she’ll be accompanying the equipment.
“Usually in animated films, the characters just exist to drive the plot,” Han told Forbes in a recent interview. “I didn’t want that. I really wanted to have characters that you would see in everyday life, who you could really relate to. With animation, you can control all the details of expression and movement, so you can actually get more personal, more character-specific, and really dive into the feeling of it.”
Still dealing with psychological after-effects of her mother’s death on Mars two decades earlier, Nan-young accepts the mission assignment and lifts off on a 6-month journey to Earth’s mysterious neighbor. Once on planet, she explores a subterranean lava cave created by the meteorite crash where life forms have been detected. While on this perilous hunt, Nan-young becomes cut off from her colleagues as a dust storm descends. Will she get rescued and make it out alive from the Red Planet and return to her beloved Jay waiting back on Earth?
Currently streaming exclusively on Netflix, Lost in Starlight is only Han Ji-Won’s second feature film, but it’s a stunning followup for this rising cinematic star and we can’t wait to see what project she becomes attached to next. Until then, let’s relish the romance of her sci-fi gem.
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