‘Lost In Starlight’ review: A cosmic courtship

Lost in Starlight takes the idea of star-crossed lovers literally, crafting a love story that transcends across the galaxy.

Marketed as Netflix’s first Korean animated film and produced by Climax Studios, director Han Ji-won and the team of animators take the animation to new visual heights. Yet, we’re never left feeling untethered. Instead, Lost in Starlight grounds itself through its exploration of both Nan-young’s (Kim Tae-ri) and Jay’s (Hong Kyung) separate and intersecting paths.

Set in Seoul in 2050, Lost in Starlight follows Nan-young, an astronaut hoping to lead an expedition to Mars. The film’s opening tragic sequences of events make it clear that Nan-young’s motivation is deeply personal. Her mother was the first Korean astronaut to venture to Mars, launching her and Nan-young into the public eye. Unfortunately, she doesn’t pass her final test to be a part of the next expedition to Mars. With her mental stability in question, Nan-young must find new ways to prove her worth to the team.

But first, a meet-cute moment! With the accidental help of a hologram advertisement, Nan-young crashes into Jay. He doesn’t seem like much. He is an audio repairman and technician with a penchant for fixing retro items. Initially, their relationship starts as a client/worker one after Jay says he can fix Nan-young’s record player. Jay’s curiosity and interest in Nan-young grow, particularly when he learns she is a public figure.  In the end, he can’t get her out of his mind.

Jay falls easily into the ‘he fell first’ trope, and who can blame him? Nan-young is extraordinary, having nearly broken records and following obsessively in her mother’s footsteps. Yet, Jay’s constant care and desire to learn about her as a person rather than her mother cracks the code on this independently driven woman. This culminates in beautifully rendered, hyper-detailed, cute date moments between the two. Over an indeterminate amount of time, these two opposites become one.

Finding closure by looking forward.

When conflict arises between them, it surprisingly doesn’t feel forced. The writing has been on the wall from the get-go. Nan-young’s goal from the start has been to travel to Mars, knowing full well the danger involved. However, for someone like Jay, this dream is almost too abstract. That is until he learns in a brutally straightforward fashion how quickly things can change in space.

Change is paramount for the two characters, yet neither can escape stasis. For Nan-young, her mother’s memory casts its shadow over everything. Her mother’s death influences her goals. Even her father can’t celebrate Nan-young’s birthday without making it about her mother. Yet, the only way to find closure is to keep looking onward and upward. Jay fails to understand this about her and, in all honesty, himself.

Jay can’t move on from his fears. His real passion is music, yet he lacks confidence in his voice and work. Through a series of flashbacks in Lost in Starlight, we see why. It can be easy to lose faith when people twist and alter your work. Even more so, when they dismiss your efforts. It isn’t until Nan-young voices her support that he can see how his music has an impact. However, it isn’t until her absence that he can fully move forward.

The animation onscreen beautifully illustrates this. The detailed work is sumptuous, and each new location presents a visual feast for the eyes. The setting informs us of our characters and the world they inhabit. A lot can change in 25 years, yet so much can remain the same. There’s a tinge of nostalgia to this world, with the incorporation of records. Han Ji-won and her team perfectly capture this blend of new and familiar technologies in Lost in Starlight, from the city to the characters’ bedrooms and workspaces. The gorgeously rendered world makes me want to crawl inside my screen and live in it.

Despite the grounded technologically fused world created, some of the most beautiful moments of animation happen when the team dives into the symbolic. A spinning record becomes a galaxy. Flowers explode in dizzying colors. The contrast between cool and warm tones is rich and gives the animators license to play once the story transitions from Seoul to outer space, from reality to dream. And like all dreams, the visuals elevate beyond the imagination to create something stunning and breathtaking.

Connection is pivotal in Lost in Starlight.

Even more so, the music takes things further here. With Jay’s musical background, it’s no wonder music plays a significant part in aiding the storytelling of Lost in Starlight. Knowing that Kim Tae-ri and Hong Kyung were involved in some of the lyric-writing process for the music featured, it’s no wonder the music easily captures the characters’ headspaces. Bouncing off that, the chemistry the two actors bring to each scene is natural and flows, making their characters’ budding relationship so much fun to witness.

There’s not much to critique here except a noticeable lapse in judgment regarding Netflix’s subtitling.  I watched this in the original Korean, but Lost in Starlight does feature English dialogue. However, there are multiple moments when the characters speak English and the subtitles do not match what’s being said. Words and phrases are added or dropped entirely. At best, this is distracting. At worst, it fails to maintain the script’s integrity and undermines an audience relying on subtitles to understand what’s happening. It also prompts the question of how much the Korean translation has been altered.

This is more of a criticism of Netflix than those involved in Lost in Starlight. However, subtitles exist to help those who need them. They deliver important dialogue and context for what’s happening onscreen. If dialogue is altered in the subtitling process, this can impact the meaning of scenes, character interactions, etc., particularly in international films. While harsh, this topic is essential to discuss in an ever-growing global market.

The bottom line.

Despite the issue with subtitling, Lost in Starlight never strays from its story. Space may separate the film’s two lovers, but the distance is only physical. Through their trials and tribulations, the importance of connection becomes paramount. Without the proper connection, the stasis we live in can become permanent. With the right person and the right connection, even we can reach the stars.

Lost in Starlight streams exclusively on Netflix starting Friday, May 30. Watch the trailer here.

---

Images courtesy of Netflix. Read more articles by Sarah Musnicky here.