Wonderful Days

South Korea was long one of the world's foremost producers of animated films – for others. But at the beginning of the new millennium South Korea started to take cautious steps on their own. Korean animation is still searching for its own voice, while remaining consistently tremendously impressing with its overwhelming aesthetic qualities. And few movies demonstrate this as well as the dystopian fable Wonderful Days.

Ecoban, the world's last city, is encapsulated in a glass bubble to protect itself against the mutated wilderness outside. Pollution is no longer a problem – for the privileged citizens who live inside the bubble. For those on the outside? Life isn't as easy... Wonderful Days is a delightful concoction of post-apocalyptic science fiction, and the experienced nerd will nod eagerly towards inspiration pointing to the worlds of Blade Runner, Judge Dredd and Mad Max, as well as an art style that is occasionally reminiscent of the European comic book tradition of Möebius.

This story about the earth after an ecological disaster is portrayed with an elegant mix of CGI, traditional hand-drawn animation and miniatures. The result is a stunningly beautiful and riveting depiction of life after the apocalypse!

Moon-Saeng Kim (b. 1961) from South Korea is a director and screenwriter, and has besides Wonderful Days (2003) made the short films The Flower of Sabi (2010) and Tree Robo (2005), as well as several hundred commercials. His feature debut Wonderful Days was well received internationally, and screened at festivals such as Cannes and Sundance.