Wonderful Days (2003)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Moon-saeng Kim

Writers:

Michael Keyes (writer)
Moon-saeng Kim (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

17 July 2003 (South Korea)

Genre:

Action | Fantasy | Animation | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

A fantastic journey to the future begins

Plot:

Civilization has been destroyed by war and pollution, but the survivors have built the last city of Ecoban...

Plot Keywords:

Pollution | Sky | Cloud | Future | Hologram

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Marc Worden	...	Shua (voice: English version)
Cathy Cavadini	...	Jay / Young Shua / Cheyenne (voice: English version)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Andrew Ableson	...	(voice: English Version)
Joon-ho Chung	...	(voice: Korean version)
David Naughton	...	(voice: English version)
Bob Papenbrook	...	Goliath (voice: English version)
Jamie Simone	...	Dispatcher (voice: English version)
Kirk Thornton	...	Cade (voice: English version)
Karl Wiedergott	...	Moe / Digger Foreman
Hye-jin Yu	...	(voice: Korean version)
Ji-tae Yu	...	(voice: Korean version)

Directed by
Moon-saeng Kim

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Michael Keyes		writer
Moon-saeng Kim		writer
Jay Lender		writer
Jun-Young Park		writer
Sunmin Park		adaptation: English version
Yong-jun Park		writer
Howard Rabinowitz		English Language adaptation
Jeffrey Winter		adaptation: English version
Micah Wright		writer

Produced by
Kay Hwang	....	producer
Kyeong-hak Lee	....	co-producer
J. Ethan Park	....	producer
Sunmin Park	....	producer (English language version)
Jeffrey Winter	....	associate producer

Original Music by
JaeIl Sim
Sam Spiegel
Il Won

Film Editing by
Michael McCusker		(new edition)

Art Direction by
Yoon-cheol Jung
Suk-Young Lee

Production Management
Christopher Bates	....	production manager
Michael Brodersen	....	post-production supervisor
Fred Goeske	....	post-production supervisor

Art Department
Dong-Wook Lee	....	mechanical designer

Special Effects by
Sung-Ho Hong	....	special effects

Visual Effects by
Young-Min Park	....	3D animation supervisor

Animation Department
Yeong-ki Yoon	....	animation director

Other crew
Jeff Abel	....	additional script
Michael Keyes	....	additional script

Production Companies

• End Game Productions Inc.
• Masquerade Films
• Maxmedia
• Tin House Productions

Distributors

• Aura Entertainment
• End Game Productions Inc. (2005) (non-USA) (DVD)
• Endgame Entertainment (2004) (USA) (theatrical)
• Future Film (2004) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Future Film (2004) (Finland) (DVD)
• Manga Films (Spain)
• Nelonen (2007) (Finland) (TV)
• Pathé (France)
• Starmedia Home Entertainment (2004) (Germany) (DVD)
• Tartan Films (2005) (UK) (theatrical)
• Tartan Video (2005) (UK) (DVD)

Special Effects

• B n B Animation
• Independence Inc.

Also Known As:

Sky Blue (USA)

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

South Korea | USA

Language:

Korean | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS | Dolby SR (US version)

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:K-11 | South Korea:All | Germany:12 | UK:15 | USA:Unrated | Ireland:15A | Singapore:PG

Company:

End Game Productions Inc.

Quotes:

Jay: How long is it been raining? Forever. Not forever. No. For a 100 years. They say billions of people once lived on the earth. And the temperatures rose. The great cities fell. And this rain came. This terrible toxic rain. Our ancestors saw it coming. The catastrophe...

Soundtrack:

Smack My Bitch Up

Absolutely wonderful

Well, reading all these interesting comments above made me think.... First of all,i have to say that i loved Wonderful Days. A lot. The art is gorgeous, yes, i think this is the one point everyone can agree upon, hands down. Now, concerning the storyline itself....

I think there should be some clarification, especially for all those poor ppl who must have watched this in English (either subtitled or dubbed). Those who did the translations deserves to get hanged. and i mean it. i own the special edition 3-disc original Korean DVDs and have also watched both the subtitled and dubbed versions. It actually feels like i'm watching 2 completely different versions of the story! The original korean version has a much more interesting (not the greatest, but definitely superior and full of nuances)script and explains the story quite well, unlike the English versions that either skip entire parts of dialogues (which are essential to understand the movie *_*) or change their meanings into something totally different and just plain wrong! And someone mentioned that some characters' names weren't mentioned in the movie till the very end. Well, i can tell you that the names (except that evil adjudant(?)) are mentioned quite early in the beginnings, but mysteriously, NOT in the English versions O_o ! I'm on the verge of thinking that it must be some sort of conspiracy to ruin this otherwise great movie... I suggest you watch the korean version....or get a korean friend to actually translate you the real lines, instead of getting confused at the horrible English sub/dub.

anyway. oh, and i honestly don't understand all those who say that the story wasn't original,good enough,etc etc. i mean, it might not be the most mind-boggling thing on earth, but the twists are original enough to set it wiiiide-apart from your average anime/movies where all you have is 90 minutes of explosions, punches, boobies, and some supposedly dramatic ending (that ppl apparently find "original").

For those of you who still think the story isn't well explained in the movie...well, there's always the novelized version that came out in Korea (no English versions, sorry) that gives all the background story between the characters and all. Like what really happened in Shua & co.'s childhood, the characters' motives, blah blah...

Boy, is this review getting longer and longer....

A final word... considering the depressing situation in Korea (let's just say that animation/comics are ignored by most and the market terribly limited) the creators and all those who worked on this film did an unbelievable job. I really hope things get better back there, cuz it's not the skills they lack, but public support and funding.

oh, i guess i have to rate this thing. 10/10 for the story (9/10 for the actual flow), 10/10 for the art, 15/10 for the efforts lol.