Wonderful Days...a Korean anime masterpiece? (1 Viewer)

[Dennis Pagoulatos]

Rob: Agreed (to disagree)

Seth: Me and the wife watched "How to Lose a Guy..." also last weekend and both of us "enjoyed" it as well (well, I "enjoyed" looking at Kate Hudson at least.

I do have other friends and co-workers that are into more "artsy" stuff, typically people in my field (architecture) are artsy fartsy eccentrics, so foreign films, indy films, art galleries, tofu, etc., are to our liking...

And of course there's always "solo" movie watching...but we live nowhere near theaters that will even play indy/foreign films (an hour from San Francisco) so that's out on the weekends for me...at least working in SF provides the best opportunities to take in interesting films/ shows (after work)...the weekends however, back in suburbia, are all about the mall/ multiplex. At least we have decent theaters in this area (2 16 screen multiplexes less than 4 years old within 15 minutes of here!) so if I want to watch "Rocky 7", it'll be on plenty of screens!

-Dennis

 

[Kong Chang]

It's not Kimba the White Lion, the original title is The Jungle Emperor (JANGURU taitei).

Japanese refer to all animation as "anime" since the pronunciation is "animeshon" (which is a close sound approximate to the English word, "animation"), but is shortened down to "anime" because Japanese love to shorten English words down to 3-4 kana sounds. However, in the western culture, we love to define "anime" as Japanese specific, and "animation" as American or Western, and "cartoon" as something for just young kids. It's very distinct separation.

Wonderful Days would fall under anime because Korean have done so much in-between work for Japanese anime, that the Korean style is very similar. Not only that, they have the same expression of ambience and mood that the Japanese convey in their anime that Westerners can't replicate. American style anime can't be called "anime" because the look and feel and mood, etc., is so far from "anime". It would be more "anime-like" or "anime style" animation but not true "anime".

 

[Dennis Pagoulatos]

Kong: I think the title of the show when it aired in the U.S. was "Kimba the White Lion"...but the you are correct, the original title is as you say...

And I think that I read that the main character in Japanese was called "Leo" not "Kimba" as in the U.S. dubbed version that aired in the late 60's (1966 I think I read...)

I also agree that the "style" is what is most important, not where the animation was produced, though I do think that you're right that American studios would have a hard time replicating the mood/ambience of a good anime. I think that if they could, they would do so in a heartbeat, but it's not that easy...

-Dennis

 

[Seth Paxton]

Yes, I think saying it's not "anime" because that is just the Japanese name for animation is a bit like saying that plastic flying disc is not a frisbee.

At this point it seems somewhat clear that "anime" has established itself as a genre, and that if an animator of any culture could capture the same moods, styles, moral philosophies, etc. that they would also be creating "anime".

It's not like its disrespectful to say that one cultures work has been so outstanding and unique that it has defined it's own genre. Like "Frisbee" we have one brand that has been so good that its name has become the name for an entire group (though few outside of Japan have moved into the anime field at this point, it does seem to have established itself enough that foreign artists are trying their hand at it).


Another sign that its become a genre is that definitions of anime style now exist and appear to be applied only to a certain type of Japanese animation, unless I'm mistaken.

After all, if you suddenly found out that Monsters Inc was really done totally in Japan by Japanese artists, would that suddenly make Monsters Inc "anime"? Would you really see it in the same light as Akira or Ghost in the Shell or Cowboy Bebop?



Dennis, it sounds like DVD and HT are godsends for your viewing of "decent" films then. Oh, and perhaps Netflix if you are like me and want to rent a Criterion or a silent film.

 

[Dennis Pagoulatos]

Netflix rules, it certainly does rule! Blockbuster/ Hollywood video do not carry "art films"; Netflix carries just about everything!

Anyone needing more eye candy for Wonderful Days?? If you have a fast internet connection (DSL/Cable or better) go to the website, stay in the Korean site (don't go to the English site ) and click on "Downloads". This will bring you to a page of 4 downloadable video clips in different formats. I suggest downloading the ZIP file of each one in MPEG format (the best quality) and viewing them, they're quite stunning, made up mostly of bits from the trailer, but there is quite a bit more stuff not seen in the trailer; truly stunning (is that word overused in this thread?!)

You HAVE to see these clips! (They range in size from 16 megs to 40 megs) I got a decent speed just now of about 80 KB/sec per clip (and it maintained that speed for both as I downloaded 2 simultaneously!)

-Dennis

 

[TheLongshot]

Just as a note, the site has been updated with a release date in April for Korea. Nothing else new that I can tell...

Jason

 

[Dennis Pagoulatos]

Arise! Oh Mighty Thread, long dead and now ALIVE!

Take a trip to the Korean Site to see the kick ass new poster for Wonderful Days. Pretty cool.

Official Site

It is being released April 18th, 2003 in Korea. Stay tuned on who (if anyone) picks up distribution rights for it here in the U.S...

-Dennis

 

[Brendan Brown]

For some reason I hope Sony in particular picks this up for domestic distribution. The trailers recall Metropolis and Sony's handling of it was (in my opinion) faultless.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

Something that looks as good as that is guaranteed some sort of release in the US, though not necessarily theatrical.

 

[TheLongshot]

Resurrecting this thread again. There is apparently a new trailer on the Korean site....

Jason

 

[FredK]

Released in Korea last thursday, here's a positive review (spoilers) http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=15708.

Looking forward to getting some more news on this one and when we'll be able to see it outside of Korea, the site hasn't had anything new since the teaser trailer was put up.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Likely to combat piracy the Korean DVD will be out September-ish.

 

[Dennis Pagoulatos]

MMM...Korean DVD you say...will it have English subs?

I wonder if it made a blip in the Asian box office since its release?

-Dennis

 

[TheLongshot]

MMM...Korean DVD you say...will it have English subs?

Possibly. There is a lot of Anime released in Korea that have English subs, so it is a possibility.

Jason

 

[Rob Lutter]

I am sure that someone will fansub it with DVDsubber if no official translation happens... so it's all good

I wonder if it made a blip in the Asian box office since its release?

Hopefully, because I think this film cost more to make than the GNP of a small country

 

[Jeff Kleist]

The Korean DVD has been released. Region 3 w/English subs. No other specs available

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.asp...n-anime/did-4/

 

[Dennis Pagoulatos]

Cool! Hopefully someone with a region free DVD player will purchase and review it for us!

-Dennis

 

[Ted Lee]

whatever happened with this movie ... is it available in the US yet?

 

[Marc LaPalme]

watched the trailer. sounds good.

i'm hoping the dubbing over doesn't kill the sounds effects like 99% of all other anime tranlations (why i watch with subtitles)

looks good.

tried posting a url... but wasn't aloud. so...

google "sky blue". you'll come up with the site.

 

[Jason Seaver]

I saw it back in January or February. Not bad, but the hand-drawn foreground characters didn't match the CGI vehicles and backgrounds well at all, and the story isn't quite up to what has come out of Japan, either. It's a good first effort, though.