Lost in Starlight Review: Vibrantly Human

Lost in Starlight is a vividly colored and urbanized familiar story of finding love and overcoming loss, unbound by planetary restrictions.

Amid the technological advancements and innovative space discoveries, the film strikes something inherently human in its protagonists, Nan-young (Kim Tae-ri) and Jay (Hong Kyung).

The year is 2051, and the place is Seoul, urban and warm, glowing under the cherished beauty of natural sunsets but also the light of holographic screens and advertisements. Nan-young is a bright and accomplished pioneer in space travel who struggles to balance her ambitions with her blossoming love for Jay, the charming repair guy and ex-guitarist that dropped into her life as if by fate. 

We meet Nan-young as she tries to finish a groundbreaking invention that would help her discover life on Mars and fulfill her dream to be selected for the next Mars probe mission. The previous endeavor on Mars ended up taking away her mother’s life 25 years prior. So, in a way, Nan-young seeks on the foreign planet not only traces of living microorganisms for scientific research but also traces of her mom for her own closure. 

While she follows in her well-regarded mother’s footsteps, her relationship with Jay deepens, and he becomes progressively worried that history might repeat itself if the mission goes awry. Nan-young is now at a cosmic crossroad between her ever-expanding feelings of grief for what’s been lost and love for what’s to come. This internal battle is at the root of each conflict that arises within the film and at the heart of Nan-young and Jay’s star-crossed romance.

Even the pivotal scenes for the relationship are symbolically tied back to Nan-young’s mother’s passing and the influence of that event over every moment. From the get-go, when we are first introduced to Jay, he walks through a holographic broadcast about Nan-young’s late mother and bumps clumsily into Nan-young herself exactly then, setting off a chain of events destined to change both of their lives. Nan-young is looking for someone to fix her old record player – an antique that used to belong to her mom – and Jay’s stubbornness to fix it can also be read as a symbolic attempt to mend her relationship with her past.

Because of everything inevitably leading back to Nan-young’s family tragedy, it’s hard to see Jay as much more than a “love interest.” Lost in Starlight would have benefited from rummaging deeper into Jay’s inner world, which would have helped the audience be on board with his journey as much as his girlfriend’s.

Jay’s own journey has to do with the abandonment of his ambitions to be a musician. Once Nan-young reveals she has been unknowingly listening to an old unfinished song of his online, everything floods back and puts him back on the path toward achieving his dreams. We follow that path at the same time as Nan-young embarks on a life-risking mission to conduct some research on another planet. Her fears and insecurities are conveyed with as much magnitude and scale as Jay’s own worries about his return on stage: this keeps both our characters’ journeys on the same playing field. With this decision, director Han Ji-won conveys the universality of what it’s like to be fearful of commitment, wary of following a more difficult path, and to surrender to love. 

There’s a fascinating vibrancy to the world-building and the utopian Seoul itself, reminiscent here of an older, more hopeful collective idea of a futuristic city landscape. The creativity and attention to detail make for a unique aesthetic that beautifully complements the interstellar nature of the premise.

Within the larger thematic constellations in Lost in Starlight and the beautiful and vibrant visual style, there remains a simplistic romance about the hardships of falling in love with emotional baggage and how this can affect your life, your career, your significant other. The film is full of recognizable emotions that feel magnified by its grand scale: the consuming experience of overcoming loss, finding love, and coming back to yourself in the process. Despite not all characters being given enough time to shine, Lost in Starlight still leaves you feeling comforted by them and in awe of the artistry behind the animated utopia they inhabit.

Lost in Starlight is now available to stream globally on Netflix.