Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

siderite The animation looked shoddy from the start, especially facial expressions, but I thought I would give this Korean anime a chance. It is about two close childhood friends that meet when they are adults and reminisce about the good old times. Or at least, this my interpretation of the vague plot. The reality of the film is that these two adults meet, you get a feeling they are old friends, and then there they are, as children, for the rest of the movie.Now, the story is something of a childhood fantasy, where the two boys find a magical marble that transposes them into an alternate reality. It doesn't happen all the time, only at random moments that seem to have no connection to what goes on around. Then there are bits of school and personal life that defines the characters. It all ends when one of the boys has to leave for Seoul.I felt it tried to be a Korean Miyazaki clone, but failed. The animation could have been better, but then again, if the story was good, I could have ignored it. The story was good in principle, too, with the childhood friendship, the mysterious girl (I guess she was a girl) from the fantasy world, the fluffy things, etc. However, it was all fragmented, unclear, like they wanted to make a series and then they collapsed all into a anime movie, with only the relevant bits salvaged for the end product.Bottom line: If they wanted a masterpiece of atmosphere and animation, they couldn't do it. If they thought they were doing something with a deep plot and emotional story, they failed. The result is somewhat in the middle, not one nor the other, and feels unnatural, broken.

lyrast I watched a Korean anime film "My Beautiful Giirl Mari" and it is really quite magical. It's an emotionally demanding film which requires the viewer to enter two worlds—apparently diametrically opposed. One is the inner world of the imagination of a child. A world where the rules don't apply, where one is carried on cushions of clouds. The other is the external "real" world that we perceive around us with our senses and is ruled by apparently immutable physical and social imperatives. It is the conflict of these two perspectives which drives the film and gives it its remarkable emotional power.Perhaps the most poignant way we see the differences that underlie the two worlds is in the conflicting forms of love relationships that the film explores. Nam-woo clearly loves Mari. But even he admits that this love is impossible and can never be fulfilled. His relationship with Mari becomes a symbol of the search for beauty and love and joy which drives our being but which can never be satisfied. Mari is that unobtainable Grail for which we all search but can never obtain.Against that is the love of Nam-woo's widowed mother for the young fisherman. Here is the love of the earth. The love which is part of the cut and thrust of living—a love which {as the grumpy Granny points out} is simply necessary.As I said, the two universes seem separate. But at the climax they intersect. At that focal point we see that the two worlds are, in reality, complementary. The adult needs the fantasy universe as much as the child needs to relate to the external world around him or her. And in this magical conclusion we see the true unity that is needed to be truly completely human.

dbborroughs Its been a week since I've seen this movie and it still haunts me. In its way its one of the finest animated films I've seen. Its not perfect and I'm not certain that its for everyone but for those who it clicks with will find that they have found a new friend.The story is told mostly in flashback.It concerns the summer when two boyhood friends were just about to be separated. As they prepare to be apart for the first time they find their lives are changing rapidly. Added into the mix are flights of fantasy, perhaps, as first one and then both boys are pulled into a strange world.What exactly transpires isn't wholly clear, which is fine, since this is essentially the memories of one of the adults of that magic summer. What happens, fantastic or not is simply reported as real, and we are forced to sort out if its real or not. Memory plays tricks and we don't remember everything, or even always correctly. You could say that how one sees the film marks what sort of person you are.This is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. There is a quality to the films images that has rarely been equaled in animated film. Several times the sheer beauty of what I was seeing brought me to tears.The best part of the film is how it makes you feel like a child. Things transpire and you FEEL what its like to be a child. This is not an intellectual knowing that this is what its like to be a child, rather the film physically makes you FEEL what its like. I can't explain it other than to say its pure magic. I've seen literally tens of thousands of films and I've never felt like this ever.Perhaps the only downside to the film is the odd nature of the telling. As I said things are not always instantly clear with what's happening. This is particularly noticeable at the start of the film where are characters are adults and they speak rather obliquely about whats going on. There is also several moments in main narrative where things seem a bit odd. While the oddness passes there is a lingering feeling, oh so very very minor, that something is amiss.But the flaws are minor quibbles. This is one of the great animated films and proof that not all the best animation is coming from America or Japan. If you get the chance see this movie. There is something very special about it.

Brian Thibodeau MY BEAUTIFUL GIRL MARI (2002) Call this the not-so-WONDERFUL DAYS, if you will, a sentimental, perceptive tale of a young boy, Nam-woo, coping with the loss of his father (which probably has even greater resonance in a patriarchal society like Korea's), the illness of his grandmother, his mother's new boyfriend and the impending departure to the city of his best friend by retreating into a world of fantasy where he meets the title character, a mute girl who becomes the only character in his life with any sense of permanence: his mother is trying to move on, his grandmother has a very pragmatical sense of her own mortality, his best friend will be continuing at school in another city (something repeated in the present-day opening sequence, in which the friend announces again that he's off to study abroad, underscoring the sense of separation we all feel from even our closest friends with the passage of time).It's ultimately a cautious, profound tale about letting go and moving on, something the main character deeply wishes he could avoid, and something that can stir-up similar childhood memories in even the most hardened cynic. Director Lee Sung-gang wisely shuns conventional Japanese and western animation styles to create something entirely new and heartbreakingly beautiful in its deceptive simplicity. Computer animated but approximating traditional hand-animation in a wholly original style, the film boasts an absolutely gorgeous muted colour palate that brightens whenever Nam-woo enters the world of his mind. In many ways, I prefer the honesty and simplicity of this film to the high-tech sheen of WONDERFUL DAYS, which suffers from a painfully straightforward story.