Sky Blue (Dir Kim Moon-saeng, 1h 22 m, 2003)

If there is one downside to the explosion of Japanese anime as an artform in the West, it is that it has rather blocked out the equally vibrant animation scenes in China and Korea; the fact that, for many, the closest they've ever come to Korean animation is the outsourced (and unfairly lampooned by professional shyster Banksy) work on long-running American animated series such as the Simpsons rather hides what the medium in Korea has to offer. And whilst the industry is now thriving, with 2011's brutal but equistisely animated  King of Pigs and the zombie-fest Seoul Station (a prequel to the excellent Train to Busan), it is today's film, Kim Moon-Saeng's Sky Blue (otherwise known as Wonderful Days in multiple regions) that arguably gave most western audiences their first glimpse at Korean animation in early 2004.

Set in 2142, at a point where the world is covered with seemingly never ending, and ultimately toxic rainfall, and where the haves (in the technologically advanced city, Ecoban), and the have-nots (the Diggers, a group of downtrodden workers which Ecoban relies on for energy, whilst keeping the Diggers out of the safety of the city. Thus, Sky Blue not only focuses on well-wrought narratives of the ecological cost that humanity is now paying for its past misdeeds, including, it is implied, the toxic rain, but also neatly weaves a story of class struggle between Ecoban and the Diggers. Nowhere is this seen better than in its three protagonists, a trio of childhood friends that find themselves on either side of this conflict.

Shua, (voiced in the English dub by Marc Worden) is the capable outsider, first seen, in the atmospheric opening to the film, breaking into Ecoban in search of information, and managing to outwit both the security of the city, and its guards, finally coming face to face with childhood friend Jay, (Cathy Cavadini), in a taut, beautifully animated sequence in a gallery containing what must be the majority of human art, with Shua making his escape via a stained glass window in one of the most impressive shots of the film, before returning to the figure of Doctor Noah, a former member of Ecoban who has cut ties with the city due to the damage it wreaks on the world around it, and his plans to use the city to blow a hole in the eternal cloud cover.

With the introduction of Jay's superior, the smart if manipulative Cade (Kirk Thornton), so the film in essence sets up not only its central lovetriangle between Cade, Jay and Shua, but also its struggle of ideologies, between things remaining as they are, with the Diggers forever downtrodden and dying to keep Ecoban running, (represented by Cade), or rising up against the city to potentially restore the sky above them to normal. It is this current, this choice that Jay ultimately has to make, that runs through the rest of the film, and it is the central performances of these three voice actors that ultimately make each of them interesting characters that one cannot help but emphahise with, to lesser or greater degree, even as the film moves steadily towards its spectacular denoument

Outside of this central struggle however, the film is less sure of itself-its side characters range from Woody, a child that Shua has taken in which shows a new light to an otherwise violent and cold young man, to Moe and Zoe, a duo of one-note goofy characters that seem to tag along for an interminable amount of the plot, and whilst the latter two take part in much of the film's action, including an impressively animated and visually kinetic fight scene between Ecoban's men and a meat-cleaver-wielding arms dealer, that occasionally feels like it's escaped from The Matrix, they quickly overstay their welcome. Cade, of the trio, also feels like the least developed-whilst more fleshed out than most of the characters, he simply seems, up until the last third of the film, a mere counterpart to Shua within the walls of Ecoban, with the final third taking some lengths that occasionally feel like an overcorrection, to bring him back into the story.

Yet, it is the film's animation that feels its weakest spot-this is not to say that there are not moments of beauty and spectacle-the film's final five minutes are absolutely jawdropping moment after moment, and the character design is superb throughout-but it feels, even in the context of 2004, strangely dated. Korean animation, after all, suffered a colossal slump in the 2000s after its 1990s boom years, and what one is left with, in terms of the film's character animation, is roughly equivilent to that of high budget anime around a decade before. This, in a synthesis of traditionally animated characters and CGI rendered backgrounds (although model work was also used for some sequences) can, at points be visually arresting, but too often, with the possible exceptions being the museum fight, and the film's climax, either seems mismatched or, particularly in the case of the CGI, rather dated.

Nevertheless, even this cannot entirely take one out of a film that, despite its visual shortcomings, is an excellent slice of science fiction. Above all, Sky Blue reminds even its western audience that animation is not merely the preserve of Europe, USA, and Japan, and that, increasingly, as with live action cinema, other voices are entering the picture; the sky of animation is breaking up, and light is shining into more and more countries and what their animation industries have to offer.

Rating: Recommended