1.
Beautiful Whispers is an animated fantasy film directed by Lee Sung-kang and released in South Korea on January 11, 2002. It won the Grand Prix Award for Best Animated Feature at the 26th Anxi International Animation Festival and the Cultural and Tourism Bureau Award at the 1st SICAF Preparatory New Film Competition.
It was also the first Korean animated film I watched, and the music, animation, plot, and affection it contained far exceeded my expectations.
2.
At the beginning of the story, As an adult, Joon-ho accidentally receives a call from his childhood friend Luo Wu, and after the two meet, they begin a period of memories of their youth.
At that time, the two teenagers were classmates and lived together in a fishing village by the sea. The sea breeze of the fishing village will purify the hearts of the two teenagers with peace and purity. That little bit of anticipation and touch started with a small glass ball in the grocery store.
Luo Wu found an unusually bright glass ball in the grocery store that seemed to have a small person inside, but as soon as he let go of his hand, he could no longer find it. A few days later, Luo Wu's cat took Luo Wu to the abandoned lighthouse of the fishing village, which has since become another happy secret base for them in addition to swimming by the sea.
The reason why it is secret is because Luo Wu does not know what has touched, and he can enter a beautiful other world through the lighthouse. The first time he met a beautiful girl there, as if dragged to the sky by her, and saw a cloud hanging from silk thread in the clear sky.
Joon-ho, who arrives at the lighthouse, finds that Luo Wu is gone. But the vanishing place left the strange glass ball that Rovu had seen in the grocery store with the villain inside.
Later, Luo Wu met the girl again in a dream. Not a dark dream that makes people fall asleep, but like the beginning of last year's popular Oscar film "The Shape of Water", the sea slowly rises from the floor of the room and fills, accompanied by tiny bubbles and swimming fish with belly, so that the teenager slowly ripples in the gentle waves of the sea, rising into the air, rest assured and bold to explore the other world.
Even when Joon-ho came to stay overnight, he entered that dream together. It's both real and magical.
Later, in a rare storm, Luo Wu did not listen to Junhao's persuasion and insisted on coming to the lighthouse again with the glass ball. The girl and the illusion reappear, and this time the illusion shines into reality, sweeping away the dark clouds and rain, because the bad weather lost in the fishing boat at sea, including the fishing boat of Joon-ho's father and Luo Wu's mother's boyfriend, can finally return home.
The tones of the entire cartoon are turquoise and gray-blue as the main colors, with a clear and bright that does not stain dust. The characters are not as beautiful as most of the japanese comics with twinkling stars and big eyes - even the girls in the dream are ordinary people, but more like the still water flowing deeply.
The sensible Junhao will tell his father who is about to go to sea, don't work so hard, you can spend a little less money; Luo Wu's mother can't let go of Luo Wu's ignorance and elderly grandmother every day.
The fisherman's market and various simple shops on the daily path that teenagers must pass, and the yacht with parasol stranded at the bottom of the shore found by Luo Wu and Junhao at the bottom of the sea constitute a picture of tranquility and peace, full of life wisdom and inspiring infinite love and fun.
The musical expression of the animation is unusually fit. Most of the scenery of the fishing village is refreshing, and the high-pitched electronic orchestra is very melodious and beautiful, and the audience can see the flow of the fishing village scenery along the high and low tones; and whenever the dream appears, all the notes will have a long overtone, endless. Let the audience know that there is a story after the picture, and after the story is to reach forever.
3.
Unlike Miyazaki's "Spirited Away", which uses the whole other world created to make people constantly lose and pursue, nor like "Summer of Kappa", which makes teenagers experience gain and loss, labor pain and growth, the other world of Luo Wu and Junhao in "Beautiful Honey" is always intertwined with reality.
That world is beautiful and wonderful, but both teenagers are facing the triviality and blandness of real life. For example, taking a long bus to see a performance that is not wonderful, just to win the favor of the mother and her boyfriend; for example, watching the father work hard, determined to save more and get ahead faster.
Like all films about boyhood, the end of boyhood in this film ends with Joon-ho and his father moving to Seoul. But fortunately, when they became adults, they all remembered each other, and they all clearly remembered that period of youth.
That past event seems to be just a casual footnote, but it makes people know with certainty that the gentle white dog in the illusion that is the size of the house, the transparent glass ball containing the villain, the stem is straight like the flower of the tree, and the tree with the funny shape of the whole body is real and credible, along with the promise of the teenager when he left.
Nine days to catch the moon, the next five oceans to catch turtles. The most beautiful past begins with a dream, and ends with a life achieved by a dream. Such a longing is also deserved.