Wonderful: Here today, gone tomorrow

If the words 'Korean animation' bring a slight skepticism to your mind then I can assure you that not only are you not alone, but while your preconceptions may be unfounded they are entirely substantial. While discussing animation online with a friend in Belgium the title Wonderful Days was mentioned, I checked out the trailer and although it verily failed to impress me I was still willing to give it a shot.
The unavoidable tragedy of the film is its terrible animation, it features CG environments with cel animated characters and ultimately fails on both counts. It's not like I don't accept anything less than perfection, I do often happily watch low budget titles with complete disregard for the poor animation in favor of a good story or well written characters. But with Wonderful Days the style of CG animation would have been acceptable only in the 20th century, and the cel animation was incredibly reminiscent of the amateur animated short films screened in London at the International Manga and Anime Festival a few years ago. The art was simply another cheap imitation completely devoid of its own style, a throwaway product destined for a debut in the bargain bin. I couldn't help but laugh hysterically when I read on the Wikipedia page the words "It features backdrops rendered using photo-realistic computer-generated imagery, comparable to those in the film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within." If there is any more of a perfect contrast to Wonderful Days than the first Final Fantasy film (with a budget of just over £67 million) then I am not aware of it.
But enough about the animation, is the film worth it for the many other factors that create a good production? In short, no.
Everything about the characters and story is trite and uninvolving, the world it is set up in suffers a dire amount of unexplored potential and the directing shares the pungent amateur air about it. I even suspect a thinly veiled commentary on modern politics, but am not sure if I should condemn it any more than I already have.
I would not recommend this film under any circumstances, and deeply regret not spending the time watching either Paprika or Studio Ghibli's My Neighbor Totoro or Howl's Moving Castle, all brilliantly acclaimed films I will be making up time with in the near future.