Yeon-ui Pyeonji

"Fireflies help you find the one you want to meet." Yeon-ui Pyeonji (Your Letter) is a heartwarming aeni movie about friendship that is filled with fun adventure and mystery. The story introduces a girl named Lee So-ri, a Seoul student who transfers to a high school near her childhood home to live with her grandmother because of her experience with bullying after standing up for a friend. There, she discovered a letter left by Jeong Ho-yeon in her desk, signaling the beginning of her adventure in hunting for another letter. Visually, it is pleasing, especially with the background art. The music is the best element from the movie. Produced by Kim Yeon-jeong and Kim Tae-seong, and also featuring singers Lee Suhyun, sh, Cloud koh, CIFIKA, and HEN, the soundtracks of Yeon-ui Pyeonji kept the movie alive and engaging. However, I find the story just fine. It's pretty simple, yet still enjoyable. It had no mind-blowing moments; some twists should remain expected. The storyboard was written properly, nonetheless. The character designs were decent, though I would have preferred had they adopted manhwaga Cho Hyun-ah's character designs, as they looked far more superior. In conclusion, Yeon-ui Pyeonji is a movie worth watching in cinemas for me (as a non-Manhwa reader), but it might disappoint anyone who expects something grand. Please give it a chance.

Unfortunately, with MAL being understood as mostly a Japanese anime listing site, shows made by other countries that may have a chance to stand with the "Anime" titles are lesser seen. "Yeon-ui Pyeonji" is one of those shows that has been listed in the Japanese anime listing site while being a Korean anime or I myself may argue "Animation," "Your Letter", for those who have consumed anime art style from most of the shows they watch, will stand out instantly. The art direction in this movie is not pointed toward being the best Korean "Anime" but rather being the best show it can be for itself. It has clever use of Computer Graphics in its environments that complement the Hand Drawn characters in a pleasant way. The frowned upon "CG" in anime industry may not be the cherry on the top but when done properly and used accordingly will make any jaw dropped. In its animation with both the "CG" and the "Hand Drawn" sections, this show made me question, why don't Japanese anime do this? It is rare to miss the intention and direction of the story when it is presented with a vivid color palette that follows the mood of the scene. The show is colorful with a choice of higher saturated colors, this is a friend of the plot and will leave and rejoin whenever needed. For a story that is trying to bring out "letters" from their dusty, has not been touched in 50 years, shelf in the dim back of the basement to the spotlight, this use of exaggerated colors is beneficial. "Letters" serve as the main topic and symbol while the mystery of finding what message is hidden inside those papers stands true for a theme. The story starts with its letters, progresses with its letters and ends with its letters, hence the name "Your Letter," It is nostalgic to check the mail box, in constant hope of finding a letter, and as the days pass forget that feeling of hope, replacing it with another aim, moving on with our lives. All these powerful tactics toward the betterment of the stylistic approach is why I can argue this show to be an "Animation", not an "Anime," It may just be too rich in style to be counted as one. The approach is colorful, what its trying to say is colorful, but having it all be just amazing will drop the dusty feeling of letters being an old method of messaging others down the gutter. This is why the show has a tint of sadness that, as I mentioned for the style, will be complemented by the dimmer and less colorful palette when needed. However, this sadness remains a tint. A topic like bullying and "Everyone around you being the worst person they possibly can be" should be treated as something more serious than a tint. While that is true, it can be argued that the story is about moving on, if with letters the message can be conveyed then let it be. The show starts with the main character moving to another school, another city, and moving on from that tint of sadness using such methods as letters. As well as the approach toward the topic is, the characters deep inside may feel anger toward how they are being pushed around to the author's whim. Some certain plots may they find themselves in that go way beyond where they would actually be if they were closer to reality. One way of achieving realistic character design is to give them a few unique characteristics and then throw them in a world, reporting only what you see as the observer/writer. When in a story the audience feels that the outcome or conclusion of an action is somewhat supernatural and that the characters, in contrast, are acting natural or vice versa, they can understand how the characters are only there to comply. Deep inside there may be another action the character may hope to do, but it can say nothing other than "Sir, yes sir!" There is a mystery this story is trying to solve and while feeling adventurous it builds into the question of "What is going to happen?" pretty nicely. From its introduction the audience will build expectations, the show will give them conflicts, and just when they think knowing what's going to happen is right around the corner, they figure that such climax has now turned into another conflict. This thrill keeps going until the very end, thus making an appealing thrive toward what's behind the curtains while staying true to its simple philosophy. I find it lovely to see more and more foreign "Anime" rise up to the expectations or even higher and I'm all for it. This movie is worth the time put for watching it and its creativity in subject matter and stylistic approach is something to be learned from. I recommend it.

Your Letter feels like something that would air on the Disney Channel, and that’s not necessarily a compliment. It’s clear to me LICO and the other studios behind this movie put a lot of effort into this movie’s animation quality, but the effort didn’t translate into quality. The backgrounds are stunning. The character designs are fine, if a little plain. There’s some really interesting shot composition. But all of it feels amateurish. I don’t know if it’s a composting problem, but something else, but the movie lacks a clear artistic identity--which is a shame, considering that the manhwa’s art looks quite nice. The movie looks incredibly average in comparison. I did like how the movie presented its first few letters--I love the mixed media aesthetic--but unfortunately, this style is not kept up for the rest of the film. It is a film that attempts beauty without understanding what beautiful would look like for this story. The OST is fine. There were a fair bit of lyrical tracks, but nothing overly distracting. As I stated earlier, this story feels straight out of a Disney film, something that would air at 7/8c. It is an incredibly straightforward movie about the power of friendship and the value of standing up to bullies. As far as I’m aware, Korea has an insane childhood bullying problem, so perhaps I’m coming at this with the wrong cultural viewpoint. Even still, I found this story’s depiction of bullying to be extremely unoriginal. The bad guys are bad guys, it’s important not to be a bystander, and all you need to do is to tell a bully “You’re a bully!” right at the end of the movie and all of your problems are solved. I did enjoy the mystery with Ho-yeon Jong, though it wasn’t enough to save this movie. I simply did not care for what appeared to be the perfect boy, and felt no pressing need to find him. The bully characters are extremely straightforward and not at all nuanced, and unfortunately, the same can be said for our two leads. So-ri Lee and Dong-soon Park are forced to live in this very boring plot. I don’t find them boring as characters; they’re cute, and the mysteries they go on are endearing. But the main bullying plot is so lame that I found it very hard to get invested in them. I wanted So-ri and Dong-soon to face more complicated problems, to push and test their friendship in new ways. The trials the movie threw at them gave them pause, but not a very interesting pause. At the very least, I appreciate that So-ri was the person driving the plot forward, but unfortunately for her she was driving on a neighborhood road going 25 miles an hour. You could read some queer undertones in Dong-soon and Ho-yeon’s relationships, and further queer parallels between So-ri Lee’s and Ji-min Kim’s friendship--duos who were outcast by the bullies in their schools, only having each other. And when Ji-min and Ho-yeong leave their respective partners, I like the idea of So-ri and Dong-soon finding friendship and solidarity in each other as the only queer kids in their middle school. Unfortunately, that’s not the plot of this movie, and there’s only so much I can read into before I just start making things up. Nothing about Your Letter is explicitly bad, it’s just kind of boring. It’s a Sunday movie you watch at 2pm with your kids to relax before a stressful week. I’m not mad that I had to trek off into the theaters to see this, but I definitely wish I watched a better movie.