Common Sense Media Review
By Jennifer Green
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Delightful Korean animation involves peril, trauma, romance.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Lost in Starlight
What's the Story?
Nan-young (Kim Tae-ri) is an aspiring astronaut in the year 2050 in LOST IN STARLIGHT. But her inability to connect with her emotions, namely facing the reality that her own mother was lost in an incident on Mars years ago, gets her temporarily kicked off the team of a NASA venture to Mars. She goes back home to Korea, where she meets and falls in love with electronic repairman Jay (Hong Kyung, and Justin H. Min in English version). He, too, is having trouble facing up to past events that cut short his promising musical career. When Nan-young gets added to the Mars trip at the last minute, the lovers will each have to face up to their own fears.
Is It Any Good?
A fetching animated love story from Korea, this layered, colorful adventure is a delight. Sure, Lost in Starlight requires all kinds of suspended disbelief, both in story and physical reality. But let yourself float into the twinkling world created here, and you'll appreciate how the animation creates its own magic. Fast-paced montages (that would never work with live-action characters) help build a crescendo of emotion as a relatively simple love story plays out against an epic survival tale on Mars and a more personal battle back home. The jazzy soundtrack helps keep the pace.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how they would describe the look of the futuristic world depicted in Lost in Starlight.
How do Nan-young and Jay both demonstrate physical and emotional perseverance? How would the story have ended differently if they had not found that determination within themselves and in each other?
What aspects of this film felt believable within the fantasy? Explain.
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : May 30, 2025
- Cast : Kim Tae-ri , Hong Kyung , Justin H. Min
- Director : Han Ji-won
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Director(s) , Asian Movie Director(s) , Korean Movie Director(s) , Female Movie Actor(s) , Asian Movie Actor(s) , Korean Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Romance
- Topics : Fantasy ( Magic ) , STEM
- Character Strengths : Perseverance
- Run time : 98 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : thematic elements, suggestive material, some language and peril
- Award : Common Sense Selection
- Last updated : December 19, 2025
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