Lost in Starlight (Korean 이별에 필요한, or I Byeol-e-Pil-yohan meaning "What's Needed for Separation") is an animated Korean science fiction romantic drama film created by Climax Studio and Netflix Animation, directed by Han Ji-won based on a script from Kang Hyun-Joo and Ji-wom himself.
Set in the future, astronaut Nan-Young (Kim Tae-ri) and musician Jay (Hong Kyung), embraces in a relationship that turns into the longest long distance relationship, as long as Nan-Young embarks to an expedition to Mars.
The film was released worldwide in Netflix on May 30, 2025.
Not to be confused with Lost in the Moonlight, another Korean animated movie.
Lost in Starlight contains examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The film takes place in 2050, and most of the technology is just the cutting edge stuff of today, just a bit stretched and expanded to be everywhere. Examples such as the advancements in space travel and touchscreen holograms.
- The Big Damn Kiss: The First Kiss between Jay and Nan-Young would qualify, after looking for some drinks to continue their conversation they start flirting more intensely until they reach the elevator back to the peatonal bridge they were talking. When one of the drinks is spilled over Nan-Young, Jay tries to clear her and this leads to a very romantic kiss.
- Big Damn Reunion: It provides two different examples:
- First, after Jay and Nan-Young break up due to Jay's fear about losing Nan-Young as she lost her mother, he decides to go to the United States to reunite with her and reconcile showing his full support to her decision.
- The second and most notorious when Nan-Young comes back from the Mars expedition showing herself in Jay's electronic repair store.
- Chekhov's Gun: Every Nan-Young's birthday, her father goes to a hill near Seoul to try to send a radio message to Mars through an antenna as long as is also his late wife's birthday too. Later Jay uses the antenna to try to communicate, successfully, with Nan-Young when he learns she was missing in Mars.
- Crash-Into Hello: The two protagonists first meet by accidentally bumping into each other, though Jay manages to catch Nan-Young before she hits the ground. Their romance blooms from there.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Nan-Young manages to overcome the trauma over her mother's death and discovers that her mother was capable to raise flowers that can produce oxygen in Mars allowing her to survive enough to be rescued by her team. Jay, meanwhile, overcome his fears and is able to sing in public making a big hit. He is able to communicate to Nan-Young while waiting for help and they are happily reunited later.
- Flower Motifs: The amur adonis is associated with Nan-Young and her mother, who both at some point worked on trying to grow them on mars. In the climax, it's her mother's long abandoned patch of amur adonis that saves and comforts Nan-Young.
- I Will Wait for You: Before Nan-Young departs to Mars, Jay asks her to take care for herself hoping they can see each other after the mission.
- Long-Distance Relationship: The relationship between Nan-Young and Jay turns to this when Nan-Young is asked to join the next expedition to Mars.
- Love Will Lead You Back: When Nan-Young founds herself badly hurt and running out of oxygen, she first hallucinates with the flower field raised by her mother and seems to resign to her death by reuniting with her, but she later sees Jay in the field and this makes her to determine to try to keep going, allowing her to reach the old base where her mother was working allowing her to survive and to come back to reunite with Jay.
- Meet Cute: While looking for a electronic workshop that would fix her mother's turntable, Nan-Young is pushed accidentally by Jay that was walking out of the place, this provokes the turntable to be damaged but Jay stopped Nan-Young from falling by holding her hand.
- Missing Mom: Nan-Young's mother was an astronaut that died when she was on a mission on Mars. Still, this inspires Nan-Young to go to Mars and try to rebuild her mother investigations.
- Umbrella of Togetherness: After Nan-Young and Jay met each other for the second time (and failing to find a proper fix for the turntable), Nan-Young tells Jay that he will get her trust "in their third meeting", some moments later, it starts to rain and Nan-Young stares to the sky just to have Jay surprisingly appears with the umbrella telling her "so I can get your trust in our third meeting, right?", that makes her laugh. Later Nan-Young reveals in her testament message to Jay that she never carries an umbrella because her dad usually protects her from the rain when she was a child and Jay's act of tenderness was the act that made her fall in love with him.