Program Note
There are certain imaginations which are only possible through animation. The figures the movie deals with seem to be enviable at first glance. They do not die, nor they grow old; they live forever with the face of youth. However, ironically, this becomes a curse for this race. Normal people will never leave their extraordinary blood untouched. The ordinary desire of living forever destroys the special beings’ community. While this movie reports human’s greed, the values it embraces are love, farewell, and loneliness. As Maquia, a woman who miraculously survived from the destroyed community, looks after an abandoned baby of normal people named Ariel, the movie questions about ‘relationship.’ Although Maquia recovered the meaning of life from Ariel’s smile, Maquia’s smile bears gloom in it. She is well aware of the fact that Ariel will die before her someday. Because of immortality, she has to cope with the end of the relationship alone and forever. Love toward someone is at the same time a sheer loneliness. The question which is thrown by the universe of fantasy drawn onto a romantic canvas is quite poignant: upon the immense gap between infinite and finite time, and upon absolute parting, is there anything that can be promised? (PARK Woo-sung)