Aahana Swrup
‘Lost in Starlight’ is a Korean animated film that charts the story of a pair of lovers whose fates seem to be inevitably star-crossed. As a kid, Nan-young watches her mother join an expedition to Mars, from which she would tragically never return. Still, as she grows up, she dreams of becoming a Martian Explorer and earning a place for herself on the next expedition mission. However, before she embarks on a journey among the stars, life has something different for her, namely, a kind young man named Jay. The duo’s paths cross when the Nan-young finds herself in possession of a retro turntable that needs some fixing. Nonetheless, as the pair hurls into a fateful romance, they might have just set themselves up for heartbreak as well. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Lost in Starlight Plot Synopsis
In 2026, an expedition team to Mars perishes in the aftermath of tremors on the planet’s surface. Decades later, Joo Nan-young, the daughter of Son Ji-young, one of the astronauts who died on the mission, trains at NASA to be a Martian explorer. Nonetheless, when it comes down to it, her captain decides against choosing her to be on the expedition team. Despite her excellent test results, the idea of sending a daughter to the site of her mother’s death seems too gruesome, which sways the final decision. Naturally, this remains a source of huge disappointment for Nan-young, who gets demoted as backup for the mission. Still, once back in Seoul, she tries to distract herself by attempting to fix one of her mother’s old keepsakes: an antique turntable.
Consequently, Nan-young attempts to find a repairman who could fix the vintage record player for her. As luck would have it, she ends up literally bumping into just the right man for the job, Jay, on the side of the road. When the astronaut stops by his shop to drop off the retro machinery, she’s charmed by his old-school, pen-and-paper ways. Likewise, Jay is equally taken by her and consistently tries to find excuses to see her again. By some twist of fate, they even realize that Jay is the mysterious Soundcloud musician whose unfinished Demo has had Nan-young obsessed for years. Nonetheless, the latter remains reluctant about starting anything serious with him due to her own foundational aspirations of leaving the planet for a mission to Mars.
Even so, the two, magnetized toward each other, inexorably end up together. Thus, in the following months, Nan-young and Jay become intricate parts of each other’s lives. She encourages him to continue pursuing his musical aspirations regardless of his unpleasant experience with his former band. Likewise, he remains supportive of her goals, unwittingly inspiring her to solve her own problems. Eventually, once Nan-young perfects her life-detector robot, her chances of being recruited for the mission increase tenfold. However, once her place on the upcoming Mars expedition is finally confirmed, it causes some major complications in the couple’s relationship. On the heels of the announcement, Jay ends up watching a recording of the facility collapse that killed Ji-young, which stokes his own fears of losing his girlfriend to a similar fate.
Initially, this leads to an explosive fight between the couple, at the end of which they seemingly walk away from each other. Still, the day before Nan-young’s space launch, Jay shows up in the States, unwilling to let her leave without fixing things between them. Despite his reservations about the mission, he’s prepared to bear the burden of the uncertain separation if it means he gets to be with the woman he loves. Thus, when the astronaut launches off on her way to Mars, the couple stays together in the most unconventional of long-distance relationships maintained via laggy hologram calls and interspatial text messages. Yet, all communication between them comes to an end once the expedition finally lands on Mars. Even so, when Nan-young goes missing during one explorative mission on the red planet, Jay learns about it all the same through the news.
Lost in Starlight Ending: Does Nan-young Die? How Did She Survive?
Nan-young fell in love with the stars at a young age, something she carries with her even after her mother meets a bitter end in a research facility on Mars. In fact, years later, she trains to join the same expedition, determined to leave her own mark as an astronaut. She’s aware of the price her loved ones may have to pay for her decisions, but she makes her choice all the same. She has dedicated her entire life to chasing exceptionality on Mars, and she wants to stay the course even after she finds something invaluable on Earth. In turn, Jay, who has glimpsed in Nan-young’s widowed father what love and loss can do to a person, is prepared to risk the same fate simply because he falls deeply in love with the astronaut. Yet, when the time comes, neither is truly prepared to pay their price.
While on Mars, Nan-young’s life-detector droid gets a whiff of organic matter some distance away from their research facility. As such, she sets out to explore the location with her trusty robot. The trip takes the duo to a spot where a meteoric impact has exposed an underground lava cave, the bottom of which emits high readings of organic matter. However, as Nan-young and her droid venture deeper into the cave’s dark cavern, a tornado takes over Mars’ surface. Consequently, one wrong move sends the astronaut hurtling down perilous cliffs. Although her tethering cord suspends her, softening her fall, the drop still damages her spacesuit beyond repair. Once her captain learns about her minimal oxygen levels, he gives up all hope for a rescue mission.
Nonetheless, Nan-young refuses to give up. Earlier, she had made a promise to Jay that, despite the fatal dangers of her dreams, she would try her best to keep herself safe and return to Earth for him. Therefore, even after taking the damaging fall, she tapes up the cracks in her helmet and tries to continue moving forward. Fatefully, her mother’s broken-down research facility ends up being right there in the underground lava cave. Still, moments after stepping into the base, the oxygen levels in Nan-young’s suit give out, compelling her to almost pass out.
Yet, as Nan-young toes the line between life and death, someone from the other side pays her a visit. Her mother, Ji-young, who took her last breaths in this same facility, comes to the astronaut. She says something to her daughter, who opens up her helmet to hear her words of love and affection better. In doing so, Nan-young inadvertently exposes herself to the breathable air within the mangled research facility. As it turns out, the Amur Adonis flowers, which Ji-young had gardened on the red soil in her time, had blossomed into an entire garden, growing within the base’s cracked floors. These were the same organic matter that had attracted her droid-like bees to honey. In the end, the oxygen levels within this facility increased thanks to the flowers, saving the astronaut’s life and pulling her back from certain doom.
How Did Jay Send a Message to Nan-young? Do They Reunite?
After Nan-young’s captain first loses all hope of saving his pilot, he shares news of her uncertain demise with the NASA base on Earth. Consequently, it isn’t long before the news hits the streets of Souel. Naturally, the news turns Jay’s life upside down. He always knew that losing Nan-young was a possibility. Nonetheless, he refuses to accept it as a reality without putting up a fight. Earlier, he had lamented the idea of sharing the same fate as Ji-young’s husband, who still tries to send out radio signals to Mars in hopes that his lover would somehow hear them. Now, as Jay risks the loss of the love of his own life, he decides to embrace the same truth for himself. As a result, he races down to the hospital where Nan-young’s father lives and borrows his radio setup.
As Jay sets up the rig at the highest point of the nearby mountain, he sends out his own message to the stars, hoping his lover will hear it. Despite all odds, as Nan-young ends up in her mother’s old facility, she’s in the exact place she needs to be to receive the message. Apparently, along with the facility’s hull, Ji-young’s computer had also survived the damage of the elements and has been receiving every single message the dead astronaut’s husband has been sending her all these years. Thus, as Nan-young pulls herself off the brink of death, she finds the latest message, this one sent by Jay, and responds to it.
The couple tearfully reunite over radio signals, still separated by planets but united in their shared love. This life-changing experience finally makes Nan-young realize that despite the destiny she has been chasing in the stars her whole life, her real life’s purpose can actually be found right there on Earth. In the end, the love found with Jay has always been the thing that tethered her life and gave it meaning. Eventually, once Nan-young’s mission comes to an end, she returns to Earth, where she’s finally reunited with Jay.
Does Jay Go Back to Making Music Again?
Like Nan-young’s dreams of Martian exploration, Jay had his own passion: music. Nonetheless, while he had tried to pursue it, alongside his band, The Moles, he had eventually given up on his dreams. Jay seemingly deals with indomitable stage fright, which naturally hinders his ability to deliver a live performance at a concert. Yet, remaining a guitarist without enough creative control over the band’s music had been equally frustrating for him. For the same reason, he had eventually quit and focused on his repairman business. However, Nan-young’s presence in his life had brought a much-needed change.
Nan-young encouraged Jay to be his best self, which came with pursuing his music on his own terms. She’s eager to watch him perform in front of a crowd, bringing his music to his fans in exactly the way he wants to. Her excitement and her own pursuit of her dreams give Jay the final push to give his own aspiration another chance. Thus, after some trial and error, he ends up reuniting with his band. Furthermore, when he finally finishes the production on Nan-young’s favorite song and decides to release it, he also decides to sing the piece himself. Ultimately, the musician finally finds the courage to put his voice out into the world, thanks to the astronaut, who teaches him how to reach for the stars.
Is Ji-young Dead? How Did She Die?
During Nan-young’s near-death experience at her mother’s facility on Mars, she briefly reunites with Ji-young. Unfortunately, this reunion is only in the astronaut’s deluded, oxygen-depleted mind. Ji-young and her team were on their Mars expedition in 2026, during which a large surface tremor rocked the foundation of their facility. As a result, the astronaut and her team end up dying as their base collapses around them. The damage from the catastrophic yet unforeseeable destruction ultimately killed Nan-young’s mother.
When the astronaut glimpses the ghost of her mother, it is all simply confined within her mind. In some deeply buried part of herself, Nan-young had always blamed her mother for abandoning her family in pursuit of her dreams. Yet, while inside Ji-young’s facility, pursuing a similar dream and threatening to leave a similar trail of heartbreak on Earth, Nan-young finally understands her mother on an intrinsic level. For the same reason, it’s her memory that revives her and urges her to take the final few steps that save her life.
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