By Avril Rowland
A Broken Star is a lovely animated short film by Ejun Hong about a star learning to shine again by helping others. Set in a softly glowing, jewel-toned outer space, stars are plant-like creatures that receive and grant wishes from children. While other stars are shown as healthy and green, our star is yellow with wilting leaves, longingly watching other stars fulfill their wishes. When our star receives a wish from a struggling child asking how they can shine like others, the star begins to shine again, wanting to share its love to help the child and learning to love itself in the process.
A Broken Star is a gentle experience. Hong tells her story with no dialogue, using a deliberately craftsy style to take the audience back to childhood. Animations are emphasized with quiet clockwork ticking, floating objects are lifted with string and paper clips, and our wilting star is patched together with pieces of tape. Everything works to create a sense of nostalgia and simplicity. Throughout the film, the art is the true star.
As lovely as the dreamscape is, the storytelling gets a bit fuzzy towards the end. Written words are used to narrate the child’s wish and the end of the film. The words work during the wish, but once we get to the end, narration explains what happens instead of showing the star beginning to shine again, weakening the ending. Seeing our star turning green and healthy, maybe regrowing their leaves while the child uses their old leaves to stand out and shine, would have been more impactful and better suited for the style of the film.
Overall, A Broken Star is an enchanting, well-animated film held together by the strong emotional core at the heart of its simple story. I give it four out of five stars.
Avril is a senior majoring in writing at the Savannah College of Art and Design. She aims to have a career publishing her writing one day.
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