Boring

As Good As It Gets

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

I can see why this film has been compared to Miyazaki's works. Its best feature is its beautiful 2D (mostly) animation. Some of the story elements compare nicely, too. This is a tale a magical five tailed fox, Yobi, that inquisitively watches humans from a distance before finally getting a good excuse to change her form into a young girl and go spend time among the humans. There's potential there, but unfortunately this film gets off track far too often and never delivers much character depth.One of the primary sources of derailment is a family of aliens that Yobi lives with. I think they are meant to be lighthearted, comedic relief characters and a bit of a plot crutch, but they are neither interesting nor funny. Numerous other side characters get a scene or two where we learn about them. However, in an 85 minute film they are never given a chance to grow, resulting in a sense that the filmmakers spread themselves too thin. The lack of depth and focus might not bother younger audiences, but those of us hoping for vibrant characters worthy of Miyazaki will be left wanting.My final recommendation is--unless you are satisfied by nice visuals alone--don't be fooled by those invoking Miyazaki, because in this case the parallels are only skin-deep.

Very beautiful fantasy animation with outstanding quality from South Korea. Style is original enough not to be derivative of anime from other Asian countries.Character designs are first class, and visuals have original angles to them as well. Korean animation has long history, and it is not well known but many Japanese anime are actually made in Korea (just like many American TV cartoons are made in Japan). Techniques are mature, and there isn't a hint of rough edges with this very fine movie.I wish that Korean anime will gain more mainstream distribution as their action, love, romance, comedy have in the past 10 years.This is one of the finest animation movie to come out of Korea, and is highly recommended for viewing.

Yobi, the Five Tailed Fox is an animated Korean film by Lee Seong-gang. This fanciful animated adventure tells the story of Yobi, a magical shape-changing fox of Korean legend. One hundred years ago, aliens landed on a mountain near where a small, white five tailed fox lived. After being stranded on Earth for one hundred years, they are ready for a test flight to see if they can return home. The test fails as one of the aliens makes a mistake, and the other aliens tell him to leave.The runaway alien finds itself taken in by a class of students at the foot of the mountain. There, a teacher named Kang trains students who don't fit in at a regular school. To save the alien, the five tailed fox takes on the form of a human girl, and joins the school under the name of Yobi.Yobi is 100 years old - aged by human standards but just a kid by those of her own species. When aliens crash land in Yobi's woods, she befriends them as they toil to repair their spaceship, but eventually, a group of children discover the creatures and capture one of them. Yobi must pose as a human girl in order to steal her way into the group and rescue her alien friend, but the price of her ruse may eventually mean capturing the soul of someone she loves.Yobi becomes exposed to the hunter, which makes her leave. Of course, the fox hunter tries to hunt her down. Geum-ie tries to save her, but falls down in a lake which makes Geum-ie's soul trapped in a cage as a bird. Yobi tries to save him, but the shadow takes Geum-ie's soul. He states that his soul was taken from him long ago and that he needs one to become solid. Yobi defeats the shadow and some ghosts tell Yobi that the number of souls in the lake is always the same and a soul can never go out unless a soul replaces it. Yobi replaces her soul with Geum-ie's. Geum-ie returns to his world. He tries to call for Yobi, but to no avail. He is last seen leaving with the teacher and the other students. Some time later, Yobi's soul is released. Yobi becomes human and Geum-ie is probably a grown-up already.The movie features talented Korean superstar Son Ye-jin as the voice Yobi,which makes this already appealing for that reason alone.Aside from that,it has all good elements of a memorable animation such as cute animals, mystery, childhood gaiety, combined with high-resolution 3D's and action.Unfortunately,the movie lacks that certain element wherein the viewer would certainly care for Yobi and the dilemma that she is facing and her experiences as well.In the end,it was a great anime but fell short from being a classic.

I saw this Korean after seeing the visually impressive Korean anime "Wonderful Days" that despite having an incredible animation was filled with many clichés and stereotypes. Fortunately, "Yobi: The Five Tailed Fox", was much better than "Wonderful Days", having all the feeling from any film from the studio Ghibli. Even when the animation is not at the same level of any production of Hayao Miyazaki, it stylish and well made, with lovely colors, detailed sceneries and the best part of it, original and charming characters. "Yobi; The five tailed Fox" combines legendary characters with some elements of science fiction and familiar drama, and the most incredible thing is that it works very well. Even when this is not a masterpiece as the other film from Seong-kang Lee, "My beautiful girl Mari", is still a pretty charming fantasy for all the family, with very interesting characters and lots of imagination.8/10