Film Works

Film Review: Wall-E

A Robot’s Heart
By: Rianne Hill Soriano

Directed by: Andrew Stanton

For the nth time, Pixar creates an animated masterpiece pushing the limits of computer animation and storytelling possibilities. By now, it’s safe to say that its creative genius appears to have no boundaries – from the vastness of the sea to the nooks and cranny of the kitchen to the galaxy far, far away… Wistful and whimsical, this visionary robotic romance is a moving parable of what humans waste and what they should treasure – wrapped around in a romance so touching and engaging courtesy of its pair of robots in the main roles.

Another groundbreaking work from the makers of the now classic animated films “Finding Nemo,” “The Incredibles,” and “Ratatouille,” “WALL•E” is one of the best love stories ever told in the big screen. This animated masterpiece about a robot’s journey as he travels the vastness of the universe to be with his beloved robot wins the heart of the human audience as it leaps beyond its mechanical pieces to convey emotions of true love. It is very simple on many aspects, but at the same time, it is pure of movie magic. It is a rare picture of hope, wonder, and joy. Its every deft little touch brings complex, heartfelt circuitry to the characters – transporting the viewers to a cosmic place filled with the future’s “what if’s” through the main character WALL•E being a poetic figure of a robot drawn to human splendor.

So far and yet so near… The story primarily showcases robots and humans enslaved by technology. And this archetypal fable about loneliness and love is both simple and deep. The filmmakers have extended the parameters of the art form to create a whole new universe of pure emotional content amidst the film’s very superficial blueprint and physicality. The genuinely heartwarming story may happen hundreds or thousands of years and light-years away with machines programmed to do specific physical works and humans who don’t even know what touching a fellow human being is like, but there is an amazing amount of life and humanity all throughout. Indeed, the wit, invention, and sheer charm of a wonderful story told well can never lose its touch regardless of the kind of character and mise-en-scene used.

Withstanding the pitfalls of human existence as a Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class robot, “WALL•E” is an utterly adorable character with a welcome surge of honesty, impishness, introspection, humor, determination, and sentimentality. This humanly mechanical hero supplies such surprising and engaging moments with his earnest robot reverie. He is built with such emotion, brains, and humor that the heart of the story revolve around his whirring tones and binocular eyes. And amidst his mechanized clunks and beeps, he moves like a true human character holding on to his dreams. His fantastic journey on a never-before-imagined vision of the future is deeply moving and fun. His irresistible rattles and eye rolls keep up with his ingenious sight gags needing no words for them to work. And for the most part, this considerably silent comedy reveals a lot of personality with its robots – more than its human characters who seem to have actually lost the true humanity in them.

This computer-animated cosmic comedy is nothing short of magical. At the same time, it is an endearing post-apocalyptic romantic adventure that is as fresh as it is funny, as heartwarming as it is innovative. “WALL•E” never feels preachy or pushy. Its animation is spectacular without being a mere show-off. While the film’s social message comes through loud and clear, it never detracts the heart of the film – especially the unlikely romance between the knick-knack collector Wall•E and the sleek search robot EVE. It works in recreating such an intricate world that is moving too fast and changing too rapidly. It gives serious moments to pause and reflect on what makes life valuable to live without losing its sense of wonder. It has a social and moral conscience without pushing too hard. It promotes an ecologically minded message with an artful nod for its modestly profound portrait of loneliness, duty, and desire for reciprocated attention. And this film saves the world through the “power of holding hands.”

On a personal note, what makes “WALL•E” even more striking to me is how it successfully pays homage to one of my best-loved films “2001: A Space Odyssey” by Stanley Kubrick. From the music to the visuals to the aspect of the story where the computer tries to outwit the human and vice versa, this film gives justice to paying homage to the work of a master. It also has a Charlie Chaplin feel to it especially with its almost comedic splendor for its non-talking scenes.

Academy Award-winning writer-director Andrew Stanton (“Finding Nemo”) and his crew incorporate surprising elements that mix vintage sci-fi with old musicals, armageddon environment, and a futuristic rendering of man’s complete dependence on technology. “WALL•E” is in full battery – powered up as it makes a massive leap in technological talent with its textural, tactile quality pushing CGI and 3D animation into uncharted artistic heights. With its technical aspect as artful as it is state of the art, and its approach being committed to a touching robot romance, it validates how animation is capable of much more than talking animals and fairy tale characters. Along with its fantastic and hearty visual value through the innovation of its Pixar talents in film and animation, it also provides a marvel of sound design and music courtesy of Ben Burtt and Thomas Newman. Indeed, this film illustrates Pixar’s downright heroic commitment to the craft by combining the wonder of art and fantastic entertainment value for the audience. Add up its continuing take on featuring a short animated film as a worthy prologue for its every feature film and things just become even more wonderful. Pixar really lets the witty storytelling and expressive animation transport the viewers into a whole new but touchingly familiar world.

Central to its serious, thoughtful, and vital messages about the environment and humanity, “WALL•E” is a smart, heartwarming, and savvy story about love, loneliness, perseverance, and triumph. And it hits its pro-green, anti-consumerist points remarkably as well. It truly shows the transformational power of love in such a beautiful, energetic, intelligent, and satirical way.

Joining WALL•E and EVE is a hilarious cast of a heroic team of malfunctioning misfit robots, a pet cockroach, “evolutionized” human beings, and a “pasaway” computer. The film’s visions of a ravaged, abandoned Earth of the future and a mechanized, corporately controlled space ark/pleasure cruiser vs. a small waste collecting robot doing his job in the barren planet makes up an exciting and imaginative adventure. WALL•E’s determined courtship to the completely indifferent EVE has as much truth about humanity’s sweetness and struggle as any piece of story with real human characters. Take note, the central characters merely show affection with their overall body movements, the rolling of eyes, and the mechanical sound they make. Everything just works so stunningly. And with WALL•E chasing EVE across the galaxy – against all odds – the story validates the human need to find a partner and friends with whom they can share their life experiences.

“WALL•E” is a rare and precious gem in cinema. It’s a great work of art. It’s a sci-fi funhouse and a romantic animated feature film for all ages. It draws the moviegoers with a close encounter with an enduring classic.

Film Review: The Dark Knight

A Superhero Noir: The Disturbed Vs. the Disturbing
By: Rianne Hill Soriano

Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal

“The Dark Knight” is a complex and violent tale with such an exquisite order in the chaos – between art and industry, poetry and entertainment. It is an explosively provocative film with straightforward action sequences collaborating with the character study and metaphor of what Gotham City is (both in the fictional world of its characters and the mundane world of its audience). It is a dark, disturbing, complex, ambitious, and visionary crime epic about people of courage, repressed love, firm dispositions, individual perspectives, and clashing egos.

Locked in a struggle for Gotham City’s soul, “The Dark Knight” transports the viewer to an alternate yet recognizable realm. This is matched by a kind of moral complexity that is not usually associated with comic book film franchises. Director Christopher Nolan lets the film’s spectacular action scenes seem like the natural consequences of the conflicts between characters; which is then parallel to the contemporary state of this age’s terrorism-obsessed actuality. The setting may be Gotham, but its landscape is transformed into a series of disquieting issues that effectively place the conflict between the tortured good and the contented chaos seen in the world’s past, present, and perhaps, even its future. Gotham stands in for any of today’s nations, superpowers, terrorism, and the rules of law and order. From these thematic explorations, it digs through the ideas of heroism, human nature, and fragile morality. Its riveting psychological thrill creates a masterful drama and tragedy shaking both the conscious and sub-conscious. And its disturbing darkness brings about the unconscious rants and raves of human hearts wrenched by the restraints of the society and the corrupt system that dominates it.

“The Dark Knight” weaves a high level of bond between the outcast hero and the outrageous criminal. Its emphasis on plot and character development is very much apparent especially if compared with most comic-book film adaptations. It goes darker and deeper than any Hollywood movie of its comic-book kind with a diverse impact on art, literature, and human emotions. Indeed, with the uncontested hype and the exhilarated artistry of this pitch-black thriller, it is a rare pop-culture oddity that shall certainly keep both comics fans and uninitiated audiences equally happy. This film is subtle and powerful that it renews the audience’s faith in adaptations and sequels.

“The Dark Knight” is one of the most hyped movies to date with its marketing and promotion, the success of its predecessor (also crafted from Nolan’s aesthetic lead), the manic zest seen on the teasers/trailers especially of the late Heath Ledger’s The Joker, and the untimely death of Ledger who undoubtedly makes history with his jaw-dropping performance as the malevolent villain. Irregardless of the tragic loss of his life too early on, he has marked himself as one of the best classic villains ever to appear in film. For an acting talent tragically curtailed, it is rather a deeply felt loss that his life has come to an end at a very young age; but this film bringing such an extraordinary performance from him should be the best way to remember and acknowledge him.

This film earns much respect for Nolan’s creatively intelligent direction, he and his brother Jonathan Nolan’s engagingly psychological screenplay, Wally Pfister’s pin-sharp cinematography, Nathan Crowley’s brilliantly dark production design, Lee Smith’s formidable editing, and James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer’s zealous music. There are many excellent moments and action set-pieces from the initial shots of dizzying, vertiginous overhead scenes of glittering skyscrapers and minuscule streets to the electrifying fight scenes that exude modern wages of fear – everything is crafted with absolute brilliance that never runs out of fuel. The film’s energy is deeply felt until the credits begin to roll. Moreover, a delightful addition to the magnificent experience is a healthy amount of IMAX footage, which significantly adds to the thought-provoking meditation of being on a personal and gruesome tour of Gotham. Truly, the powerful technical and thematic elements, the huge IMAX sequences, and the endearing performances give this “Batman” a truly great commanding feel.

“Dark Knight” ably stands on its own with or without Nolan’s first offer of the franchise – “Batman Begins.” He has definitely crafted this newest “Batman” film with a remarkable impact that clearly presents the title character’s wavelength with a valuable understanding of how a crisis of such magnitude could affect good men trying to do the right thing. While the caped avenger stands for the good of Gotham in the place of the police force and its counterparts who are unable to keep up with their duties given the various circumstances, the questions of what is good and what is right become such genuine topics for debate and pondering.

Christian Bale plays such a well rounded Batman and Bruce Wayne. Countering him is Heath Ledger’s The Joker whose cruelty and cleverness becomes such a fearsome combination. Facing each other from opposite ends, they create a mesmerizing and unforgettable completeness to the story. They both turn in superb performances with a sensitivity of making their characters work together to make the best out of the already high quality material.

Bale continues to maintain both the elite gentleman demeanor and the intense and misunderstood cape crusader character in the world of crime and chaos.

Ledger’s manically creepy, unhinged, deranged psycho role takes evil to a new level. With The Joker’s anarchist mind, his ability to make a clown into the most terrifying character takes the audience’s psyche for a twirl in the same way as he gives both the cops and the crooks nightmares in the film. He remains mysterious with his every eye contact, every gesture, every delivery of words – all getting under the viewer’s skin the way they get into his victim’s throats. While providing humor amidst the terror, it is impossible to not have chills for the valuable screen time he has for the film. Some may say that his untimely death becomes the ultimate source of hype for The Joker, but I beg to disagree. And what makes everything more riveting is the fact that there is just no more chance for him to explore all the roles he could possibly tackle if he were still alive.

Aaron Eckhart is equally good as Gotham’s new District Attorney Harvey Dent. His transformation into Two-Face ably assumes the mantle of fine performance and characterization. Maggie Gyllenhaal deserves praise for taking over the role of Rachel Dawes from Katie Holmes as she provides such a strong-willed character blending perfectly with the rest of the characters in the film. Supporting roles including those of Gary Oldman as Gordon, Michael Caine as Alfred, and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox all deliver tour de force performances to further solidify the film’s greatness.

As the film circles on Wayne’s weariness and loneliness, Harvey Dent’s transition into Two-Face, and The Joker’s mysterious heart and soul, this superhero story’s dark unpredictability goes beyond the typical epic standards. The characters are disturbed in their own ways, and they effectively extend their lives, issues, questions, and struggles to the audience.

“The Dark Knight” is every inch a classic superhero noir.

Film Review: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (The Mummy 3)

The Mummified Third
By: Rianne Hill Soriano

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Director: Rob Cohen
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Maria Bello, John Hannah, Michelle Yeoh

“The Mummy” series has been dead for a long time, but like the mummies it depicts, it’s not going to stay buried for all time… Though there’s an undeniably tired air to it, “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” pushes itself to more archaeological flights of fancy primarily by utilizing the currently popular Asian themes and martial arts sequences to restore the franchise. The charm seems to be evaporating already, but the combination of its bandwagon appeal and some visual tricks up its level of entertainment and goofiness into a considerably watchable stint, particularly for those people who are into such kind of movies.

“The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” is clearly made to seek box office gold with its special effects – amidst the third-rate writing, stale plotting, overkill voiceovers, and some cheesy CGI moments. The movie doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it takes the special effects seriously enough. It seems to exist to simply cash in on the success of the earlier “Mummy” films: digging up a series of merchandising items for the franchise and anticipating the future DVD and cable TV sales to complete “The Mummy Trilogy.” With these, the movie serves its purpose in its chosen track amidst the topsy-turvy of its overused cinematic elements about the East and West, myth and history, loyalty and betrayal, swords and guns, fathers and sons, and mothers and daughters. Generally, things become a little bearable with some visually rich action staged in a huge scale, but some parts of the effects, including the evil warlord shape-shifting into a three-headed dragon and the aid of the Yeti tribe of the Himalayas, don’t blend well enough to make them relatively touching or striking for the film’s entirety.

Brendan Fraser (Rick O’Connell) continues to lead the enterprise with his goofy appeal for the action-adventure genre. However, the film makes a bland use of kung-fu cinema greats Michelle Yeoh (Zi Juan) and Jet Li (Emperor Han). Maria Bello (Evelyn O’Connell) who takes the place of Rachel Weisz is considerably okay. And Luke Ford (Alex O’Connell) and Isabella Leong (Lin) are good enough in what their cliché roles require.

“Mummy 3” is overly familiar and pretty unoriginal. With the quality of this third entry in the series, it certainly feels like the direct-to-dvd kind of film… with its own idea of a mummy being a cruel Chinese emperor and his army cursed into stone figures for centuries (there is not a single actual mummy, as how Egyptians have it, in the entire movie).

Tiresome and messy with its rip-off one-liners and pows and bangs from the likes of “Indiana Jones” and various martial arts and eastern epic films, it falls flat with its half-hearted portions as a slipshod spectacle. But looking on the brighter side of things, as it is already a given that the movie would be nearly swamped by distracting lapses in logic, “The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” keeps up with its idea of a movie that makes everything to be just plain dumb fun. It may be absurd and preposterous, but this adventure-fantasy product unwraps itself for its own fan base who usually dig into such kind of themes and stories. Actually, the movie could have been a lot worse; and yet, it should have been much better. At the least, it can be a movie a viewer can watch once and be entertained in one way or another, but it could probably never sustain multiple viewings like the best adventure films people never get tired of.

For those willing to accept the movie’s leaps of logic and have time and money to spare, it could be a pleasant enough ride. But after this third offer, if there wouldn’t really be a great, great idea to revive the franchise for a fourth installment, then it’s about time for it to be truly mummified once and for all.

Film Article: Pinoy Films at Korea’s PIFAN

Pinoy Films at Korea’s PIFAN
By Rianne Hill Soriano

This year’s Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PIFAN) featured to Filipino films namely “Ataul for Rent” (Casket for Rent) and “Resiklo” (Recycle). From July 18 to 27, 2008, PIFAN 2008 opened a number of theaters, special spaces, and various events for film professionals and filmmakers all over the world while catering to the audience’s thirst for fantastic films.

This year’s concept “Flying up toward imagination. Fantasy… and Freedom.” introduced new and dynamic films to the audience. This international festival of genre film (focusing mainly on themes about promised love, fantasy, and adventure) also served as stepping stones for young and upcoming film producers and filmmakers to grab the attention of the international film circuit.

The festival kicked off with the opening film “Waltz with Bashir,” an animated feature by Israeli director Ari Folman – harboring the film from this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The closing ceremony featured the latest sci-fi work of Korean director Jae-Yong Kwak’s “Cyborg She” (also from the “Sassy Girl” fame).

PIFAN’s special love for the traditional fantastic genre such as horror, thriller, and sci-fi continued this year – enchanting film manias with a number of fantastic movies from all over the world. In addition, it brought a widened film experience and pleasure to the international audience by means of diversified movies like comedy, romance, action, and animation.

The Jury for this year’s festival include: Dooyong LEE (Korean director); Miroljub VUCKOVIC (Russian film producer and programmer); Phillip CHEAH (Singaporean festival programmer and film critic); Roy LEE (Korean-American film producer); Ron Holloway (American journalist, cinematologist, and documentary film director); Yoosin JOO (Korean film critic and festival programmer); Goran TOPALOVIC (director and festival programmer from the USA); Kyesoo JEON (Korean director); Tuomas RISKALA (Finnish festival director and producer); and Tim LEAGUE (American founder of Alama Drafthouse Cinema and Austin’s Fantastic Film Fest).

The Puchon Choice winners for this year’s PIFAN included:

- European Federation of Fantastic Film Festivals (EFFFF) Asian Award: “The Chaser” (Director: NA Hong Jin, Korea)

- Best Korean Short Film: “A Coffee Vending Machine and Its Sword” (Director: CHANG Hyung Yun, Korea)

- Citizen’s Choice for Short Film: “A Coffee Vending Machine and Its Sword” (Director: CHANG Hyung Yun, Korea)

- Jury’s Choice for Short Film: “Schaustein’s Final Film” (Director: Christian KLANDT, Germany)

- Best Short Film: “The Facts in the Case of Mister Hollow” (Director: Rodrigo GUDIÑO, Canada)

- Prugio Citizen’s Choice: “Let the Right One In” (Director: Tomas ALFREDSON, Sweden)

- Jury’s Choice: “Fear(s) of the Dark” (Director: Various Directors, France)

- Best Actress: SEO Yeong Hee (“The Chaser,” Director: NA Hong Jin, Korea)

- Best Actor: Ekin CHENG, Shawn YUE (“Rule Number One,” Director: Kelvin TONG, Hong Kong/Singapore)

- Best Director: Tomas ALFREDSON (“Let the Right One In,” Sweden)

- Best of Puchon: “The Chaser” (Director: NA Hong Jin, Korea)

- Special Mention: “Hansel and Gretel” (Director: YIM Phil Sung, Korea) and “Tokyo Gore Police” (Director: Yoshihiro NISHIMURA, Japan)

PIFAN is the second biggest film festival in Korea after Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF). It is also regarded as the biggest genre film festival in Asia.

Film Article: PIFAN’s “It Project” Invites Filipino Productions

PIFAN’s “It Project” Invites Filipino Productions
By Rianne Hill Soriano

The 12th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PIFAN) opened diverse spaces and events including the various projects of the Network of Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF). One of NAFF’s highlights included the “It Project” which opened a new gate offering production support to help finance film projects with high potentials. Out of the 19 projects, one Filipino project and another Filipino-American project were invited to take part of the event: Rico Ilarde’s “Killdroid” produced by Pete Tombs of Boum Productions Ltd. and Nathan Adolfson’s “The Help” produced by Adolfson through 5858 Films.

The opening ceremony of NAFF was held last July 19, 2007 at the Puchon’s Gyeonggi Art Hall and the closing ceremony was held at the same venue last July 23, 2008 – capping off the project with the “It Project” winners announcement and the “Fantastic Film School” graduation.

NAFF at this year’s PIFAN also featured the “Industry Showcase of Fantastic Cinema 2008” which extended its screenings with 50 international films. The industry screenings catered to producers and filmmakers to further promote both Korean films and the circulation of Asian films. The project provided NAFF guests exclusively with industry video library, guest lounges, and casual meeting places to facilitate the business. With more than 100 official guests of professionals in the film industry, it led diverse business meetings and developed new opportunities to Genre Cinema.

PIFAN also designed the education program through which genre film experts meet with prominent young filmmakers through the launch of the “Fantastic Film School 2008.” With “The power of Action Film!” as its slogan, this new enterprising industrial program of NAFF invited outstanding Asian martial arts directors from China, Japan, Thailand, and Korea to impart their spirits and methodology of martial arts to young filmmakers through invaluable lectures, seminars, and instruction.

Film Review: Ataul for Rent (Casket for Rent)

The Casket Business
By: Rianne Hill Soriano

Recently screened at the 2008 Pucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (PIFAN), the Pinoy indie film “Ataul for Rent” (“Casket for Rent”) depicts the life of a couple operating a funeral home specializing in coffin rentals and their struggle to keep their business – a place that has become a popular hangout for gamblers, gossipers, drunkards, prostitutes, pimps, rent boys, ex-convicts, junkies, gangsters, snatchers, and corrupt district politicians. A black comedy with some surreal touch, the film works as a narrative social satire that exposes the truth behind the various people struggling for their everyday survival through subhuman poverty and squalor.

The story revolves around the lives of the bickering live-in couple Guido (Joel Torre), the owner, embalmer, and casket-maker, and Pining (Jaclyn Jose), his partner and the make-up artist who uses the same products both for the living and the dead. For them, death has become a lucrative business. However, their ramshackle funeral business specializing in coffin rentals must contend with the government who orders their small community of squatters to leave the area as the land shall be used to construct a new church. And just like with the materialistic man and wife-beater Guido and the tolerant and persevering Pining, the miserable slum dwellers of the inner city “kalyehon” – a congested and narrow, alley – shall fight until the very end just to keep their homes and their lives from the external forces ordering them to go away.

In its cinema verité style, “Ataul for Rent” has a sense of social realism. It evokes a grotesque yet poetic lyricism through the elaboration of Guido’s business and what it has become to the community. It integrates neo-realism and some TV-like melodramatic elements primarily represented by its hardened characters depicting subhuman conditions. Though a little bit overlong and using such an overused theme, the film’s dramatic impact promotes a moral commentary working effectively through the good acting performances. The notorious characters populating the funeral wakes are drinking alcohol, in the gaming table, or gossiping around. And they clearly reflect the poverty and hopelessness of the people living in the slums and project the daily drama, miseries, and evil deeds happening in such a community.

Director-writer Neal ‘Buboy’ Tan and producer-writer Anthony Gedang put macabre elements to make the very typical story more engaging. The film exudes a certain kind of upsetting sincerity that makes it touching. Its metaphorical structure from how mice move around its territory and how they react when a foreign force tries to raze them, to the husband resizing the bodies to fit the caskets, to the wife applying the same make-up to both living and dead clients reinforces the flow of the story and the social and moral injustices that linger around the lives of the characters. The narrative utilizes a mad seer, homeless man Batul (Ronnie Lazaro) who becomes a witness to how hard and how violent life has become to the neighborhood. He mutters a running moral commentary as the story unfolds. Somehow, the approach on putting him in the story divides the viewers into two: those who find his character as a poetic statement; and those who think that the story could still work without his presence.

“Ataul for Rent” stars Joel Torre, Jacklyn Jose, Ronnie Lazaro, Pen Medina, Irma Adlawan, Noni Buencamino, Coco Martin, Irish Contreras, Tita Swarding, Ramon Zamora, Aleera Montalla, Inciang, Denver Olivarez, and Jet Alcantara.

Film Article: Pinoy Films at Korean Film Fest

Pinoy Films at Korean Film Fest
By: Rianne Hill Soriano

This year’s Jecheon International Music and Film Festival (JIMFF) exhibited a Filipino film from the Cinema One Originals, Adolf Alix’s “Tambolista” (“Drumbeat”) featuring Jiro Manio, Sid Lucero, Coco Martin, Anita Linda, Fonz Deza, Ricky Davao, and Susan Africa. The festival ran from Aug. 14 to 19, 2008 at its cozy and scenic host city, Jecheon, located in Chungcheongbuk province in central Korea. Jecheon is most famous for the Cheongpung-ho (Cheongpung Lake), a lake that captivates tourists with natural beauty that is reminiscent of traditional Korean landscape paintings.

The “Music Shorts on Track” section of the festival also featured the short film entitled “Three Boys” starring Marc Abaya, Ping Medina, and Yan Yuzon. This Philippine-Hong Kong production was directed by Leung Ming-Kai and produced by Marie Jamora.

Launched in 2005, JIMFF has become an international celebration of film set in the beautiful landscapes of Jecheon City – with remarkable music shared and enjoyed by people of varying musical tastes. For this year’s festival, it opened a number of theaters, special spaces, film camera and music poster exhibits, street performances, street mimes, dance parties, concerts, a robot-themed park, a special moving concert on a truck, and various events for film professionals, filmmakers, composers, and musicians all over the world. It catered to the audience’s thirst for musicals, music-inspired features, and music documentaries.

There were various programs for cinephiles including a hand-printing installation ceremony (an event where the hand-printed copperplate of the awardee of last year’s Jecheon Film Music Award was installed at the fountain of the Street of Culture), the Jecheon Special Talk (a free talk between audiences and the masters of film and film music), and Cinema Music Live (a cine-music ensemble composed of weekend concerts and street screenings). There were a number of musical performances staged outdoors along the shores of Cheongpung Lake while highlighting music films in each specialized program. The festival also conducted the Jecheon Film Music Academy, an educational program for young and promising filmmakers, musicians, and composers specializing in film music. The festival also inaugurated the international competition section “World Music Film Today” which presented various music films all over the world. Other sections highlighted the varying aspects of “music” cinema and the retrospectives of musicals of yesteryears.