Cinema greets music in Jecheon

Film buffs and music lovers will likely be found in Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province, next month, as this year’s edition of the annual Jecheon International Music Film Festival is just around the corner.

Celebrating its ninth edition this year, the upcoming JIMFF will screen 95 music-themed movies, including 11 world premieres.

French director Martin Le Gall’s “Pop Redemption” is opening the upcoming edition kicking off on Aug. 14. The film is a comical cinematic portrait of a satanic rock band on their summer tour. 

The film features French singer Julien Dore, French writer, actor and composer Alexandre Astier, and French film actress Audrey Fleurot in the major roles. The band in the movie plays black metal, a subgenre of heavy metal music.

The genre, whose common traits include shrieked, distorted vocals and blast beat drumming, is also called “Satanic metal,” as it often expresses hostility against mainstream culture. “Pop Redemption” features the general prejudice against the genre, and pays homage to The Beatles in a number of scenes.

One of the most anticipated sections of the festival is “Cinema Concert,” which screens silent movies accompanied by live music performance. This year, the festival is screening “The Kid Brother,” a 1927 American classic silent comedy film starring Harold Lloyd. The film tells the story of a young, timid son who tries using his sense of humor to win the respect of his strong, macho father and the girl he has a crush on.

Another silent film that is being screened is “Safely Last!” a 1923 romantic comedy silent film also starring Harold Lloyd. Pianist Philip Carli, who has toured extensively as a film accompanist throughout North America and Europe, will perform live throughout the screening of the films.

A section titled “Music In Sight” includes a number of documentaries that deal with the lives of musicians. The films include “Produced by George Martin,” a documentary film about George Martin, English record producer and composer who was involved extensively on each of The Beatles’ albums, as well as “Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender,” a film about Freddie Mercury, the late lead vocalist and lyricist of Queen. There is also “The Labeque Way,” a musical documentary which follows French pianist duo Katia and Marielle Labeque as they pursue their artistic and personal adventures.

This year, a special section is dedicated to revisiting some of the most significant works by Hong Kong director Peter Chan under the title “Special Retrospective for Peter Chan.” Three films of his are being screened in the section, including his 1996 film “Comrades: Almost a Love Story” ― a story of two Chinese mainlanders who move to Hong Kong for more life opportunities, but end up falling for each other.

A number of music performances are also being held, featuring many local artists including Verbal Jint, OKDAL, Lee Ki-chan, Nell, Lyn, MC the MAX, Sweet Sorrow, Bobby Kim & Buga Kingz, and Huckleberry P.

JIMFF this year runs from Aug. 14 to 19. For more information and this year’s full lineup, visit www.jimff.org.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)