Cinequest 2026: Here are 15 films to catch at beloved San Jose festival<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWe had serious conversations about if we could and should proceed,\u201d says Kim, the film\u2019s writer\/director.<\/p>\n
After nine days, the filmmakers decided to continue the shoot and managed to wrap filming. The world premiere of \u201cReunion\u201d is set for March 15 at the California Theatre in downtown San Jose as part of the Cinequest Film and Creativity Festival.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m really proud of the cast and crew for holding together,\u201d Kim says. \u201cIndependent films are challenging under the best of circumstances. This wasn\u2019t the best of circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cReunion\u201d follows Guy (Jake Choi), an Asian American funeral home worker who goes to his high school reunion with the hope of jump-starting his life, only to be mistaken for the most successful alumnus of another school\u2014a mysterious Asian billionaire who no one has seen since graduation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was fertile territory,\u201d Kim says. \u201cReunions can be nerve-wracking; you want to make an impression.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film weaves Guy\u2019s story together with those of other reunion attendees. While a lot of these plotlines are played for laughs, Kim says, \u201cI hope you see their humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a little bit of a message here about seeing people for who they are,\u201d he adds. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s an accident that the (main) character is Asian American.\u201d<\/p>\n
A first-generation Korean American, Kim grew up in Palo Alto, where he attended Gunn High School, and went to film school at the University of Southern California.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs forgiving as this area is, there was a little racism when I was growing up,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n
He experienced a little more when breaking into the movie business.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started as an actor,\u201d Kim says. \u201cI realized as I got older that there weren\u2019t a lot of people who looked like me; there were no roles for Asians. But I can write and direct.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not having any on-screen role models affected Kim\u2019s own casting decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a period at USC when I didn\u2019t cast any Asians in my films,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI realized I\u2019d been so brainwashed that I couldn\u2019t imagine there\u2019d be someone like me on the screen.<\/p>\n
\u201cEver since then, I\u2019ve made sure my films are inclusive,\u201d Kim says. \u201cIf we could stop relating to each other by weight, height and skin color, the world would be a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n
The main storyline and subplots of \u201cReunion\u201d are driven by how the characters see themselves and each other, and how this makes it easy for Guy to pretend to be someone he\u2019s not.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re always being told that whatever we\u2019re doing isn\u2019t enough,\u201d Kim says. \u201cWe forget we have value as we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
A former Cinequest volunteer, Kim helped establish the festival\u2019s screenplay competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was always something about Cinequest that feels homegrown,\u201d he says. \u201dI\u2019m happy that our world premiere is going to be local.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kim says \u201cReunion\u201d soundtrack albums will be available at the March 15 world premiere and the March 21 screening at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Mountain View. Composer Andrew Yarovenko wrote songs that evoke the early 2000s, when the characters were in high school, but also support the film\u2019s multiple storylines.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s sort of timeless,\u201d Kim says of the music. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want it to be stuck on Nelly Furtado.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the age of streaming, Kim says he\u2019s looking forward to having Cinequest audiences experience his film in a theater.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something about the communal experience,\u201d he adds. \u201cThat\u2019d be the greatest compliment if people came out of the theater and said, \u2018Man, that movie is strange.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cReunion\u201d plays on March 15 at 12:30 p.m. at the California Theatre in San Jose and on March 21 at 2:45 p.m. at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Mountain View. For tickets, visit cinequest.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Independent filmmakers are used to overcoming challenges\u2014mostly budgetary\u2014to get their movie made. But Mountain View resident John Kim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,7,76303,4978,967,839,1924,181,23,194,1399,88,90,89,198,200,420],"class_list":{"0":"post-210391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-cinequest","11":"tag-downtown-san-jose","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-festivals","14":"tag-film","15":"tag-latest-headlines","16":"tag-local-news","17":"tag-mountain-view","18":"tag-movies","19":"tag-san-jose","20":"tag-san-jose-headlines","21":"tag-san-jose-news","22":"tag-santa-clara-county","23":"tag-south-bay","24":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}