Journal 03 ( Mar 22 ~ 28 )

I am a movie lover. When I was a senior high school student, I joined the “Movie appreciation club”. In addition, I took a course, “Movie appreciation and review” during the second year of my senior high school life. The latter is more challenging than the former. I learn to think deeply and try to express my afterthought and review about movies in class. That is a great way to learn from movies and develop my critical thinking of movies.

Even though I have seen various movies since then, it’s a pity that I never attend any film festival. Taipei Film Festival, for example, takes place every year, but I never attend that grand film festival. However, to my utter astonishment, Zijing Film Festival is held in Chung Cheng University. Except seeing movies, the main purpose of this film festival is to give “love and help” to people in need. This is quite different from other film festivals.

During this film festival, I saw five movies.

1. EX (舊愛喜歡你) ★★★★ 2010.3.18
This movie mainly talks about six couples’ love stories. They have complicated feelings and react differently when they encounter their ex-lovers. Besides, many hilarious elements are included in the movie. In a word, this is a warm but amusing comedy.

2. Mia and the Migou (米芽米咕人) ★★★★ 2010.3.21
An adventure of Mother Nature happens in this fairy tale. But the moral of this movie is to remind people of the importance of environmental protection.

I love the brand-new drawing style, the marvelous plot and the way this movie presents. The director let people be aware of a serious issue--protection of the earth by this intriguing story. That is a brilliant idea!

3. HACHI (忠犬小八) ★★★★★ 2010.3.21
This movie is based on a true story. Hachi is a Japanese Hakita dog, which is found by a professor at a train station. Every day, at a certain moment, Hachi goes to the train station and awaits its owner. Unfortunately, one day its owner passed away. Hachi is loyal and it still waits for its owner as usual on a daily basis until it died.

I was moved to tears when I watched this movie. I admire Hachi’s loyalty and the attitude towards responsibility. Hachi is so fabulous!

4. School Days with a Pig (和豬豬一起上課的日子) ★★★★★ 2010.3.22
A teacher in elementary school wants to teach students an important issue “Life” (the ability to breathe, grow, reproduce, etc. which people, animals and plants have before they die) by keeping a pig. Initially, his plan is that his students eat the pig after the pig grows up. However, his students establish friendly relationship with the pig soon and they are caught in a dilemma: eat the pig or not.

The pig in this movie is so lovely, which is beyond my imagination. Actually, “Life” is very hard to teach, define and understand. I think this movie is really thought-provoking.

5. Bangkok Traffic Love Story (我愛捷運男) ★★★★★ 2010.3.26
This is a Thai romance. A normal girl encounters an attractive young man. Some exhilarating things happen when they are dating. This movie successfully combines special transportation in Bangkok with a unique Thai funny expression. In this way, the audience can have a brief understanding of Thai culture and enjoy this love story.


Thanks to Zijing Film Festival, I have an opportunity to see several movies from different countries. Also, the purpose of “philanthropy” is positive. All in all, this is a film festival full of love and care.