KIDS IN ACTION
October 2005

Young Japanese Judges at a Film Festival in Korea

	The five Japanese judges (Hibino Yukiko)

Five Japanese children participated as judges at the first Goyang International Children's Film Festival, held in Goyang, South Korea from August 19 to 24. The children were invited thanks to a long-standing friendship between the festival director, Chung Ji-Young, and an organizer of children's film festivals in Japan.

The five invited movie-lovers were elementary, middle, and high school students Ota Ryuichi (15), Komatsu Michiru (15), Sugimoto Wakako (11), Matsue Masahiko (12), and Yamanaka Ryoko (17). All five had prior experience at the Kyoto International Children's Film Festival, an event that is run and judged entirely by kids. This group was chosen because they had the experience needed to carry out their task as festival judges in a country where a different language is spoken.

Judging involves a lot of hard work. (Hibino Yukiko)

The kids were asked to judge 16 movies from South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, India, Spain, the United States, Russia, and China. Along with 15 South Korean kids, the five Japanese jurors viewed the works over two days (August 19 and 20) and selected the grand prize winner.

In addition to these 16 films, more than 100 other movies from 30 countries were screened, and the festival attracted 30,000 visitors. The films were shown at several different venues. "There were so many films shown, and judging was tough. Including the 16 films we judged, I watched seven on the first day and 34 on the second," said Ota.

One of the films shown, an animated short titled Nagai Naga-i Kami no O-hanashi (The Story of the Long, Long Hair), was created by Komatsu, Sugiyama, and the others at a 2003 festival workshop in Kyoto. Having been very well received at the Kyoto festival, the film was submitted for screening at the Hida International Animation Festival of Folktales and Fables, where it received a jurors' special award. The film tells the tale of a fantasy world in which a girl's long hair becomes the waves of the sea, underneath which fish swim. With its intriguing story and impressive ink-shading technique, the film was also a big hit with the Korean children.

	The language barrier didn't stop the kids from making lots of friends. (Hibino Yukiko)

Even past 10 p.m., after the movies had ended, the kids had to attend meetings after returning to their rooms. A maximum of ten points were awarded to the films by each judge based on such criteria as technique, expression, and impact. The kids talked with one another about the movies, checking with Park, their interpreter, about parts they didn't understand and asking the Korean children for their impressions. "I was really happy about how they helped us by using simple English along with hand and body gestures and by writing things down on paper, and also how they tried hard to understand what we were saying," said Sugimoto.

"Before I came there, I was worried about what I should do in Korea, but I was able to communicate with the Korean children about our film festival, and I also learned from the Goyang festival," said Yamanaka, the group's leader, who seems proud to have taken part in international exchange through the film festival.