In a world that seems determined to break our spirits and force us to fall into line with an indistinguishable machine, there are freedoms to be found outside it all. We can sing, dance, draw, and paint, but let us not forget the art of writing and storytelling. Born in Seoul, South Korea, but growing up in Northern California, John W. Kim found peace of mind crafting stories as a filmmaker.
A highly literate individual, Kim graduated with honors in Literature and a minor in Creative Writing, and studied under Novelist James D. Houston, Playwright George Hitchcock, and Poet Lynn Luria-Sukenick. All part of his education, what remained inherent in Kim was his natural cinema, where he seeks to bring his stories to life on screen, hoping for a human connection.
Recently completing his new feature film Reunion, which follows a man named Guy (played by Jake Choi) seeking something positive in his life, so he looks to attend a 20-year high school reunion. A Comedy with plenty to laugh at, Guy accidentally is mistaken for someone else upon arrival, and while he goes with the mistaken identity, he must navigate the night at a crossroads in his life.
A film set to premiere at the California Theatre in San Jose, California, on Sunday, March 15, 2026, it will also be shown on Saturday, March 21st, at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Mountain View in Mountain View, California. Excited for a larger audience to see the film, John W. Kim recently sat down to chat about his journey in film, the work behind Reunion, future projects, and more.
Cryptic Rock – You have been involved in filmmaking for some time. First, tell us, what inspired you to pursue work in cinema?
John W. Kim – I grew up in a golden era of film, with movies like The Godfather (1972), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and Comedies like Tootsie (1982), followed by great Dramas like All the President’s Men (1976) and blockbusters such as Jaws (1975). Along with the theater work I was doing in high school, reading classics from Shakespeare and Chekhov, one couldn’t help but be inspired.
I was also lucky to fall in with a group of bright, sensitive, funny, and talented theater people who were a few years older than me. Theater became an oasis from the noise of a competitive, cliquish high school (not unlike the upscale private school presented in Reunion).
Cryptic Rock – It sounds like it was a wonderful outlet for you. Interestingly enough, beyond filmmaking, you also have a passion for writing. Having written for several publications. Did writing in such places help you develop your overall writing skills for future screenplays?
John W. Kim – What writing for magazines and newspapers teaches you, besides writing succinctly, is writing on deadline. You learn how to get to the point as quickly as possible, then enhance a story with whatever ideas you have in the space you have left. As for deadlines, my favorite Douglas Adams quote is “I love deadlines – I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by.” You still learn to respect them, so there becomes an urgency to writing that gives energy to your work, and if you have more ideas that take time, you make room or time for those as much as possible. It’s no accident that some great film writers, whether Ben Hecht or Nora Ephron, started writing in newspapers and magazines. Anything that teaches you discipline helps in a craft, and writing is no exception.
Cryptic Rock – Those are very good points. There are many nuances to writing. You were born in Korea but moved to Northern California at a very young age. What was your experience like being a first-generation American in your family?
John W. Kim – That is a story unto itself – I was born in Seoul, South Korea, and my parents were able to move to the United States because of a change in immigration law known as “The Second Immigration” between 1950 and 1964. They were able to build a life for themselves here when Korea was still recovering from the war. It was my mother’s first trip on an airplane when she came in the early ‘60s, and I didn’t speak any English when I arrived. I was also during a time of political turbulence here, with the Vietnam War escalation ongoing, Nixon’s presidency, and then great strides in technology, including NASA’s Apollo space program, which helped draw people like my father, who was an engineer, to what we know today as Silicon Valley.
As for being first-generation, I’m sure I experienced what many immigrant children go through, which was a desire to explore a completely new culture through their own first-person experiences, while being reminded of their “otherness” as an immigrant, whether because of the color of their skin or the rituals of their culture. It’s better now, but there were many times I was the only Asian student in my class up until high school, so you become aware of the differences even as you attempt to assimilate. The irony is that I graduated from college with a cum laude degree in English and ended up teaching high school students who had grown up here through two and three generations. In the Bay Area, as with many immigrant families, there was a tremendous emphasis on academic achievement and success, which I did my best to fulfill – until it became clear my interests were in film and the arts.
Cryptic Rock – Your story is interesting to hear, and it seems like you have always had a drive within you. You have worked on several short films and, in 2011, had your debut feature film, Blur. Now we have your new film, Reunion. What led to the development of Reunion for you?
John W. Kim – We had been working on a Thriller Proof-of-Concept called The Request, which we had completed in 2020 and brought to Sundance to fundraise. It was well received, and we started the process of putting together the feature when Covid hit (we think it was already at Sundance, and that’s another story). Basically, the entire industry shut down as the world effectively tried to figure out what to do next.
Gradually, as things stabilized, we realized we had lost some momentum for the project, and I started writing Reunion, essentially a story of lost people seeking to live up to unrealized potential and unrealistic standards. Working with script consultant Pilar Alessandra, I was able to put together several drafts that were extremely well received, including a Silver medal in Comedy from Page International Screenplay Competition, a top five competition in the U.S. From there we had table readings and investors began to approach us, and with help from several experienced producers and consultants, including Sebastian Twardosz and Michael Winnick, we were off and running.
With the essential work of Noah Pitifer, my partner who became our primary producer through the shoot and beyond, we were able to develop a work with multiple voices and points of views which we think says something about who we are now, and how we live. We are very proud that we were able to emphasize that every step of the way and not lose track of what the film was about, while still making it entertaining and funny.
Cryptic Rock – It works well because Reunion is very much a Comedy with heart. The lead, played by Jake Choi, is portrayed as a good-natured yet lonely individual. How did you approach creating this character for the film?
John W. Kim – It’s been said that the difference between comedy and tragedy is where one ends the story, and the characters. The character Guy Park, portrayed by Jake Choi, is just realizing that his life is at a tipping point, and either he can do something drastic to change course, or end up where he was at the beginning of the story, which is embalming bodies in a mortuary. I wanted to show his potential for joy and life, including dancing to music when no one else is around, and his imagination and internal thoughts, even if it ends up having him talk to himself and the literal dead. The challenge was to show him alone with these conflicting feelings, so we had Jake dancing, talking to himself, and finally taking action by “borrowing” the family car to go to the reunion. Showing that he makes an active decision at every step is key to supporting him and believing in him, even if we, as an audience, may disagree with his choices.
Everyone has a different path, and no path is “easy.” There are so many elements that tell us what to do in our lives and what is “right,” whether our families, our friends, the internet, or society at large – we wanted to show how complicated it is for one person, with the absolute best intentions, to try and find the true journey for themselves.
Cryptic Rock – You can feel all of that in the film. Many of the situations that unfold in Reunion show different sides of people. High school seems like everything while we are living it, but in hindsight, it is only a small part of our lives. Was some of Reunion’s plot based on your real-life experiences?
John W. Kim – For better or worse, high school is one of the times in a person’s life where one is thrown in arbitrarily with a diverse group of people without choice, even in the most narrow environments, as described in Reunion. Add in the jet fuel that is adolescence and hormones, and you get this extraordinary obstacle course of challenges and opportunities every day.
Though not directly based on my own experiences per se, I was thrown into an “upper-class” environment due to my parents’ economic success, after coming from a working-class school and neighborhood. The contrast was somewhat jarring (i.e., weekend ski trips and tennis clubs), which is where I was lucky enough to find a group of very smart, funny, and, more importantly, sensitive kids who were part of the drama program at my school and bonded. Without them, I don’t think I’d still be making films today – and we’re still in contact, some of them planning to come to the premiere of Reunion in San Jose in March. Choose your friends well, it’s a secret to creative life, I think.
Cryptic Rock – Agreed. The people you associate with can make a world of difference in your outlook on life and so much more. Watching Reunion, you laugh, but it also reminds you just how shallow some people present themselves as in high school and beyond. Did you aim to present a human story outside the film’s comedic side?
John W. Kim – Again, I think high school can be a battleground under the best of circumstances. With the grace of hindsight, one can understand that everyone in high school is struggling to a degree, and the social pressure to present oneself “correctly” is overwhelming – I can only imagine it’s exponentially worse in the current era of social media and technology. What I wanted to show was that even twenty years later, these so-called adults find themselves in the same circumstances and inadvertently revert to who they were in high school, which shaped who they are now.
For better or worse, in this culture, we seem to be in a constant state of comparison, whether to our friends, family, enemies, or strangers. There seems to be this unspoken race towards who has the most – youth, beauty, money, power – that is exhausting. For the characters in Reunion, I wanted to show that everyone, no matter what they have, somehow wants or seems to need more. For Guy, who has nothing, it’s overwhelming to be surrounded by all these strangers who want something from him – something he can’t possibly provide, because he isn’t who they think he is. It’s a paradox because he really ends up empathizing with them all and wants to give them what they want, so he promises them everything while looking for a way to escape.
Cryptic Rock – It is a very interesting character study, and you can empathize with the character of Guy. With Reunion, you work with a very diverse cast, including Jake Choi, Candy Clark, Kelli Garner, and Madeline Zima. What was it like working with everyone on set?
John W. Kim – Working with actors like Jake and Kelli, and legends like Candy (1973’s American Graffiti) and Madeline (The Nanny and Twin Peaks series) , or Crystal Rivers, a really talented and differently abled actress, was an education. I come from a theater background, so I always ask for rehearsal time whenever possible, which allows actors to get comfortable with their characters and ask any questions they need in advance of shooting. It also allows them to create in a safe space, whereas production can be quite hectic. Because of the low-budget nature of Reunion, we didn’t really have that time, so we did our best to listen to our actors on set and take in their ideas whenever possible.
What can be challenging with an ensemble piece is that everyone has a different background in terms of training. Unlike in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, or Boston, where theatrical training is essential to developing craft, in L.A., actors tend to build during production, auditions, or on television shows, throughout their careers, which is different from building a character for film. As with most films, ours was shot in pieces, though we did our best to maintain continuity and shoot in relative script order.
It was challenging, and we felt it was worth it to give each actor a chance to understand their character as they were developing through the course of the evening of the story. The result was that as the actors got more comfortable with their roles, they brought ideas to the set every day, and almost every scene brought surprises. Whether Frantz Latten, who plays Brad, another outsider, or Ryan Hansen, who has experience in improv through his roles in shows like Party Down, every scene gave the actors an opportunity to bring something unique, and without exception, they took full advantage when the cameras were rolling.
Cryptic Rock – Everyone did a wonderful job with their roles as well. With Reunion complete, can we expect some more feature films from you soon?
John W. Kim – We are currently developing The Request, a Crime Thriller that we started developing before Covid hit in 2020, and have completed a Proof of Concept short, which is a kind of teaser without a film. We’ve gotten good responses from the script, which is in rewrites, and we’ve started raising funds for it as well as discussed casting. Ideally, we’d shoot it late this year or early 2027, fingers crossed. Though they are different stories, some of that could be dependent on the response and success of Reunion, strange as that sounds. We’ve gotten a good response to Reunion, so we are eager to show the film to a live audience, including distributors and potential investors, to build enthusiasm for the next one.
Cryptic Rock – It will be exciting to see what develops. As a writer, director, and producer, are there any genres of film you would like to explore more in the future?
John W. Kim – I love many genres and grew up exposed to everything from Dramas to great Comedies and satires. The Request is noir-influenced, and I am also writing a kind of Black Comedy about relationships, as well as developing a short film, Vortex, which I hope to be shooting with my friend Ron Ward, who wrote and is producing. The latter is kind of a hilarious, Fantasy-Sci-Fi-tinged Comedy that’s hard to explain. Ron has worked on it for over five years, since before Reunion, and I think he was inspired by our completing this film, so he decided it was time to put Vortex into production, and I agree with him.
I think that when you shoot a movie, you spend so much time and effort in the making of it that by the time you’re finished, you’ve exhausted your ideas for that type of story and want to make something different. Reunion is different from The Request, and Vortex is even more genre-defying; it’s a good creative challenge and stretches one. The only genre I haven’t approached is Horror, and believe it or not, I have an idea that I’m going to eventually commit to paper, it’s too good to let go to waste.
Cryptic Rock – Very Cool! Speaking of Horror and Science Fiction, do you have any films in either genre?
John W. Kim – Well, I grew up in a world of Star Wars (1977) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), if that answers your question. I actually have a Science Fiction project in the early stages that I hope to present for production sometime next year. It’s a story that, when you hear it, you instantly understand it’s a movie, which is rare, so we’re excited about it.
As for Horror, I’m somewhat of a classicist, so I favor older films like Suspiria (1977) or Night of the Living Dead (1968). I’m also a fan of foreign Horror, which has represented well internationally, including films like Audition (1999) or Battle Royale (2000), which I consider Horror. Films like Let the Right One In (2008) are original and poetic, which I love, and movies like It Follows are so clever and original that they’re hard to ignore.
One of the great things about both Sci-Fi and Horror is the ability to go beyond genre and make commentary on ongoing ideas or topics. Films like John Carpenter’s They Live (1988), while not considered pure Sci-Fi or Horror, fit into that category for me. He did that in a different way with Starman (1984), and others – there isn’t just one layer of plot or story in his movies. Sam Raimi is the same, in his early films, The Evil Dead (1981) and Army of Darkness (1992). I think, indirectly, those films and films like those are about the individual fighting against conformity and a kind of oppressive societal brutality, which is very relevant today. Phil Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) is a great example in that category, as well as being a brilliant remake, and Raimi’s latest, Send Help, has a very clear message about patriarchal roles and power in society that is extremely pertinent.
What Horror and Sci-Fi does, I think, is engage the audience in a visceral way while addressing incredibly important human ideas about who we are and what we value. To me, there can be no greater indicator of how important or valuable film can be. So, I guess I have a love of Horror as well, go figure. If it’s a film, I’m interested, and if it is well-crafted and has something to say, I’m there for it. I hope Reunion is engaging and has something to say in the same way. For those coming to see it, let me know what you think. I’ll be there at the screenings.
For more on Reunion: reunionfilm.net
For more on John W. Kim: johnwkim.com
Reunion will have its World Premiere at the California Theater in downtown San Jose, on March 15th at 12:30 pm. The director and cast will be there with a reception to follow. A second screening, at the Alamo Drafthouse in Mountain View, will be held on March 21st at 2:45 pm, with director and writer John W. Kim in attendance.
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