The hand of god
On a distant battlefield, soldiers fight to survive. Meanwhile, in a peaceful Seoul park, elderly men casually play Janggi (Eastern chess). With each indifferent move, a soldier falls. Set to the rhythm of a waltz, everyday leisure and desperate survival intersect, revealing the irony of human fate on the board like a lighthearted joke.
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Jong In ShinDirector
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Sung In ShinDirector
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Jong In ShinWriter
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Sung In ShinWriter
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Jong In ShinProducer
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Hyeyun ParkArt director
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Jong In ShinEditor
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Jong In ShinSound Designer
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Adobe Firefly AI ToolSound Designer
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Pixabay Sound LibrarySound Designer
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Jong In ShinKey Cast"Soldier"
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Jong In ShinKey Cast"Blue Elder"
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Sung In ShinKey Cast"Red Elder"
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Midjourney AI ToolVisual Effects
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Runway Gen-2 AI ToolVisual Effects
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MiniMax Hailuo 02 AI ToolVisual Effects
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Johann Strauss II Public DomainMusic
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Project Type:Animation, Experimental, Short, Other
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Runtime:3 minutes 43 seconds
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Completion Date:September 17, 2025
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Production Budget:500 USD
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Country of Origin:South Korea
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Country of Filming:South Korea
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Language:No Dialogue
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Shooting Format:Digital / AI-Generated
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:No
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FESTIAV - International Artificial Intelligence Film Festival of ValenciaValencia
Spain
December 15, 2025
World Premiere
FESTIAV 2025 – Finalist (Best Comedy) -
IET Indep En Tarn (Indie in Tarn)Couffouleux
France
April 17, 2026
Official Selection -
Magica CinemathequeLondon
United Kingdom
March 11, 2026
Official Selection -
Comox Valley International Film Festival (CVIFF)Comox Valley, British Columbia
Canada
April 2, 2026
Official Selection -
Berlin Kiez Film FestivalBerlin
Germany
January 20, 2026
Best Comedy Short Film
Jongin Shin began his professional career as a screenwriter after winning the Screenwriting (Film) category of CJ ENM’s 2017 O’PEN Contest. Since then, he has developed feature-length screenplays centered on modern Korean history, weaving fictional characters into real historical events.
In 2025, he received the Top Excellence Award at the Gyeonggi Content Agency AI Academy and began directing AI-based films. His first AI short, the hand of god, a humorous exploration of the irony of human fate, was a comedy finalist at FESTIAV in Spain and won Best Comedy Short at the 2026 Berlin Kiez Film Festival in Germany.
The film was also officially selected for the Comox Valley International Film Festival in Canada, the IET Indep En Tarn Film Festival in France, and Magica Cinémathèque in the UK. In early 2026, he completed his second AI short, Land of Hope, DMZ, which reflects on the historical reality of the divided Korean Peninsula through AI-driven visual storytelling.
His work combines the strength of traditional storytelling with the visual possibilities of AI. He is currently developing his third AI film project.
The inspiration came from a quiet park in Seoul, watching elderly men play Janggi (Eastern chess). A thought struck me: what if their light, casual moves determined the fate of soldiers fighting for their lives on a distant battlefield?
"The Hand of God" visualizes this irony—the chilling contrast between safety and desperation. When a leisurely move on a park bench dictates life and death, the game becomes a metaphor for humanity’s history of war and sacrifice.
Born from real scenery and expanded through AI technology, this film unfolds with a playful waltz rhythm and humor, bridging the gap between the mundane and the catastrophic, delivering a purely visual narrative without words.