15th Reel Asian INT'L Film Festival Toronto - Capsule Reviews

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival will celebrate its 15th anniversary this year with a series of new initiatives including free screenings, larger venues to accommodate growing audiences, a multi-venue media art installation, special guest filmmakers from across Asia and the world, and a major expansion into Richmond Hill. 

SEE CAPSULE REVIEWS OF MAJOR FILMS END OF ARTICLE:

Reel Asian is Canada’s longest-running and largest showcase dedicated to contemporary cinema by East Asian and Southeast Asian moviemakers from around the world.

Over the past 15 years, Reel Asian has risen to become the leading exhibitor of coveted Asian works with a film repertoire that has included over 330 premieres and over 15 gallery installations at exhibition spaces in the GTA.

Highlights include:

GALAS & CENTREPIECE:
• OPENING NIGHT GALA: LOVER’S DISCOURSE (Hong Kong 2010, Canadian premiere, director Derek Tsang in attendance)
• CENTREPIECE PRESENTATION: JUMP ASHIN! (Taiwan 2011, Canadian premiere, director Lin Yu-hsien in attendance)
• CLOSING NIGHT GALA: BUDDHA MOUNTAIN (China 2010, Toronto premiere, guest in attendance)

INTERNATIONAL FEATURES: a selection of award-winning and noteworthy films including
• China – PIERCING 1 by Liu Jian, winner of Best Animated Feature Film, Asia Pacific Screen Awards (2010)
• South Korea – JOURNALS OF MUSAN by Park Jung-Bum, winner of the Tiger Award, Rotterdam Int’l Film Festival (2011)
• South Korea – BLEAK NIGHT by Yoon Sung-Hyun, winner of the FIPRESCI Award, Hong Kong Int’l Film Festival (2011)
• Taiwan ¬– WHEN LOVE COMES by Chang Tso-Chi, winner of 4 Golden Horse Awards including Best Film (2010)
• Thailand – ETERNITY by Sivaroj Kongsakul, winner of the Tiger Award, Rotterdam Int’l Film Festival (2011)
CANADIAN PROGRAMMING:
• World Premiere of Cuong Ngo’s PEARLS OF THE FAR EAST
• Canadian Spotlight LILY ENG: REAL ASIAN-CANADIAN WOMAN WARRIOR
• Canadian Shorts Programs: SEIZE THE MOMENT, TRAILBLAZERS, CROSSROADS and CREATURES

TICKETS & PASSES:  Regular Price Discount Price*
Regular Screenings $12 $10
Youth Screenings $5 n/a
Opening Night Gala (incl party) $20 $15
Closing Night Gala (incl party) $15 $12
Centrepiece Presentation $15 $12
Festival Pass $80 $65
Industry Series Pass $40 $36
4-Pak (no galas or centrepiece, in advance only) $36 $30
*Discount applies to students (with valid current ID), seniors over 65 (no ID required), and volume sales (10 or more tickets to any one screening)

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Department of Canadian Heritage, Telefilm Canada, Celebrate Ontario, the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, and our festival major sponsor National Bank.

BLEAK NIGHT (South Korea 2011) ***
Directed by Yong Sung-hyun

The film begins with a boy bullied.  The next segment cuts to the classroom when one boy refuses to join in the fun of his fellow classmates.  Is this the boy down because he witnessed the early bullying or is this scene a flashback and the boy the one bullied?  Director Yong Sung-Hyun’s film is non linear in time which makes certain scenes confusing.  The audience is pretty much left to piece the parts together to make sense of the story.  The story concerns three best friends in an all-boys high school. The relationship between Ki-tae, Dong-yoon and Hee-june (aka Becky) is playful, based on insults, and at times violent. On the surface it is nothing out of the ordinary, but underneath lies a tension that causes a sudden rift between the trio. Not knowing how this conflict presented itself, these friends began to misunderstand each other and soon became divided, which sadly lead to tragedy. Another character is thrown into the story – an older one which is the father of the boy’s, who is the film’s victim who has committed suicide.  Yong’s film is brave and experimental and BLEAK NIGHT garnished praises at the Rotterdam Film Festival where it premiered.  Teen suicide is a complex issue to understand and Yong’s film shows that to be.

CAPSULE REVIEWS:

BLEAK NIGHT (South Korea 2011) ***
Directed by Yong Sung-hyun

The film begins with a boy bullied.  The next segment cuts to the classroom when one boy refuses to join in the fun of his fellow classmates.  Is this the boy down because he witnessed the early bullying or is this scene a flashback and the boy the one bullied?  Director Yong Sung-Hyun’s film is non linear in time which makes certain scenes confusing.  The audience is pretty much left to piece the parts together to make sense of the story.  The story concerns three best friends in an all-boys high school. The relationship between Ki-tae, Dong-yoon and Hee-june (aka Becky) is playful, based on insults, and at times violent. On the surface it is nothing out of the ordinary, but underneath lies a tension that causes a sudden rift between the trio. Not knowing how this conflict presented itself, these friends began to misunderstand each other and soon became divided, which sadly lead to tragedy. Another character is thrown into the story – an older one which is the father of the boy’s, who is the film’s victim who has committed suicide.  Yong’s film is brave and experimental and BLEAK NIGHT garnished praises at the Rotterdam Film Festival where it premiered.  Teen suicide is a complex issue to understand and Yong’s film shows that to be.

BUDDHA MOUNTAIN (China 2010) ***
Directed by Li Yu

Co-written and directed by Lu Yu, BUDDHA MOUNTAIN is a well intentioned feel good movie that offers the message that there is good in every human being and loneliness is the greatest tragedy.  The film begins with a bitter opera singer Master Chang (Sylvia Chang) angry at the current opera rehearsals.  The audience later learns that she has lost hr son in an accident and has not gotten over the loss.  She keeps the damaged car as a kind of sad reminder.  Li Yu cross cuts the story to three youths, Ding Bo (Chen Po Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro look alike), Nan Feng (Fan Bingbing) and Fei Zao aka Fatso (Fei Long).  They have a terrible time surviving life.  Master Chang and the youths lives criss-cross when they rent a room for her.  They do not get along as she is fussy and they are care-free.  But when she attempts suicide, they save her and bring life back to her.  The change of the film’s tone though abrupt, still works well.  But the romantic element between Nan and Ding Bo is forced.  The musical score is awesome encompassing sounds and beats.  The three young actors deliver winning performances matched only by Sylvia Chang who is always good.

JUMP ASHIN! (Taiwan 2011) ***
Directed by Lin Yu-Hsien

JUMP ASHIN! in the first half of the film plays like a reverse BILLY ELLIOT.  Ashin (Eddie Peng) is a talented gymnast, who has trained as a young boy who loves the sport.  But his mother is against it, he loses interest and the coach gives up on him.  With no one to encourage him, he joins a gang with his best friend (Lawrence Ko) and lands up in more trouble than ever.  The problem with this film is that too much time is spent on this part, which is understandable since the director based the film on the true story of his brother.  But the redemption is hard to take in despite that what occurs on screen is supposed to be true.  With his own will power and the voice of reason of his pager operator, he re-enters the sport, winning the gold medal in the end.  The film runs a bit too long at over 2 hours, but still Lin’s film has the charm of a crowd pleaser.  The film comes complete with Hollywood style messages like: “It is easy to surpass others, but it is hard to top yourself!” Actor Eddie Pang who spent months learning to speak Hoklo as well as in training to gain the 6-pack abs and chiselled body he shows off so often during the gymnastic segments.

LOVER’S DISCOURSE (HK 2010) **
Directed by Derek Tsang and Chi-Man Wan

One can tell the directors’ seriousness on their subject of love in their arts dram on love when the film begins when the dissection of the Chinese character love with the word heart in it.  LOVER’S DISCOURSE is a 4 story piece, which because of its topic and indicated by the title is a quite a depressing film as well.  Most of the love affairs are yearnings that do not come to fruition.  Even the first story which follows Richard Linklater’s BEFORE SUNSET or BEFORE SUNRISE format concerning two good friends (Eason Chan and Karena Lam) secretly wishing they were together is a dulled affair despite its breezy, light structure.  The others also concern a star strucked lover unable to fulfil his/her love interest.  The second has the protagonists make out with a mannequin while the third has a young lover confront his older with the fact that her relationship is being cheated on.  The trouble with these stories is that the directors do not make that extra effort to make their characters that interesting or their love affairs that urgent.  So, if love happens or not, the audience never cares.  The fact that the film has an artsy outlook and feeling also pits the audience at bay with reality.  A worthy idea of a movie that could have been done and made into a better film.  This film opens the Reel Asian Festival and director Tsang will be present for the Q & A.