The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is back for its 50th year!
The festival, which this year will showcase 209 feature films from around the world, is a must-visit event for cinephiles, celebrity watchers, pop culture fans and international movie lovers from all walks of life. Plus, there is a massive slate of Asian-created and led films of all sizes—from Park Chan-wook‘s buzzy new project No Other Choice to Canadian-made indies—to check out.
Here are just some of the Asian movies at TIFF we’re excited for this year.
100 Sunset
(Directed by Kunsang Kyirong)
This mystery drama from Tibetan Canadian filmmaker Kunsang Kyirong follows the introverted Kunsel (portrayed by Tenzin Kunsel) who becomes fascinated with Passang (Sonam Choekyi), a newcomer with an older husband. Shifting between perspectives, 100 Sunset is a detailed portrait of the network of intersecting lives in Toronto’s Tibetan Canadian community and marks the debut of a new voice in Canadian cinema.
Amoeba
(Directed by Siyou Tan)
This Singaporean film follows 16 year-old tomboy Choo Xin Yu (Ranice Tay) who enrolls in a strict all-girls school and quickly befriends three other rebellious girls. Amoeba follows the girls as they struggle to fit in and vow loyalty to one another and swear to start a gang as a form of resistance. But when their actions are discovered by their teacher, their lives are upended.
Between Dreams and Hope
(Directed by Farnoosh Samadi)
Taking place in Iran’s queer community, Between Dreams and Hope centres Azad (Fereshteh Hosseini), a trans man, and his partner Nora (Sadaf Asgari). When Azad takes steps towards medically transitioning, he learns that he must get permission from his estranged father, prompting the couple to make the trek to Azad’s hometown where they are unwelcome. When Azad disappears, Nora must find him—with little help from the local authorities.
Exit 8
(Directed by Genki Kawamura)
This psychological thriller from Japanese filmmaker Genki Kawamura is adapted from the cult adventure game that has players walking through a Japanese metro station passageway, trying (sometimes in vein) to spot inaccuracies to reach the exit. Exit 8 reimagines the game as a story about the Lost Man (Kazunari Ninomiya), a commuter trapped in an endless subway hallway who has to obey one rule: if anything looks off, turn around. Miss a single discrepancy and he’s snapped back to the beginning, forced to loop again.
Ghost School
(Directed by Seemab Gul)
Ghost School follows 10-year-old Rabia (Nazualiya Arsalan) who discovers that her school suddenly shut down and goes on an adventure to uncover the truth behind the creepy rumours and superstitions swirling around her Pakistani village—like, the teacher has been possessed by a jinn, a supernatural spirit from Islamic folklore.
Good Fortune
(Directed by Aziz Ansari)
Starring Keanu Reeves, Aziz Ansari and Sandra Oh, Good Fortune follows down-on-his-luck Arj (Ansari) who is assigned a junior guardian angel Gabriel (Reeves). Gabriel, who tries to change Arj’s fortune, swaps Arj’s life with tech bro Jeff’s. While we’re a little skeptical about Ansari’s come-back, we are excited to see Reeves and Oh share the big screen.
Good News
(Directed by Byun Sung-hyun)
This South Korean film takes viewers aboard a hijacked airplane that a number of nations are working to bring down to Earth in 1970. The shocking film is full of twists that are sure to have audiences gripped to their seats for the duration of its runtime.
Hamnet
(Directed by Chloé Zhao)
The latest film from Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao is based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel of the same name. Hamnet follows William Shakespeare’s wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley) as she and the Bard (Paul Mescal) mourn the death of their 11-year-old son.
Left-Handed Girl
(Directed by Shih-Ching Tsou)
Co-written by Anora director Sean Baker, who director Shi-Ching Tsou has collaborated extensively with on earlier projects like The Florida Project, Tangerine and Take Out, Left-Handed Girl tells the story of a single mother (Janel Tsai) running a noodle stall in Taipei’s night market while navigating debt, depression and her two daughters.
Lucky Lu
(Directed by Lloyd Lee Choi)
This debut feature from Korean Canadian filmmaker Lloyd Lee Choi follows NYC food delivery driver Lu (Chang Chen) in a nerve-wracking 48 hours in the life. At the beginning of the film, it seems like everything is finally falling into place for Lu: he’s secured his first apartment and his wife and daughter are about to join him from China. But when his e-bike is stolen, Lu spends the rest of the film trying desperately to get a new one, running around the city and revealing a network of immigrant communities that are struggling to forge new lives like him.
No Other Choice
(Directed by Park Chan-wook)
One of the most highly anticipated films of the year, No Other Choice is a darkly comedic satire from one of South Korea’s most celebrated filmmakers Park Chan-wook. Starring Squid Game‘s Lee Byun-hun, No Other Choice follows Lee’s Man-soo who is suddenly fired from his job at a paper company after 25 years of dedicated service. Soon, in a desperate attempt to earn a coveted role at a rival company, Man-soo invents a fake company, meet his rivals for the role and kill them off. Director Park will also be discussing this film and his illustrious career at an In Conversation event at the festival.
Palestine 36
(Directed by Annemarie Jacir)
Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36 tells the story of Jerusalem in the wake of the Ottoman Empire’s fall, the migration of Jewish Europeans fleeing Nazi rule and British attempts to impose colonial rule. At the forefront is an ensemble of characters—a man caught between the city and his traditional village, a young woman and her grandmother navigating change, a port worker trying to earn a living while being drawn into a rebel movement—all striving to live their lives as the complex history plays out.
A Pale View of Hills
(Directed by Kei Ishikawa)
Adapted from Nobel Prize laureate Kazuo Ishiguro’s debut novel, A Pale View of Hills alternates between 1950s Japan and 1980s England and explores the way that war stays with its survivors for the rest of their lives.
Rental Family
(Directed by HIKARI)
Directed by Beef’s HIKARI, Rental Family follows an American actor (Brendan Fraser) in Tokyo who begins working for a company that hires actors as surrogates to help clients through big life challenges—all beginning with his role as “sad American” at a funeral.
There Are No Words
(Directed by Min Sook Lee)
This vulnerable documentary examines director Min Sook Lee’s family history, mysteries and controversies. The film follows Lee as she travels from her hometown of Toronto to her ancestral South Korea to learn more about her mother who died by suicide when she was 12. Along the way, Lee talks to her father (an ex-intelligence officer), maternal uncle and her mother’s old neighbours.
Year of the Dragon
(Directed by Giran Findlay-Liu)
This short film, which is playing as a part of the Short Cuts program, tells the story of a devoted mother who embarks to deliver a cake for her son’s birthday. As the day goes on, she is forced to confront the reality of her son’s situation.
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