Celebrating its 15th year, Reel Asian returns this year to both Toronto (November 8–13) and Richmond Hill (November 18–19) with a strong lineup of cinema from East and Southeast Asia. Here are a few highlights I’m looking forward to:

Saturday November 12 at 10:30pm — Piercing 1 — An animated film which very pointedly criticizes the growing wealth gap and political system in China. This sharp satirical film was able to slip past the censors because they assumed that anything animated must be for children. Ha!

Thursday November 10 at 3:00pm — Resident Aliens — A documentary about three Cambodian-Americans who are deported to Cambodia as a result of their criminal records, despite the fact that they were brought to America as infants or young children. Sounds like an interesting take on assimilation, criminal justice and (re)discovering your heritage.

There are several more films which I’m hoping to catch, including some of the shorts programmes, which are often home to some of the festival’s hidden treasures. This year, I’m hoping to see A Drummer’s Passion, which explores the life of the Korean drummer Kwon Soon Keun, made (in)famous by a YouTube clip of his intense performance. Now 70 and living in Toronto, I’m sure he has a lot of stories to tell.

Tickets and passes are on sale now, so I hope you’ll check out some of the films, either in the 416 or the 905.

Post from: Toronto Screen Shots

Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival 2011

Bi, Don’t Be Afraid! (Bi, dung so!) (Director: Phan Dang Di): This debut feature from Vietnamese director Phan Dang Di has picked up some impressive awards, including a few at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. It’s the story of an extended family with six-year-old Bi at its centre. He lives with his parents and his mother’s unmarried sister, and near the beginning of the film they are joined by his paternal grandfather, who has returned gravely ill from many years spent abroad. No one seems to know where he’s been or what he’s been doing, and Bi’s father spends the rest of the film avoiding his own father. And the rest of his family, for that matter. Instead, he stays out late every night, drinking and flirting with a young masseuse.

As his parents’ marriage slowly disintegrates, Bi is busy discovering the world around him. He spends lots of time hanging around at the ice factory, where his older friend An works, and at the riverside where the wild grass grows. He develops a bond with his grandfather and enjoys the time he spends with his aunt.

Meanwhile, his aunt is burning with lust for one of the high school students she teaches. Everyone seems uncomfortable with her unmarried status, including her, so she goes along on a setup to meet a single man and even has sex with him. Nothing seems to shake her desire for the student, though.

This is a film with lots of mysteries, none of which are revealed. In one sense, this leaves room for the characters to act in unpredictable ways, but it also leads to some bafflement. Bi’s seeming unawareness of the implosion of his family is sad, unless you see it as evidence of the resilience of children.

The film is beautifully shot, and languidly paced, but in the end, the narrative left a few too many things left unsaid for me.

(7/10)

Post from: Toronto Screen Shots

Bi, Don’t Be Afraid! (Bi, dung so!)

Dooman River (Director: Zhang Lu): The titular river divides North Korea from China, and the film tells the story of the villagers who live on the Chinese side of the border. Chinese-born Koreans like 12-year-old Chang Du have an ambivalent relationship with the North Korean refugees who sneak across the river to beg for food or to try to eke out an existence without being discovered and sent back. Chang Du lives with his grandfather and mute sister, while his mother sends money back from her job in South Korea. His life changes when he meets a boy of his age who has crossed the river in search of food to bring back to his ill sister. The boys bond over a game of soccer and Chang Du invites the other boy back to play for their village team against another village. The bleak winter setting emphasizes the village’s isolation from the rest of China and the villagers’ struggle to get by. Their community exists as a sort of no-mans-land between the two countries, but the presence of armed border guards keeps people on edge.

The plot is thin but had potential. Unfortunately, though, Dooman River never rises above the level of ham-fisted political fable. The camerawork is mostly static and each scene feels almost exactly the same length, giving the film the strange rhythm of a slide-show. As well, long stretches had very little happening, but the attempt to tell the story entirely through mood is jarred in several places by melodramatics which left this viewer scratching his head. Strangest of all is the impression the film gives of these issues with the refugees arising just now, when the border has existed for more than fifty years. Villagers act like these refugees have just started appearing in their town a few weeks ago, and their exposition-heavy conversations seem leaden and artificial.

(6/10)

Post from: Toronto Screen Shots

Dooman River

It’s hard to believe that I’ll be covering my fifth edition of the Reel Asian fest this year. Over the years, this strongly-curated event has brought films from places like Indonesia and Malaysia to my attention, in addition to adding to my knowledge of film from such cinema powerhouses as Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea. The program for the 14th edition of the festival was announced last night, and I’m preparing to have my horizons expanded yet again. Here are some things I’m looking forward to:

Tuesday November 9 at 7:00pm: Opening Night Gala — Gallants — I heard this described as a martial-arts version of The Expendables. Sold!

Friday November 12 at 10:00pm: Golden Slumber — from the same director who brought us the inventive Fish Story at last year’s festival.

Saturday November 13 at 5:00pm: The Mountain Thief — filmed using non-professional actors recruited and trained by the director living near the Manila garbage dump where the film is set.

I’ve really only had a chance to take a cursory glance at the program guide so far, and I’m sure I’ll find more to feature in the weeks to come.

Passes and tickets are on sale now, and this year, for the first time, Reel Asian will be holding events and screenings in Richmond Hill. If you can’t make it downtown, be sure to check out the 905 version of the festival!

Post from: Toronto Screen Shots

Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival 2010

White on Rice (Director: Dave Boyle): 40-year-old Jimmy (Hiroshi Watanabe) is living with his sister and her family after his divorce, sharing bunkbeds with his young nephew, but only until he finds someone better than his ex-wife. Alas, this potentially funny premise is not able to sustain an entire film, especially when none of the other characters feel developed enough to serve as anything other than foils for Jimmy’s pratfalls. Not much to describe in the way of plot, either. Jimmy develops a crush on his brother-in-law’s niece, but it doesn’t go anywhere. Despite cribbing from all kinds of other comedies (Napoleon Dynamite, a few of Wes Anderson’s films, even the little-seen Kiwi comedy Eagle vs. Shark), White on Rice never really rises above the quirkiness of its moon-faced protagonist.

There are plenty of gaps in exposition as well. Jimmy is Japanese, and speaks Japanese with his sister and her husband who live in an American suburb, but we have no real idea whether he’s only recently moved from Japan, or whether his ex-wife lives in America too. At one point he tells a potential love interest that he’s only been divorced “a few years” but it’s unlikely he’s been sleeping in his nephew’s room for that long. Much of the humour comes at Jimmy’s expense, such as his frequently mangled English, and although the cast is mostly Asian, I wonder if this isn’t just perpetuating stereotypes other Hollywood comedies have traded in.

Overall, I just expected a bit more and found myself disappointed and a bit bored by the end. The film is competently made and, at least in Watanabe’s case, enthusiastically acted. But the script failed to deliver any surprises or authentic characters. Worse than that, when it had opportunities to subvert Asian stereotypes, instead it just milked them for the film’s few cheap laughs.

Official site of the film

(6/10)

Post from: Toronto Screen Shots

White on Rice