16 Asian films you cannot miss at the 44th Toronto International Film Festival

By Asian Film Festival on September 6, 2019 • ( Leave a comment )

We present a list of sixteen Asian films you should not miss at the 44th Toronto International Film Festival which which will take place from September 5th – 15th, in Toronto, Canada.

Selected Films:

37 Seconds by Hikari – Japan, USA | 2019 – 115 min.

A young Japanese woman with cerebral palsy is torn between her obligations to her family and her dream of becoming a successful manga artist, in director HIKARI’s Berlinale Audience Award–winning feature debut. (TIFF Website)

Trailer:

Balloon by Pema Tseden – China | 2019 – 102 min.

Tibetan director Pema Tseden’s Jinpa was one of the gems of last year’s Festival, offering a vision of an under-seen corner of our world and a stirring meditation on destiny. Tseden returns with a film that, like its predecessor, unfolds on the Tibetan planes, where a family struggles against the conflicting dictates of nature, spirituality, politics, and free will.

Trailer:

Bring Me Home by Kim Seung-woo – South Korea | 2019 – 108 min.

A dedicated mother in search of her missing son follows a tip that leads her to a fishing village where corrupt police officers might have the answers to her mystery, in Kim Seung-woo’s tense and thrilling debut.

Trailer:

Coming Home Again by Wayne Wang – South Korea, USA | 2019 – 86 min.

A Korean American man cares for his ailing mother while trying to master her traditional cooking in the latest from Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club), based on Chang-rae Lee’s New Yorker short story.

Gundala by Joko Anwar – Indonesia | 2019 – 119 min.

In this exhilarating actioner from writer-director Joko Anwar (Folklore), Indonesia’s preeminent comic book superhero (and his alter ego Sancaka) enter the cinematic universe to battle the wicked Pengkor and his diabolical squad of orphan assassins.

Trailer:

Jallikattu by Lijo Jose Pellissery – India | 2019 – 91 min.

A bold new voice in Malayalam cinema, Lijo Jose Pellissery (Ee. Ma. Yau.) presents a portrait of a remote village in his hometown where a buffalo escapes and causes a frenzy of ecstatic violence.

Krabi, 2562 by Anocha Suwichakornpong, Ben Rivers – Thailand, UK | 2019 – 94 min.

An innovative exploration of the Thai tourist community, Anocha Suwichakornpong and Ben Rivers’ visually elegant and conceptually creative documentary is an ambitious reflection on time, place, and memory.

Trailer:

Made in Bangladesh by Rubaiyat Hossain
Bangladesh, France, Denmark, Portugal | 2019 – 91 min.

Ugly walls of resistance arise when a Dhaka woman attempts to organize her garment factory co-workers, in this piercing indictment of exploitative labour practices and the global trade apparatus supporting them.

No.7 Cherry Lane by Yonfan – Hong Kong | 2019 – 125 min.

Set in the politically charged Hong Kong of the 1960s, iconic Chinese director Yonfan’s animation debut is an atmospheric story of an English literature student who enters into a love triangle with the woman he is tutoring and her middle-aged mother.

Trailer:

Parasite by Bong Joon-ho – South Korea | 2019 – 131 min.

A family of cunning derelicts scheme to enter a wealthy household’s employ in this genre-bending, Palme d’Or–winning thriller of class struggle from South Korean master Bong Joon-ho (Okja, Snowpiercer).

Trailer:

So Long, My Son by Wang Xiaoshuai – China | 2019 – 180 min.

A married couple attempts to deal with the untimely death of their young son in addition to the rapidly changing foundations of Chinese society, in this decade-spanning, highly personal, and ambitiously epic work from Sixth-Generation filmmaker Wang Xiaoshuai.

Trailer:

The Long Walk by Mattie Do – Laos, Spain, Singapore | 2019 – 116 min.

Decades after witnessing a fatal car accident near his isolated home in rural Laos, a middle-aged man is left alone with his regrets and the unsettled spirit who still walks the road where she died, in this hauntingly dramatic third feature from Mattie Do (Dearest Sister).

Trailer:

To the Ends of the Earth by Kiyoshi Kurosawa – Japan, Uzbekistan, Qatar | 2019 – 120 min.

In the latest film from Kiyoshi Kurosawa — part travelogue, part showbiz satire — a tv-show host on location with her crew in Uzbekistan abandons her assignment and sets out on her own journey of self-discovery.

Trailer:

Verdict by Raymund Ribay Gutierrez – Philippines, France | 2019 – 126 min.

An abused wife looks for justice but finds the legal and bureaucratic institutions meant to protect her mired in loopholes and repressive patriarchal traditions, in Raymund Ribay Gutierrez’s gripping feature debut.

Weathering With You by Makoto Shinkai – Japan | 2019 – 111 min.

In the highly anticipated follow-up to his 2016 anime box-office hit Your Name, Makoto Shinkai returns with the story of a runaway teenager who meets a girl with the fantastical ability to stop the rain and clear the sky.

Trailer:

Wet Season by Anthony Chen – Singapore, Taiwan | 2019 – 103 min.

A teacher and student at a Singapore high school form a special, self-affirming bond in writer-director Anthony Chen’s (Ilo Ilo) highly anticipated second feature.

Trailer: