This year was my second year covering the Reel Asian Film Festival. Altogether, I ended seeing 16 features, which is exactly double the number of films I saw at the festival last year. One thing I noticed from this year’s Reel Asian line-up was the number of documentaries that were part of the line-up, with …
Reel Asian 2014
Adi (Vijay Varma) is a rookie police officer in Mumbai, who is assigned by his superior officer Khan (Neeraj Kabi) to help seek out an axe-wielding hit man named Shiva (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), who is working for a gangster known as the Slum Lord. On one extremely rainy night, Adi chases down Shiva and corners him …
Sid Sharma (Sendhil Ramamurthy) is a man at the crossroads of his life, as his marriage falls apart and his career as an architect doesn’t go as planned. One day, Sid is visited by his estranged father Ashok (Roshan Seth), who has traveled from Boston to Los Angeles for a conference, which happens to have …
For decades, development in Hong Kong’s New Territories were kept stable by the Ding House Policy, which allowed Dings (male heirs) to build houses on premium free land. However, according to Uncle To (Kenneth Tsang), this policy is a waste of land and he begins plans with the Luk brothers, headed by Keung (Sean Lau), …
Over the course of his two decade long career, Manny Pacquiao has become known as one of the greatest boxers of all time. Born in 1978, at a time when the Philippines were at civil war, Manny entered the world of boxing at the age of 16, as a way to improve the quality of …
At an award’s ceremony on Sunday, November 9, the award winners of juried feature and short film prizes for the 2014 edition of the Reel Asian Film Festival were announced: The Fasken Martineau Best Feature Film or Video Award went to Manshin: The Thousand Spirits. The CHCH Best Canadian Film or Video Award went to …
Kim Keum-hwa is one of the greatest shamans in Korea. Through the use of documentary footage and dramatizations, Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits use’s Kim’s life story as the backdrop for this exploration of the world of shamanism. Kim’s life was a hard one marked by oppression, during both the Korean War and New Community Movement …
KANO is the baseball team at Kagi Agriculture and Forestry Public School in 1931 Taiwan. Having never scored in a game, the team is taken up by new coach Hyôtarô Kondô (Masatoshi Nagase), who makes it his immediate goal to lead the team to the Koshien high school baseball championship in Japan. With a multiethnic …
In-su (Kang Ha-neul) is a high school student, who is tormented by his ability to see vengeful ghosts. In-su shares this ability with his agoraphobic uncle Sun-il (Kim Jung-tae), with whom he goes to live with. Shortly after starting at his new high school, In-su befriends a ghost girl (Kim So-eun), which blossoms into an …
Jiang He (Chen Bolin), Ma Haohan (Feng Shaofeng), and Hu Sheng (Gao Huayang) are three friends living on one of the most eastern islands of China. With Jiang He set to begin a new teaching post on the west coast, the three set out on a cross-country road trip. Along the way, Jiang He becomes …
George Bustamante (Joem Bascon) is a Filipino engineer, who has left his wife June (Dimples Romana) and son Kiko (Jhiz Deocareza) behind back home to work in Japan. When he is unexpectedly fired from his job, George takes up the offer of his friend Roger Grace (Jun Sabayton) to be cast as a stunt double …
Gon and his friends Killua, Kurapika and Leorio head to Heavens Arena to watch the Battle Olympia, in which their friend Zushi is a participant. However, a group of hooded figures, known as The Shadows, takes over the building and holds Hunter Association president Isaac Netero hostage. The Shadows are lead by a man named …
9-Man is a variation of volleyball played by Chinese men on oversized pavement courts. Popular in the southern Chinese city of Toisan, the sport gained popularity in Chinatowns across North America, as a way for Chinese-Americans to socialize with each other. The sport continues to be played today, particularly in a yearly Labour Day tournament, …
The National Film Society of Patrick Epino and Stephen Dypiangco record a web video taking about their favourite Asian bad guys, who frequently appeared in action films from the 1980s and 1990s. The video attracts the attention of actress Tamlyn Tomita, who tells the duo to assemble the Awesome Asian Bad Guys, in order to …
Following its independence from France in the 1950s, Cambodia had a very prosperous popular music scene. Influenced by Afro-Cuban music and rock and roll, acts such as Sinn Sisamouth, The Bayon Band, and Houy Meas became huge hits on Cambodian radio. However, things would change with the Cambodian Civil War in the 1970s and the …
The island of Taiwan is given a bird’s-eye view in the nature documentary Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above. Featuring helicopter shot landscapes and narration by Wu Nien-jen, the natural beauty of Taiwan is contrast by the environmental impact of humanity. Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above is a cinematic essay, which shows how beautiful Taiwan is, …
From Hong Kong filmmaker Fruit Chan (Three… Extremes) comes the darkly comic thriller The Midnight After. Late one night, a bunch of strangers, including Yau Tsi-chi (Wong You-nam), Yuki (Janice Man), Uncle Fat (Simon Yam), and Shun (Chui Tien-you), boards a minibus heading to the Hong Kong district of Tai Po. By the time they …
The 18th annual edition of the Reel Asian International Film Festival begins this evening and runs until November 16. Taking place in both Toronto and Richmond HIll, this year’s edition of Reel Asian will consist of 44 films from 10 regions including Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, Canada and …