Press your suits and shine your shoes! It’s time to roll out the red carpet for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival from September 8th-18th.  Once again, we have a wide selection of films from Asia, including Japan, China and Korea.  In addition, a number of North American and European filmmakers investigate various elements of Eastern culture and identity.  To top things off, we have  some big name Asian stars coming to the premieres, including Michelle Yeoh and Shahid Kapoor.

And while we’ve got international stars coming to our humble city, let us not forget about our home-grown talent:  As always, Toronto proudly welcomes Asian-Canadians onto the international stage, such as actor/writer Vinay Virmani in the Canadian/Punjabi comedy, Breakaway.  It’s the perfect time to be Canadian film buff. Without further ado, I give you this year’s Asian film line up: 

 

11 Flowers- Wang Xiaoshuai, China/France

Afternoon Tea- DJ Parmar, Canada 

Almayer’s Folly- Chantal Akerman, Belgium/France 

Arirang- Kim Ki-Duk, South Korea

Azhagarsamy’s Horse- Suseendran,India

Breakaway- Robert Lieberman, Canada

Bunohan- Dain Said, Malaysia

Century of Birthing- Lav Diaz, The Phillipines

Cut- Amir Naderi, Japan 

Countdown- Huh Jung-ho, South Korea 

Cuchera- Joseph Israel Laban, The Phillipines 

Duch, Master of the Forges of Hell- Rithy Panh, France/Cambodia 

From Up on Poppy Hill- Goro Miyazaki, Japan 

Girl Model- Ashley Sabin & David Redmon, USA 

Hanaan- Rusian Pak, South Korea

Headshot- Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Thailand/France  

Himizu- Sion Soho, Japan 

I Wish- Hirokazu Kore-Eda, Japan

Kotoko- Shinya Tsukamoto, Japan 

The Lady- Luc Besson, France/UK  

A Letter to Momo- Hiroyuki Okiura, Japan 

Life Without Principle- Johnnie To, Hong Kong

Lost in Paradise- Ngoc Dang Vu, Vietnam

Love and Bruises- Lou Ye, China/France 

Mausam- Pankaj Kapoor, India

Monster Club- Toshiaki Toyoda, Japan 

Mr. Tree- Han Jie, China 

Mushrooms- Vimukthi Junyasundara, India/France

Simple Life- Ann Hui, Hong Kong

Smuggler- Katsuhito Ishii, Japan 

Space is the Place- Eriko Sonoda, Japan  

The Sword Identity- Haofeng Zu, China 

UFO in Her Eyes- Xiaolu Guo, Germany 

Young Pines- Ute Aurand, Germany 

 

With the amount of talent and skill coming from the international and Canadian Asian community this year, the TIFF 2011 is not something you’ll want to miss. Regardless of whether you take in one or many films, this film festival will undoubtedly prove to be entertaining at the least, and enlightening at the most. 

Have you attended TIFF in years past, or are you attending TIFF 2011? If so, let us know what movies you’ve watched and your thoughts on them in the comments!

 

TIFF logo is the property of the Toronto International Film Festival 

Toronto image taken by Nayu Kim from Flickr (Creative Commons Licensing) 

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