Gateway

TAN CHUI MUI, MALAYSIA/HONG KONG/PHILIPPINES, 2021, 106 MIN.

Canadian Premiere. Writer-director Tan Chui Mui puts herself in the spotlight with this delightful showbiz satire. She plays Lee Yoon Moon, a Southeast Asian movie star who has been cast in a rip-off of The Bourne Identity and must learn to perform her own martial arts stunts. What unfolds is a journey of self-discovery that contains some jarring surprises. Loopy, hypnotic, and quietly thrilling, this is a fi lm to savour.

Cast Pete Teo, Tan Chui Mui, Bront Palarae, James Lee, Zhiny Ooi, Nik Hadiff Dani Prod Woo Ming Jin, Bianca Balbuena

WANG XIDE, CHINA, 2021, 113 MIN.

International Premiere. With laid-back rhythm and solemn black-and-white images, A Chat conjures a serene, refl ective female space inhabited by an independent divorcee and her niece. Qing runs her own tailoring shop in a quiet Southern Chinese town. One summer, her niece Yue comes to stay with Qing and learn her craft. Family secrets surface in atmospheric reveries and haunt them in an empty movie theatre. The two leads’ gentle, hushed performances evoke women’s dignity as they strive to live without the support or burden of men.

Cast Ying Ze, Mu Ruini, Xu Tao, Yao Bolan, Hou Yisong Prod Si Niang

Gyokou no Nikuko-chan AYUMU WATANABE, JAPAN, 2021, 97 MIN.

From the director of Children of the Sea (VIFF 2019) comes another visual wonder with a gossamer whiff of magic realism. Unlike the esoteric Children, this is a kid-friendly comedy that sizzles with the most appetizing Japanese cuisine that animation can render. Nikuko (‘Meat-girl’) is a plus-sized single mother who adores food, Japanese wordplay, and shifty men, and never loses her joie de vivre. When she and daughter Kikuko settle in an idyllic fi shing village, they’re almost undone by a buried secret.

Cast Shinobu Otake, Cocomi, Natsuki Hanae

HONG SANGSOO, SOUTH KOREA, 2021, 85 MIN.

Canadian Premiere. There is a mystery at the heart of Hong Sangsoo’s latest fi lm. Sang-ok (Lee Hyeyoung) is in Seoul for the fi rst time in years to meet a director about a comeback role. She schedules what she can around this appointment. Hong’s many fi lms prime us to expect a narrative game—a large gathering over soju, or an unearthed romance—but instead we hear Sang-ok’s internal mantra: “Every moment is beautiful.” As the day passes, we wonder at the reasons behind the powerful restraint of Lee’s performance.

Cast Lee Hyeyoung, Cho Yunhee, Kwon Haehyo, Shin Seokho, Kim Saebyeok, Ha Seungguk Prod Hong Sangsoo

MAUNG SUN, MYANMAR, 2020, 98 MIN.

Canadian Premiere. Inspired by a Burmese proverb mocking how money eludes the poor, this sassy comedy on the trials of indie fi lmmaking pits an idealistic director up against tyrannical censors and crass producers, triggering one of the goofi est heists in Southeast Asian cinema. Besides capturing daily life in Yangon with frantic gusto, Money Has Four Legs is Myanmar’s most important fi lm in years, as it tellingly alludes to the corruption, inequality, and dysfunction that gave rise to the country’s current unrest.

Cast Okkar, Khin Khin Hsu, Phay, Ko Thu Prod Ma Aeint

C.B. YI, AUSTRIA/FRANCE/TAIWAN/BELGIUM, 2021, 120 MIN.

North American Premiere. Moneyboys takes a revelatory glimpse at China’s hushed-up gay sex industry. Fei (Kai Ko) works tirelessly as a rentboy to send money home, but his family humiliates him while pocketing his earnings. Loneliness, police crackdowns, and fi ckle friendships erode short-lived joys of youth and furtive liaisons. Shot in Taiwan and dripping with tropical sensuality, this breathtaking debut by C.B. Yi caught critical attention at Cannes for its incisive, formal beauty.

Cast Kai Ko, Chloe Maayan, Yufan Bai, JC Lin Prod Gabriele Kranzelbinder, Barbara Pichler, Guillaume de la Boulaye, Patrick Mao Huang, André Logie

Sing-keu-hol KIM JI-HOON, SOUTH KOREA, 2021, 114 MIN.

Canadian Premiere. From the Korean master of disaster movies (2012’s The Tower) comes a new blockbuster depicting the elusive dream of homeownership with spectacular visual eff ects and stunts. Middle-manager Dong-won saved up for 11 years to buy a home in Seoul for his family of three. During his housewarming party, the building collapses and sinks into a nearly bottomless pit below. The survivors have to improvise and cooperate to get out alive. To date, it’s South Korea’s second highest grossing domestic fi lm of 2021.

TAKESHI MARUYAMA, JAPAN, 2021, 96 MIN.

Canadian Premiere. Hyperlink cinema gets a shot in the arm in this fl uid glance at the lives of 13 characters, each of whose diverse lives and problems diverge and converge with all the exuberance, anxieties, and untrammeled emotionalism of youth. Weaving his camera freely between stories, Takeshi Maruyama’s tight but sprawling ensemble piece captures the pains of growth and the possibilities of compassion in both its structure and its intimate personal insights.

Cast Yuki Kura, Toko Miura, Hiroya Shimizu, Rikako Yagi, Nino Furuhata, Yuzu Aoki Prod Hideki Harada, Tomoyuki Miike, Yoshiteru Horie

LEE SEUNG-WON, SOUTH KOREA, 2021, 115 MIN.

Canadian Premiere. A blistering indictment of patriarchy laced with poisonous black humour. Three wildly diff erent sisters are hit by life crises and their reactions aren’t pretty. Self-harming doormat Hee-sook is diagnosed with cancer. Mi-yeon, a church choirmaster and model of piety, discovers her husband’s aff air. A PTA meeting forces alcoholic Mi-oak to confront the trainwreck she is. The cause of each person’s dysfunction is revealed at their father’s birthday, when the youngest brother exhibits another level of crazy.

Cast Moon So-ri, Kim Sun-young, Jang Yoon-ju Prod Kim Sang-su

RICKY KO, HONG KONG, 2021, 99 MIN.

Thanks to Hong Kong’s lack of senior citizen welfare, a trio of dagger-throwing, whip-cracking and ace-driving geriatric assassins fi nd a lucrative, if morally dodgy way to restart their careers. But a meddling teenager threatens to derail their business. A riotous party of 60s movie nostalgia, this action-packed dramedy is also a dazzling comeback for Patrick Tse and Petrina Fung, the Cary Grant and Shirley Temple of Cantonese cinema, while Lam Suet adds grassroots grit to their glamour.

Cast Patrick Tse, Petrina Fung, Lam Suet, Chung Suet Ying, Sam Lee, Jia Xiaochen Prod Lam Ka Tung, Kevin Tse

Spy no Tsuma KIYOSHI KUROSAWA, JAPAN, 2020, 115 MIN.

An espionage drama in the league of Hitchcock’s Notorious, a romance as glorious as David Lean’s epics, and a metafi lmic charade touting cinema as savior of modern civilization. In WWII, a Japanese industrialist discovers a shocking secret in the labs of Manchuria. To turn the tide of war, his wife must outwit a ruthless secret police chief who adores her. This fi lm explores the existential horror of humans with a conscience in a morally compromised society under fascist tyranny.

Cast Yu Aoi, Issey Takahashi, Ryota Bando, Yuri Tsunematsu, Minosuke Hyunri, Masahiro Higashide, Takashi Sasano Prod Keisuke Tsuchihashi, Takashi Sawada, Satoshi Takada, Tamon Kondo

KAMILA ANDINI, INDONESIA/SINGAPORE/FRANCE/ AUSTRALIA, 2021, 95 MIN.

Yuni is a typical high school girl who loves fashion, makeup, the color purple, and the martial art silat. She studies hard for a coveted college scholarship. But how much longer can she turn down marriage proposals from unfamiliar men? Two of Indonesia’s most brilliant feminist creators, Kamila Andini (The Seen and Unseen, VIFF 2018) and screenwriter Prima Rusdi, have teamed up for a devastating cri de coeur from women whose dreams of education and autonomy are systematically stifl ed.

Cast Arawinda Kirana, Kevin Ardilova, Dimas Aditya, Marissa Anita, Asmara Abigail, Muhammad Khan Prod Ifa Isfansyah

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