This year’s Toronto International Film Festival® runs from September 07th to the 17th and they have announced their programme which has a great variety of works from across Asia. This post will focus mostly on Japan and South Korea. Take a look!
When it came to tracking the Toronto International Film Festival 2023 picks, the first news to come out was that it would open with Hayao Miyazaki’s “How Do You Live?” – picked up by Gkids in America and renamed “The Boy and the Heron.”
君たちはどう生きるか 「Kimitachi wa Dou Ikiru ka」
Release Date: July 14th, 2023
Duration: 125 mins
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Writer: Hayao Miyazaki (Screenplay)
Starring: Soma Santoki (Masato Maki), Aimyon (Himi), Kou Shibasaki (Kiriko), Takuya Kumura (Shoichi Maki), Masaki Suda (The Gray Heron), Jun Fubuki (Maid #2), Kaoru Kobayashi (Old Pelican),
Animation Production: Studio Ghibli
This is the first animated feature film directed by Hayao Miyazaki in 10 years since The Wind Rises.
The title uses Genzaburo Yoshino’s novel How Do You Live? as an inspiration for a story that also draws upon Miyazaki’s own youth/family history.
Click to view slideshow.Synopsis: During the Second World War, young Masato Maki (Soma Santoki) suffers a heartbreaking family tragedy and moves to the countryside, where his father (Takuya Kimura) works for a family making planes for Japan’s military. Masato explores this new landscape and persistently encounters a grey heron and discovers an abandoned tower. This is the start of a his adventure…
Now, with the festival just 15 days away, more details have been released and the East Asian presence is strong, from films to guests.
So far, we know that there will be two talks involving major Asian stars:
In Conversation with Andy Lau over his film The Movie Emperor
In Conversation with Lee Byung-hun and Park Seo-jun over their film Concrete Utopia
There are a lot of films from across Asia and, to be frank, this is one of the most exciting line-ups of any festival this year.
Centrepiece
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 124 mins.
Director: Wim Wenders
Writer: Wim Wenders, Takuma Takasaki (Screenplay),
Starring: Koji Yakusho, Aoi Yamada, Min Tanaka, Arisa Nakano, Tokio Emoto, Yumi Asou,
Koji Yakusho (Cure, Charisma) won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival 2023 for his role in this film. He plays a toilet cleaner in Tokyo encountering various people in four vignettes that were brought to the screen after a 17-day shoot. While at Cannes, the film was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or but ultimately won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the aforementioned Best Actor Award.
Synopsis: Hirayama (Koji Yakusho) lives in a small house full of plants and analogue technology in a quiet neighbourhood in Tokyo that is full of cafes and bookshops. He works as a cleaner of public toilets and his hobbies include music and photography. His life is scored to the music of the likes of The Rolling Stones, Patti Smith, and Lou Reed. Each day, he encounters different people and they all reveal some aspect of this quiet and unassuming man’s character.
ほかげ 「Hokage」
Release Date: November 25th, 2023
Duration: 95 mins.
Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Writer: Shinya Tsukamoto (Screenplay),
Starring: Shuri, Ouga Tsukao, Hiroki Kono, Go Riju, Tatsushi Omori, Mirai Moriyama,
Shinya Tsukamoto (Tokyo Fist, Vital) gives audiences a tale of broken people in the black markets of post-war Japan. It stars Shuri (Love at Least), Mirai Moriyama (The Drudgery Train), and Hiroki Kono, director of the Pia Film Festival Grand Prix award-winning film J005311. This is apparently part of Tsukamoto’s war trilogy, which includes Fires On the Plain and Killing.
Synopsis: As Japan rebuilds itself from the ruins of war, one person, a woman living alone in a half-burnt ramen restaurant, looks after a boy who lost his family in an air raid. The two survive by her selling her body and the occasional stealing of food from the black market. When a former soldier comes seeking her services, he gets close to both the woman and the little boy but violence soon erupts between the adults who cannot escape their traumas and the boy finds himself on the road with a man who is haunted by nightmares of his past. The man’s reason for travelling with the boy are soon revealed to be connected to taking revenge on the person who left him with those nightmares.
보통의 가족 「Mannen Gensoukyoku」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 116 mins.
Director: Hur Jin-ho
Writer: Park Eun-kyo, Park Joon-seok (Screenplay), Herman Koch (Original Novel)
Starring: Sol Kyung-gu, Jang Dong-gun (The Warrior’s Way), Kim Hee-ae, Claudia Kim,
Hur Jin-ho was one of those names to note during the first wave of Korean films in the early 2000s. He was involved in titles like Christmas in August (1998), One Fine Spring Day (2001), Kilimanjaro (2001). April Snow (2005), ones that helped popularise K-cinema. Here, he works with Sol Kyung-gu (Peppermint Candy, Public Enemy) and Jang Dong-gun (The Warrior’s Way) who play brothers with a fraternal bond that isn’t as strong as it seems.
Synopsis: Once a month. brothers Jae-wan (Sul Kyung-gu) and Jae-gu (Jang Dong-gun) meet for a meal at an expensive restaurant while accompanied by their wives. Jae-wan is an unscrupulous lawyer who takes on defending the son of a rich executive after the young man committed vehicular homicide. Jae-gu is a paediatrician who puts his patients first, even at the cost of his own career. When an unexpected situation involving their teenage kids arises, their dinner takes an unexpected turn and conflict emerges…
100 Yards Dir: Xu Hao-feng, Xu Jun-feng (China)
Snow Leopard Dir: Pema Tseden (China)
The Monk and the Gun Dir: Pawo Choyning Dorji (Bhutan)
A Road to A Village Dir: Nabin Subba (Nepal)
Discovery
미망 「Mil-su」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 92 mins.
Director: Kim Taeyang
Writer: Kim Taeyang (Screenplay),
Starring: Lee Myungha, Ha Seongguk, Park Bongjun, Baek Seungjin, Jung Suji,
This is Kim Taeyang’s feature debut and it was shot over four years. The description of a man and woman meeting and walking through Seoul makes it sound a little like Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise (1995) while the philosophy makes it sound like an experience akin to Celine Song’s Past Lives (maybe that’s a reach…).
Synopsis from the first paragraph of festival site’s programme because it explains the concept well: The word “mimang” holds multiple meanings in Korean. One, being unable to make sense from ignorance. Two, being unable to forget what one wants to forget. And three, searching far and wide. In debut filmmaker Kim Taeyang’s Seoul-based feature debut, the camera observes in three parts the changes in time, space, and characters that align with the above-mentioned definitions. Shot in Seoul over the course of four years, the film vividly captures changes to the characters and the city — specifically the historical area of Jongno — during a couple’s strolls up and down (memory) lanes.
Midnight Madness
잠 「Jam」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 99 mins.
Director: Jason Yu
Writer: Jason Yu (Screenplay),
Starring: Jung Yu-mi, Lee Sun-kyun,
This film was at the Cannes Film Festival. Jason Yu is apparently a former assistant to Bong Joon-ho.
Synopsis: Hyun-su and Soo-jin are a newlywed couple but something that didn’t occur when they were dating suddenly strikes: Hyun-su starts sleep talking. He says, “Someone’s inside.” His sleep activities escalate and it is as if he becomes someone else. When he wakes up, he has no memories of his behaviour. Soo-jin, pregnant with their child, becomes worried that he will become a threat to their family and starts to lose sleep. They turn to a shaman for help…
Primetime
몸값 「Momgap」
Release Date: 2022
Duration: 106 mins.
Director: Jeon Woo-sung
Writer: Jeon Woo-sung, Choi Byeong-yun, Kwak Jae-min (Screenplay),
Starring: Jin Sun-kyu, Jun Jong-seo, Chang Ryul, Kang Gil-woo, Jung Hoe-rin,
Synopsis: No Hyung-soo (Jin Sun-kyu) has rocked up at a seedy hotel with a person he thinks is a call girl. However, Joo Young (Jun Jong-seo) is actually the auctioneer in an organ harvesting operation and No’s organs are up for sale. A sudden earthquake strikes and everyone in the building is thrown into confusion and a fight for survival.
Expats Dir: Lulu Wang (US/Hong Kong)
Gala Presentations
콘크리트 유토피아 「Momgap」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 130 mins.
Director: Um Tae-hwa
Writer: Um Tae-hwa, Lee Shin-ji (Screenplay),
Starring: Lee Byung-hun, Park Bo-young, Park Seo-jun, Kim Sun-young, Park Ji-hu,
Legendary actor Lee Byung-hun (A Bittersweet Life, I Saw the Devil) takes on the role of a housing complex leader who resorts to tough actions to protect his territory after a disaster. This film, based on a webtoon, features social critique in a story where tribalism and answers to it are brought up.
Synopsis: After an earthquake levels much of Seoul, the survivors find themselves thrown into conflict with each other. The residents of the surviving Hwang Gung apartment complex find themselves under siege from evacuees and survivors begging for help. As authorities fail to show up, the residents begin throwing people out of the complex and repelling outsiders…
밀수 「Mil-su」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 129 mins.
Director: Ryoo Seung-wan
Writer: Ryoo Seung-wan, Kim Jung-youn, Choi Cha-won (Screenplay),
Starring: Kim Hye-soo (Kick the Moon, The Thieves), Yum Jung-ah, Zo In-sung, Park Jeong-min, Kim Jong-soo, Go Min-si,
Ryoo Seung-wan is another major force in Korean cinema starting in the early 2000s, starting with Die Bad (2000), Arahan (2004), Crying Fist (2005), The Unjust (2010), The Berlin File (2013), and Veteran (2015). More recently, he made Escape from Mogadishu (2021). This 1970s-set film seems to have been a hit in Korea with its female-led action story.
Synopsis: It is the 1970s and South Korea has a dictatorship. Smuggling is rampant and severely punished. Some are pushed into smuggling out of desperation. This includes the haenyeo — women free divers who have harvested shellfish and other sea treasures for hundreds of years — who find their profession under threat from a chemical factory in their seaside village. Their experience in the seas around their village aids them in smuggling but rival smugglers want to muscle in on their territory forcing the women to take on one huge job…
The Movie Emperor Dir: Ning Hao (China)
TIFF Docs
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 90 mins.
Director: Claire Titley
Writer: N/A
Starring: Tomoaki Hamatsu, Toshio Tsuchiya,
Click to view slideshow.Synopsis: This is a British film but it takes on the true story of a Japanese reality TV participant named Tomoaki Hamatsu who, in 1998, became an unwitting star when he took part in a programme where his experiences of surviving in a single room, sans clothing, furniture etc. were broadcast on TV across Japan for all to see. How he survived by filling out contest coupons in order to gain the items that he needed to survive until he reached his prize goal of one million yen. Interviews with the participants reveal what happened before, during, and after the programme was broadcast.
Special Presentations
悪は存在しない 「Aku wa Sonzai Shinai」
Release Date: 2024
Duration: 106 mins.
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Writer: Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Screenplay),
Starring: Hitoshi Omika Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, Ryo Nishikawa, Ryuji Kosaka, Ayaka Shibutani, Happy Hour
Ryusuke Hamaguchi has two films out this year, this one and Gift. Both have their roots in a collaboration with musician Eiko Ishibashi (composer on Drive My Car). Gift features a live music score that is performed by Ishibashi. Evil Does Not Exist is more of a straight narrative, it appears. It features cinematographer Yoshio Kitagawa – Happy Hour, The Sound of Waves, Intimacies, and the Joy of Man’s Desiring.
This one played at Venice and it will play at San Sebastian (also in September).
Click to view slideshow.Synopsis: Takumi and his daughter Hana live quiet lives in a village near Tokyo. The bucolic peace of the place is disrupted when land developers arrive with the announcement that they intend to build a big tourist attraction in the form of a glamping site for tourists to go camping. It will be built near Takumi’s house. The locals, sensing life beginning to change, offer resistance to the project while the land developers from the big city are determined to move forward and change the natural environment. Conflict ensues…
怪物 「Kaibutsu」
Release Date: June 02nd, 2023
Duration: 125 mins.
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Writer: Yuji Sakamoto (Screenplay),
Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto
Starring: Sakura Ando, Eita Nagayama, Yuko Tanaka, Mitsuki Takahata, Soya Kurokawa, Akihiro Kakuta, Shido Nakamura,
Kore-eda won the Palme d’Or for Shoplifters back in 2018 and returned last year with his Korean-set drama Broker. Those were based on original scripts written by himself.
With Monster, he has gravitated to working with more mainstream names making big moves in the Japanese movie industry. The film is based on a screenplay by Yuji Sakamoto (We Made a Beautiful Bouquet, Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World) and the film is produced by powerhouse screenwriter, producer and director Genki Kawamura (A Hundred Flowers, If Cats Disappeared From the World, Villain). Music was composed by the legendary Ryuichi Sakamoto (Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise) who sadly passed away earlier this yera.
The film ultimately took the Award for the Best Screenplay. It won another award but I consider revealing its name a bit of a spoiler.
Synopsis: The community of a small town with a large lake becomes the focus of the media as two children get into a fight at school and the conflicting claims draw attention from wider society. The people involved include a single mother and her son, a teacher, and others. None could guess how things would escalate as, during a stormy morning, the children disappear…
Platform
大いなる不在 「Oinaru Fuzai」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 152 mins.
Director: Kei Chika-ura
Writer: Kei Chika-ura, Keita Kumano (Screenplay),
Starring: Mirai Moriyama, Tatsuya Fuji, Yoko Maki, Hideko Hara,
A great cast led by Mirai Moriyama (The Drudgery Train, Mountain Woman) and Tatsuya Fuji (Let Him Rest in Peace) take the stage in Kei Chika-ura’s sophomore feature, a film based partly on his own personal experience and shot on 35mm.
Synopsis: Takashi (Mirai Moriyama) returns home to Kyushu when police call him about his estranged father Yohji (Tatsuya Fuji). It seems that Yohji’s wife Naomi, is missing and may have committed suicide. During this mystery, the old man’s dementia plays a part.
2023 Wavelengths program:
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell Dir: Thiên An Pham – Winner of the Golden Camera at Cannes 2023
Youth (Spring) Dir: Wang Bing (China)
Wavelengths 1: Quiet As It’s Kept:
“It follows It passes on” Dir: Erica Sheu, Taiwan/USA
“Let’s Talk” Dir: Simon Liu, Hong Kong
“Light, Noise, Smoke, and Light, Noise, Smoke” Dir: Tomonari Nishikawa, Japan
“We Don’t Talk Like We Used To” Dir: Joshua Gen Solondz, U.S./Japan/Hong Kong
Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) Classics
A 4K uncut restoration of Chen Kaige’s 1993 Palme d’Or winner “Farewell My Concubine” has been programmed.
That’s it for now. I’ll update it if any other films are added and I may expand the info for a few more of the films.
Here is past coverage:
Toronto International Film Festival 2011
Toronto International Film Festival 2012
Toronto International Film Festival 2013
Toronto International Film Festival 2014
Toronto International Film Festival 2015
Toronto International Film Festival 2017
Toronto International Film Festival 2018
Toronto International Film Festival 2019
Toronto International Film Festival 2020