Wrapped up another year at TIFF! I had a really great time at the film fest this year. Lots of great movies from Asia in my line up. I was lucky I got tickets to all my first choices.

For the first weekend, I headed downtown on Saturday to watch the red carpet opening for Thermae Romae. Since I didn’t buy tickets to the gala, I had plenty of time to wait for the guests to arrive. I was really surprised by the amount of fans that were waiting by the gates when I got there. I had to stand way off to the side since there were so many people crowding around the entrance. Abe Hiroshi and Ueto Aya arrived shortly after and it was a frenzy with fans trying to get autographs and take photos. Both Abe and Ueto were really gracious and spent quite a bit of time with the fans. I was able to get some good shots from a distance. They stayed for about 10 minutes before finally making their way into the theatre. After the hype died down, I scooted over to the box office to pick up my tickets.

I didn’t have a movie till much later that night, so I ended up spending about half a day wandering in T.O. I met up with Kari after her shift and we lazily hung around at her place. Actually I should mention we were both really sick that weekend, so we were pretty much just commiserating together. LOL.

Anyway, my first real movie at TIFF was Stephen Fung’s Tai Chi 0. I was really looking forward to the movie mainly because of the director and its good looking cast. Just from the trailers the stylization of the movie seemed very unique. I was pleasantly surprised by the use of graphics and animation. The acting was great and the action scenes were impressive as well. The story itself wasn’t as captivating, but I think it made up for it by the way it was told. Stephen also attended a Q&A session and it was really interesting to hear him talk about his thoughts behind the movie. I’m really hoping Part 2 will be shown in Toronto this year, but it seems highly unlikely. When someone in the audience asked him when the sequel will be released, he only replied with a “soon”. So reassuring Stephen. =P

My second movie at TIFF was on Sunday. We caught the second screening of Thermae Romae. Unfortunately Abe Hiroshi and Ueto Aya didn’t attend the screening, but I was happy to have seen them on the red carpet the day before. Thermae Romae was incredibly funny. I think Abe Hiroshi is the only actor who can look so cool sitting on a toilet. I wonder if the manga is as good as the live action.

I took a break after the weekend and caught my third movie on Tuesday night. We went downtown to see Key of Life with Sakai Masato. I think it was my favourite movie at the film fest this year. The cast was stellar and the script was amazing. At the Q&A session afterwards, Director Uchida mentioned that he wrote a total of five scripts with the same characters. I thought it was brilliant the way the entire movie was setup. I hope the Japan release does well.

My last two movies happened this past Sunday. I ended up seeing two movies about an hour apart. The first one was Dreams for Sale with Matsu Takako and Abe Sadao. The story seemed really intriguing when I read the synopsis but I was actually a little disappointed upon seeing it. The movie was a draggy and anti-climatic. The English translation seemed a little off to me and made the story seem more choppy than it was. The acting was great, but overall it didn’t seem to save the movie.

I had about an hour before my last movie to grab a quick bite to eat then I was back in the theaters for Motorway with Shawn Yue. It’s been a really long time since I’ve seen a HK film but I must say I was impressed. The story was simple, but the action sequences were amazing. Of course Shawn Yue seem to fit these roles really well. I’m glad I ended my TIFF run with this film.

Overall another great festival! I was really happy when they announced the first ever Asian Film Summit at TIFF. Too bad it was exclusively for industry people. However TIFF has been doing such a great job putting Toronto on the map. I think we’re finally being recognized as one of the biggest festivals in North America. It was really great to take part in the festival this year and I am already looking forward to next year. (^_^)