EIGHTH ANNUAL REEL ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL
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Nearly a decade old and conceptually mature, Reel Asian unfurls a program of indie features from around the Pacific, plus shorts and docs from home and abroad.
This year’s national spotlight is mainland China, which the newspapers tell us is so hot right now. Reel Asian has also tracked down The Adventure Of Iron Pussy (November 25, 8:15 pm, Innis Town Hall), the crazed transgen feature from Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who is so hot he’s smokin’.
Reel Asian opens with a shorts program that includes some smart, funny takes on pop culture stereotypes (November 24, 7 pm, Bloor). Siu Ta’s Kata Practice nicely reveals how karate can give a boy not just discipline but healing. Lilo & Me follows biracial filmmaker Kip Fulbeck’s lifelong tussle with Disney’s “ethnically ambiguous” animated characters. In Doan La’s Dragon Of Love, an Asian man realizes his fantasy of hooking up with a black woman, then finds the fetish tables turned. (November 24-28, www.reelasian.com)
