Japanese film fest goes old-school
Toronto Japanese Film Festival: Surely, no celebration of Japanese cinema would be complete without some samurais. Now in its fourth year at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, the TJFF provides a generous supply of old-school warriors in its two-week program, beginning with its opening film. Making its North American premiere on June 11 at 7:30 p.m., Kakekomi is a romantic thriller about the many complexities involved with divorcing a samurai — as well as other no-good spouses — in Edo-era Japan. The gala event begins with a reception at 6:30 p.m. and includes a Q&A with director Masato Harada.
Another period film at the TJFF that requires actors to wear topknots, A
Samurai Chronicle stars the great Koji Yakusho (13 Assassins, Tokyo Sonata) as a retired samurai whose quiet life is disrupted by fresh troubles over a crime in his past. It plays June 13 at 7 p.m.
And should you still have a craving for sake-infused intrigue, action and lavish decor, the TJFF comes through with the Canadian premiere of Snow on the
Blades, a handsomely mounted morality tale set as the code of the samurai was crumbling in 19th-century Japan. Director Setsurô Wakamatsu’s feature plays June 25 at 7 p.m. More non-samurai-related TJFF picks — including a geisha version of My Fair Lady! — in next week’s Projections. The Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, 6 Garamond Court, is near Don Mills and the DVP.
Also on Toronto screens this week: Heaven Knows What
One of the most startling American independent movies in recent years and a big standout at TIFF 2014, Heaven Knows What makes a welcome return for an exclusive run at the Royal starting this weekend. Directed by the sibling team of Josh and Benny Safdie, this raw and often harrowing portrait of New York street life is based on the experiences of its leading player Arielle Holmes, a former teenage runaway and heroin addict. As gruelling as the film can sometimes be, it’s continually enlivened by Holmes’ fiercely committed performance. The same is true of the efforts of other street youths playing thinly fictionalized versions of themselves, and of the one bona-fide actor among the leads, Antiviral’s Caleb Landry Jones. Further distinguished by the dexterous camerawork of Sean Price Williams and the striking use of music by synth pioneer Isao Tomita, Heaven Knows What opens Friday at the Royal. Italian Contemporary Film Festival
After getting a jump on the festival by co-presenting TIFF Bell Lightbox’s current retro on Roberto Benigni and Nicoletta Braschi, the fourth annual ICFF begins in earnest this week with the first of many screenings of new movies from Italy. A biopic about crusading journalist Oriana Fallaci, L’Oriana plays its international premiere at the ICFF’s opening gala at Lightbox on June 11 at 7:15 p.m. The program continues at TIFF’s King and John HQ and the Colossus in Vaughan to June 19 — more highlights in next week’s Projections. Berkshire County
A babysitter-in-peril thriller that marks a confident feature debut for Canadian Film Centre grad Audrey Cummings, Berkshire County earned much love at Shriekfest in Los Angeles and other genre festivals last year. It starts a theatrical run at the Carlton on Friday. Canadian Sport Film Festival
Toronto’s most jock-friendly film fest returns for its seventh annual program of recent docs and shorts about the wide world of sports. The CSFF launches its slate at Lightbox with the Canadian premiere of We Must Go, a film about American soccer coach Bob Bradley’s efforts to whip Egypt’s national squad into shape amid political turmoil. The CSFF also presents an array of youthcentric shorts programs and workshops and meaty docs on fascinating athletes such as courageous African-American tennis star Althea Gibson ( Althea on Saturday at 3:45 p.m.) and Tonga’s only Olympic luger ( Being Bruno Banani on Sunday at 7:30 p.m.). Go, team! Luo Li
A busy week at Lightbox continues with the very first retrospective of one of the sharpest young filmmakers working in Canada. You Can’t Go Home Again: The Films of Luo Li celebrates the Hamilton-based graduate of York’s MFA film program who has garnered coveted spots at many of the world’s top fests for a series of slippery and often politically provocative doc-fiction hybrids, many of them shot in his native China. The series begins on June 11 at 6:15 p.m. with screenings of Luo Li’s early shorts and I Went to the Zoo the Other Day, a feature debut that demonstrates the director’s formal rigour as well as his often sly sense of humour. jandersonesque@gmail.com