20 Films you cannot miss at the 30th Tokyo International Film Festival 2017 (Part 1)

By Asian Film Festival on October 23, 2017 • ( Leave a comment )

We present a list of movies you cannot miss at the 30th Tokyo International Film Festival 2017 that will take place from October 25th until November 3rd in Tokyo, Japan.

Alifu, the Prince/ss by Wang Yu-lin – Taiwan | 2017 – 91 min.
Asian Future

Alifu is the son and heir of an aboriginal leader, but what he wants to be is a woman. Across ethnicities, generations and genders, a new-style LGBTQ film by Seven Days in Heaven director.

Trailer:

Ambiguous Places by Akira Ikeda – Japan | 2017 – 93 min.
Japanese Cinema Splash

Konoko wakes up on the beach and goes looking for a barber to take out the bug stucking on her head. Doi, who will soon be a father, goes to make gloves for her wife as a gift, Kazuko wakes up at the theater, and goes home where she finds a blue monster. She goes to a shop to get rid of the monster. An unordinary drama unfolds against an ordinary backdrop in this magical and mysterious new fantasy by Akira Ikeda, who won the Tiger Award Grand Prize at Rotterdam with Anatomy of a Paper Clip.

Trailer:

Aqérat (We the Dead) by Edmund Yeo – Malaysia | 2017 – 106 min.
In Competition

Short of money, a woman turns to human trafficking to make ends meet. Focusing in part on the Rohingyas’ flight to Malaysia to avoid persecution, the film is a poetic depiction of one woman’s spiritual journey.

Trailer:

Euthanizer by Teemu Nikki – Finland | 2017 – 84 min.
In Competition

A man who is ostensibly a car mechanic is secretly involved in euthanizing animals. Giving candid advice to his clients, he calmly goes about his business until one day, after letting a dog live, everything changes.

Trailer:

Goodbye, Grandpa! by Yukihiro Morigaki – Japan | 2017 – 101 min.
Japanese Cinema Splash

One summer, Yoshiko receives a phone call about her grandfather’s death when she is having sex with her boyfriend. The funeral of her grandfather begins with her slovenly uncle, nagging aunt, shut-in cousin, and grandma who has dementia. No one cries at the funeral. Through several accidents, Yoshiko notices the feelings of her families that she hasn’t noticed before and starts to think about “life” and “death”. Afterwords, she makes a new out to steps out to visit the Ganges River in India.

Trailer:

Grain by Semih Kaplanoglu – Turkey | 2017 – 127 min.
In Competition

In the near future in a world beset by food shortages, a professor embarks on a trip to find a grain to save humankind. This epic sci-fi work touches on many contemporary issues, such as the refugee crisis.

Trailer:

Gutland by Govinda Van Maele – Luxembourg, Germany | 2017 – 107 min.
In Competition

A drifter appears in a village during the fall harvest. The locals accept him, but he has a secret, and he senses that they have a secret of their own. This erotic crime thriller takes a surprising turn.

Trailer:

Kristo by HF Yambo – Philippines | 2016 – 92 min.
Crosscut Asia

To provide for his family, Boy works as a cockfight bet taker by day, and as a market vendor by night. This is his daily routine, until one fateful / faithful day.

Trailer:

Listen to Light by Kyoshi Sugita – Japan | 2017 – 153 min.
Japanese Cinema Splash

Based on four tanka poems, selected from 1,200 submissions to a contest with the theme of light, this film illustrates the meaning of light in the lives of four female protagonists. Shiori, Yukiko, Kyoko and Sachiko continue to live each day with untold feelings inside. Unable to forget a colleague on a trip, a father who is ill, a friend who works at a store that is about to close, and a long-lost husband, each woman takes a step forward. There is a light that sometimes embraces them, calmly and gently. This work is the second feature directed by Kyoshi Sugita, following A Song I Remember.

Trailer: