Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival 2025
The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival · 2025 lineup features 17 features and 45 shorts from filmmakers across Asia and the diaspora.
The festival runs from Nov 5–15 in Toronto, with select films online Nov 10–23.
Nov 5 opening film is SPACE CADETS.
Members can grab tickets early, starting now! Public sales open Saturday, Oct 11
CAPSULE REVIEWS of Select Films:
AKASHI (Canada 2025) ***
Directed by Mayumi Yoshida
Mayumi Yoshida directs, also writing the screenplay and starring as the main character. Kana is a young girl, the youngest daughter, living in Canada (BC), who travels back to Tokyo, Japan, for her grandmother’s funeral. Her family teases her, Kana from Kana-da. The film is a personal and charming tribute to the culture and identity of what it means to be Japanese and Canadian. Kana’s reflection of life and re-connection to her past, as in the re-connection to her old boyfriend, Hiro, in Japan, all make sense in her visit. The film shows love in different forms, familial love, romantic love, love for one’s country, and so on. The film is also shot both in black-and-white and in colour to differentiate the past from the present. A worthy first feature for Yoshida, the film is in both Japanese and English. (It is a personal film — and it does move with a slow pace that might be too slow for some, as well as too personal to interest others. Yoshida has stated that the story grew out of a conversation with her grandmother about her grandfather’s “first love” and the nature of their marriage.)
BURY US IN A LONE DESERT (Vietnam 2025) **
Directed by Nguyễn Lê Hoàng Phúc
Written and directed by Nguyễn Lê Hoàng Phúc, the film begins with a young burglar breaking into the home of an elderly man. The burglar discovers a plaster statue of the man’s deceased wife. Instead of turning him in, the old man proposes a strange deal: to take the deceased wife’s remains (within the statue or as part of the ritual) on a journey into the desert so that he can be buried beside her. The burglar and the old man form an unlikely bond and embark on this final trip through a Vietnamese desert landscape. The action is seen through a circular lens, as if through the iris of an eye, a tactic that feels forced than having any meaningful effect. Though the film attempts to examine issues like grief, despair, companionship, the reality of the premise makes everything all too unbelievable. Despite the film’s short running time of just over an hour, the film’s slow pace does not help either.
FINCH & MIDLAND (Canada 2025) ***½
Directed by Timothy Yeung
Finch and L+Midland refers to Finch Avenue and Midland Avenue, two roads that intersect in Scarborough in Ontario, Canada, a neighbourhood rich with Hong Kong immigrants. It is the setting of an anthology of 4 immigrant stories intercut together about middle-aged immigrants trying to make good, if not attaining the Canadian dream. The characters each face mid-life struggles: a former singer trying to reconnect with his daughter; a woman searching for love while caring for her elderly mother; a single mother working in a massage parlour while studying for a real estate licence; and a factory worker confronted with job loss and shifting identity. Through simplicity, humour, and charm, the film effectively explores themes of belonging, identity, sacrifice, cultural displacement, and the cost of chasing the “better life” in a new country. Each story is equally interesting, and Director Yeung connects his audience well with his characters.
SPACE CADETS (Canada 2025)
Directed by Kid Koala
I have npt seen this opening night film, an animated feature with no dialogue, but word has it that the film is one of the best animated features this year. The following excerpt is retrieved from TIFF 2025: Based on acclaimed Canadian musician and deejay Kid Koala’s award-winning graphic novel of the same name, Space Cadet is a dialogue-free animated film that portrays the tender story of a young girl, Celeste, and the first-generation Guardianbot she loves. Celeste is in an astronaut academy and, while her mom is in space, Robot takes care of her. They form a familial bond. When Celeste grows older and is able to go on her own adventure, she leaves Robot behind. As we see Celeste find samples of life on the planet she’s on, and the joy she gets in outer space, Robot is struggling with loneliness. He revisits all of his memories with Celeste, but his technical systems begin to shut down.
