Reel Asian is proud to co-present the Canadian première of A Frozen Flower (쌍화점) at the 20th-anniversary edition of the Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film & Video Festival. Winner of the Special Jury Award at the 2010 Fantasporto festival, this stunning epic is based on a true story from 14th-century Korea and broke all box-office records in that country.

A Frozen Flower (쌍화점)
Ha Yoo (유하) | South Korea 2008 | 133min | View the trailer (Korean)
In Korean with English subtitles | Canadian première | Go to Inside Out's film page | Download the one-sheet (PDF)
6:45 PM | Saturday, May 22 | Isabel Bader Theatre | 93 Charles St W
$12 general admission | $10 for Inside Out members | $8 students/seniors

At the end of the Goryeo Dynasty, an ambitious young king (Joo Jin-Mo, 주진모) trains young boys to become his royal guards in the hope of fending off political manipulation and military threats from the Yuan Dynasty.  Star student Hong Lim (Zo In-Sung, 조인성) grows up to become the chief of the guards, but also the king's secret lover.  As the Yuan emperor attempts to gain hold of more power by leveraging the lack of a royal heir, the king gives Hong Lim the irrefutable order to make love to his queen (Song Ji-Hyo, 송지효).

In addition to our co-presentation, there's lots to see at Inside Out for people interested in Asian and Asian Canadian perspectives.  Set in the slums of The Philippines, Mateo Guez's Off World opened the ReelWorld festival this year, and won the Best Canadian Feature prize there; it's worth a second look for its gorgeous cinematography.  Also back for a reprise screening is Alice Wu's Saving Face, part of Inside Out's retrospective "Flash Back" programme.  Elsewhere in the festival there's Asian content in both Kirsty MacDonald's Assume Nothing, a documentary about gender-variant artists; and Nicole Opper's same-sex adoption doc, Off and Running.  Local youth activist & filmmaker Tess Vo will screen her short Our Compass preceding Opper's film.

Canadian-born/US-based filmmaker Quentin Lee's The People I've Slept With was a big hit in San Francisco, where it played to packed houses as the Centrepiece Presentation at SFIAAFF.  It makes its local debut at Inside Out, preceded by the short film Boy Meets Boy (소년, 소년을 만나다); this short is directed by Kim-Jho Gwang-soo (김조광수), who produced No Regret (후회하지 않아, RA 2007). Lee's own short Little Love plays as part of the Love 'Em or Leave 'Em programme. Reel Asian award-winning film Rex vs. Singh, by directors Richard Fung, John Greyson and Ali Kazimi, returns to local screens as part of the Human Rights Screening & Panel. (The film is also on tour across Canada with Reel Asian as part of our Asian Heritage Month activities.)

Nina Reyes Rosenburg's Organism, which also played SFIAAFF to an enthusiastic hometown crowd, is part of the Looking 4 Love programme and Korean director Mi-rang Lee (이미랑)'s The Bath (목욕) is part of the Transplanetarium programme. This year's Legacy Video Project is co-curated by Samuel Lee Chow, whose films Banana Boy and Auditions To Be The Next Canadian have played Reel Asian in the past.  This special multi-generational edition of Inside Out's remarkable Queer Youth Digital Video Project includes two works by Asian Canadian participants: Kim Chee Lee's The KCLPAS Story, about a gay senior's experience in a nursing home; and Teresa Cheng's Good Morning! Good Night!,  wherein a full-hearted girl connects fragments of love, distance, longing and responsibility.

In a special program called Hidden In Plain Cite, curator Claire Egan has included Alison S. M. Kobayashi's From Alex to Alex (RA 2006) in a selection reflecting on the cultural phenomena of performative re-enactment and artist remakes.  General admission tickets start at $12 for evening shows (after 6PM) and $10 for afternoon shows, with discounts for Inside Out members, students and seniors. Films in the "Flash Back" programme are all PWYC (pay what you can).  A variety of passes and gala packages are also available for purchase online or in person through Festival Ticketing at 2 Carlton Street, West Mezzanine.  You can also charge-by-phone at 416 967 1528.