Canada, Japan2025105 minEnglish, Japanese with English subtitlesToronto Premiere
Kana, a struggling visual artist, returns to Japan after years away in Vancouver to attend her beloved grandmother’s funeral. The familiar cadence of family dynamics endure and yet, everything feels different. While in Tokyo, Kana discovers her grandfather had a love of his life outside of his arranged marriage to her grandmother. Meanwhile, Kana reluctantly confronts her own messy romantic past with old flame Hiro to see if the embers of their love still flicker.
Adapted from a play and short film of the same name, powerhouse actor-writer-director Mayumi Yoshida presents an impressively romantic first feature, beautifully lensed across two timelines. Yoshida deftly balances swooning, dreamlike nostalgia with the universal realities of distance, time, and circumstance.
– Aram Siu Wai Collier
Mayumi Yoshida
Hana Kino
Ryo Tajima
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Vancouver International Film Festival, 2025
Mayumi Yoshida
Mayumi Yoshida 吉田真由美 is a Vancouver-based director, actor, and writer whose global upbringing shapes her “in-betweener” storytelling. An alum of TIFF Writer’s Studio and Warner Bros. Discovery Access, she directed the Juno-nominated Different Than Before, has won SXSW’s Jury Award, and screened at Oscar- and BAFTA-qualifying festivals.
9 Nov, 2025 7:00 pm
TIFF Lightbox C2PG
CONTENT ADVISORY
Death and dying
IN PERSON ACCESSIBILITY:
This film is being presented with English subtitles for all spoken dialogue (no sound cues indicated).
Wheelchair spaces and step-free seating is available for this screening – click below to book accessible seats.
Join us for a Q&A immediately after the screening with director Mayumi Yoshida, producer Nach Dudsdeemaytha, moderated by Reel Asian artistic director Aram Siu Wai Collier.
9:30PM at CSI Spadina
Join us at CSI Spadina for the Centrepiece Gala Party after the screening of AKASHI
9:30PM at CSI Spadina
A calm & quiet zone will be available at this event. If you require accessibility accommodation for this event, please click the link below.
Join us at Sankofa Square on Mon, Oct 27 at 12PM as we announce our programming with four guest directors and hold an artist talk with this year's Festival Creative Artist, Janet Mac.
From sharing meals to counting planes and planting beans, these films lead us through stories of unexpected vulnerability, resilience, and companionship. Come for the screening and stick around for delightful creative activities for all ages to enjoy together!
From augmented reality projects reactivating rural Chinese areas to virtual reality works shaping collective memory, this roundtable opens a dialogue on how emerging media can tell local stories and convey lived experiences.
Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival is a unique showcase of contemporary Asian cinema and work from Asia and the Asian diaspora. Works include films and videos by artists in Canada, the U.S., Asia and all over the world. As Canada’s largest pan-Asian film festival, Reel Asian provides a public forum for Asian media artists and their work, and fuels the growing appreciation for Asian cinema in Canada.
401 Richmond Street West, The Commons (Suite 448)
Toronto, Ontario, M5V 3A8 Canada
(416) 703 – 9333
info@reelasian.com
Charitable number: 870021383RR0001
