CONTENT ADVISORY
Violence; depictions of mental illness, death and dying, blood and gore
Poland, Singapore, Taiwan2024104 minMandarinToronto Premiere2slgbtq+, Directed By Women, First Feature, Sports
Trouble seems to follow Jie and his family. Training to be a competitive fencer, Jie is lost, haunted by the childhood memory of a near-drowning incident with his menacing older brother Han. Years later, a teenage Han is imprisoned after killing a competitor during a fencing match (by accident, he swears). Meanwhile, Jie's mother has been spiteful and distant ever since, with no love to give her younger son. So when Han is finally released from prison, Jie is desperate to have some family love restored — and eager for some helpful fencing and boyfriend dating tips, too. But is Han’s reformed presence for real?
Director Nelicia Low draws on her experience as a competitive fencer to set this simmering pulp thriller of attacks, parries, and ripostes amidst a familial drama, while presenting a dilemma on forgiveness: How far do you extend your familial love to those who cause harm?
– Aram Siu Wai Collier
Liu Hsiu-Fu
Tsao Yu-Ning
Ding Ning
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, 2024
New York Asian Film Festival, 2024
AWARDS
Best Director (Crystal Globe), Karlovy Vary, 2024
Nelicia Low
Writer-director Nelicia Low grew up in Singapore, where she represented her country as a national fencer for five years. She retired after the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, to chase her childhood dream of being a filmmaker. Pierce is Low’s first feature film.
14 Nov, 2024 5:30 pm
TIFF Lightbox C4AA
CONTENT ADVISORY
Violence; depictions of mental illness, death and dying, blood and gore
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This film is scheduled to be presented with 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
Information on available captions will be added soon, thank you for your patience.
Join us for a crafty Happy Hour on Sun, Nov 17, at The Commons, 401 Richmond! Hosted by this year's Festival Creative Artist Agnes Wong, this event features a relaxed journaling and scrapbooking workshop. Bring your own stickers and ephemera to trade, share, or journal with.
17 Nov. 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
While picking juicy lychees on an endless summer day, Ting is uneasy. She’s on the verge of marriage in her hometown in mainland China. Before she ties the knot, Ting ventures to Hong Kong to find the father she’s never known. While on her journey, she finds she has other loose ends to tie up, too.
14 Nov. 8:00 pm
CREATURA is a multimedia cross-programming stream at the 28th Reel Asian Film Festival, spotlighting the strange, wild, and untamed — concepts historically used to marginalize. This session will explore how these concepts manifest through stories of endangered traditions and reimagined realities. The documentary THE LAST OF THE SEA WOMEN provides a vivid portrayal of South Korean fisherwomen preserving an ancient practice amidst modern developments. Meanwhile, UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE, set in a reimagined Canada where Farsi and French are official languages, presents a surreal world where societal norms are upended and loneliness is a common experience. Both films vividly embody the spirit of CREATURA by pushing the boundaries of human experience and challenging conventional perspectives.
20 Nov. 4:30 pm