This Asian Heritage Month at VIFF Centre, our programming includes a new restoration of Ann Hui’s 2002 masterpiece July Rhapsody, and the new movie by Drive My Car director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Evil Does Not Exist.
There’s also a very special one-night-only VIFF Live event: Raagaverse Plays Bollywood. Led by vocalist Shruti Ramani, Indo-jazz fusion project Raagaverse melds ancient and rich Hindustani melodies with dense and dynamic Jazz harmonies. Here, the band will cover songs by AR Rahman, Lata Mangeshkar and others, alongside clips from the legendary Bollywood musicals where they first appeared.
Evil Does Not Exist
After the international success of Drive My Car, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi quietly made this small-scale independent film, a work of simplicity and grace about a rural community and the developers who want to built a "glamping" retreat in the woods.
Raagaverse Plays Bollywood
Melding ancient and rich Hindustani melodies with dense and dynamic Jazz harmonies, Raagaverse is an exciting Indo-Jazz fusion project spearheaded by Shruti Ramani. For this special show, Shruti will share clips from the legendary Bollywood musicals which inspire her, complemented by the band's unique take on these songs.
July Rhapsody
Ann Hui's newly restored 2002 film is a moving and sympathetic portrait of a 40-year-old school teacher (Jacky Cheung) going through a rocky patch with his wife (Anita Mui) while fending off a flirtatious student (Vancouver-born Karena Lam).
The Concierge
Yoshimi Itazu's lighthearted anime is a wry look at the best -- and worst -- aspects of a career in the service industry. Akino is a concierge in a high end department store, where the clientele are -- literally -- animals...
Perfect Days
Widely acclaimed as Wim Wenders' best (fiction) film since his glory days in the 1980s, Perfect Days is a humanist character study, steeped in the director's admiration for the cinema of Yasujiro Ozu.
Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus
Filmed across a week at his home just a few months before he died from cancer, this simple, pensive, poignant concert film comprises 20 pieces selected and performed by Ryuichi Sakamoto, and spans a lifetime of composition and artistry.
The End of Evangelion
"One of the most beautiful, inventive, and poignant works in anime" (Anime News Network), this legendary 1997 feature has never been released to North American theatres before. An apocalyptic fantasia that has to be seen to be believed.
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