IRIS CHANG + REEL ASIAN

Asian movie events both serious and silly hit the screen at the Bloor Cinema this week. On Monday (Nov. 12) at 7pm – additional screenings follow on Nov. 13, 19 and 20 – the Bloor hosts the world premiere of Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking, a Toronto-made doc about the Chinese-American writer who brought greater attention to the atrocities that occurred during the Japanese army's 1937 occupation of China's former capital. Following a battle with depression, Chang took her own life in 2004. Delving into Nanking's horrific history and the toll that Chang's research took on her personally, Bill Spahic and Anne Pick's film includes interviews with massacre survivors and the author's family and colleagues, as well as TV clips of Chang, played by Vancouver actor Olivia Cheng in re-enactments.

On a much, much lighter tip, the opening night gala of the 10th Annual Reel Asian Film Festival (see full coverage in next week's issue) happens Nov. 14 at 7pm. Finishing the Game is a martial-arts mockumentary by Justin Lin, director of Better Luck Tomorrow and the not-that-bad The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Stereotypes and chopsocky clichés get skewered in a piece of historical revisionism that fictionalizes the dubious real-life efforts to find a replacement for Bruce Lee when the star died during the making of Game of Death.

JASON ANDERSON

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