When I was at the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea a few weeks ago, I discussed the Tokyo International Film Festival with some journalists, who disagreed with my assertion that TIFF's Competition section was a dumping ground for movies that couldn't make it at other film festivals. They admired TIFF's Competition program, saying it bucked convention by promoting mainstream films, or, at least, "mainstream" in the contexts of their countries of origin. Film-festival competitions tend to be filled with movies that appeal to film-festival audiences, rather than to general audiences.
So I tried to approach the 15 movies in the Competition section at this year's TIFF with an open mind, and perusing the list of contenders beforehand I saw potential, especially in terms of storytelling, which happened to be the aspect that appealed most to the jury. At the Oct. 20 press conference with the six people who would judge the TIFF competition, American producer Michael Gruskoff and scriptwriter Koji Takada said that their main criterion for judging a film would be "story," while actress Fumi Dan mentioned "characters." Even the technicians, Chinese director Huo Jianqi and Uruguayan cinematographer Cesar Charlone, said they were looking for something that would "touch their heart."
These professionals implied that they wanted to be swept up by the films, and so I decided to abandon myself to the peculiar charms of each entry regardless of any formal or stylistic drawbacks, meaning the kind of things only movie critics care about. But it wasn't easy.