Tokyo Filmex 2011

The 12th edition of Tokyo's auteur-friendly film festival opens with Kik Ki-duk's Arirang, which won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section of this year's Cannes Film Festival, and finishes with Johnnie To's morality tale, Life Without Principle. Films to watch out for in the competition section include Juhn Jai-hong's political thriller Poongsan and Pema Tseden's Tibet-set Old Dog, both of which have been garnering positive buzz on the festival circuit this year. Outside of the competition, there will be special screenings of a few notable flicks, among them Hungarian drama The Turin Horse and Cut, Iranian director Amir Naderi's hymnal to Japanese cinema. There'll also be a retrospective of films by the late Shinji Somai, director of Ohikkoshi and cult classic Sailor Suit and Machine Gun. The majority of screenings will have English subtitles.