The Toronto International Film Festival is finally here! It’s THE event of the year. It’s for people like me. I really wanted to go this year. I wanted to be able to attend this year! I don’t think that’s too much to ask. In my mind, it seems simple. I just need to line up to get the tickets. But, of course, it’s a lot harder to execute than imagined. I started to plan it out, and I had a plan. It mostly relied on me getting a day off on the day when the tickets go on sale, and have a place to sleep over when I’m downtown. Goddamn!
Anyway, my plan started to gain momentum when I went into work and somehow managed to get the day off. Fortunately, one of my managers bought my story of my ‘aunt’ suffering from a car accident and was going to be released from the hospital on the day I’m supposed to get the tickets as a legitimate excuse to have the day off that day. Then the problem was to find a place I could stay until the morning of the day. If someone I knew would not mind this, I wouldn’t have to worry as much anymore. I then had to ask Michael if I could stay over, and luckily, he said I could (in exchange, I had to take him with me to see either Halloweenor The Predator). When the day came, I spent the day figuring everything out, and getting prepared for everything I needed. I absolutely could not fuck this up! So I triple-checked everything. I even made a ‘to-do’ list.
The day came. Everything was set. If I stick to the plan, I can pull it off and have my victory. The end result won’t be a hundred per cent come true, but that shouldn’t matter too much. As long as I wake up early enough, get to the box office, and get majority of the tickets I desire. I only need not to worry too much. I finished work, made my way home, packed up for the day, and made my way down to Michael’s place. Then I had to spend the majority of my time waiting for Michael to return home so that I could relax, sleep and be prepared to wake up at 5am in the morning. That was all I did for that day and the actual day. Might not seem that interesting or much, but it’s much more interesting, it was hard work, and it took all day. Now it is time!
I got up at exactly 5am, as planned. Theoretically, with my plan, I should still have time to wash up and get there before 6am, and be one of the first in line. And, long and behold, I was right! I managed to there as I had hoped, and was among the top ten people lining up there. Then I played the waiting game. Finally, the time came and finally, I got the tickets! Not exactly all the tickets I had desired, but still I got the tickets for Shane Black’s The Predator, Shinya Tsukamoto’s Killing, and Hong Sang-soo’s Hotel by the River. For the first film, Michael and I got to attend the midnight North American premiere of The Predator, and got to see Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Olivia Munn, Keegan-Michael Key, Augusto Aguilera, Jake Busey, as well as Fred Dekker and Shane Black. For the second film, my favourite, I got to see and meet Shinya Tsukamoto to my utter surprise. I had been a fan of Tsukamoto, as well as the Tetsuofilms, since my second year of university in 2014. Finally, this one was rather disappointing, Hong Sang-soo was supposed to appear for a Q&A, but he had to cancel in the last minute.
Also, see Chapters
51 and
53.
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