The world's hottest Asian filmmakers shine at the 12th annual Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival. Crime dramas, transformational spiritual quests and the conflict of Asian traditions with North American ideals drive this year's entries in the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (November 12 to 16). "Each year we concentrate on bringing the best of Asian cinema to the world," says Raymond Phathanavirangoon, the festival's international programmer.

From "Hansel and Gretel," the sumptuous horror film by Korean director Yim Pil-sung to "Adrift in Tokyo," Satoshi Miki's outrageous Japanese comedy about a wild-haired loser and his uninvited houseguest, this year's features and shorts showcase a wide array of engaging works by emerging Asian talents.

Since 1997, when producer Anita Lee and journalist Andrew Sun founded this event, Canada's premier pan-Asian international film festival has spotlighted works form Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia and mainland China. "We're always striving to bring award-winning films to the public's attention -- films they otherwise might not see if not for this festival," says Phathanavirangoon.

Drumming to a different beat -Kenneth Bi's "The Drummer" is one such winner that opens the 2008 festival. Filmed on location in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Bi's tale stars Jaycee Chan (son of action star Jackie Chan) as Sid, a smart-mouthed heir to a powerful crime family.

When he beds the girlfriend of his father's business associate, the wannabe rock star is banished to the mountains of Taiwan. There the young man stumbles upon a group of Chinese Zen drummers who take him on as student. Their mystical tutelage transforms the rebellious, entitled, 20-something jerk into a human being worth knowing.

"These drummers aren't normal people. They train themselves to be higher in their levels of concentration and thankfulness," Hong Kong director Bi told CTV.ca. After seeing these drummers perform in Taiwan in 2000, Bi says, "I was completely mystified by the existence of these people, particularly in China today because it has become a society that is very superficial and driven by money."

As the Brock University film graduate says, "These drummers believe in nothingness - but it's a good kind of existentialism that puts your focus on the beauty of the now, not the past or the future." Crime and punishment "West 32nd," by Korean director Michael Kang, is another memorable festival entry.

After exploring adolescence in the backwaters of rural America in his first feature, "The Motel" (2005), Kang segues to a contemporary tale of gangland violence in New York City's Koreatown. Starring "Harold and Kumar's" John Cho as an ambitious lawyer who delves into this seedy underworld, this second generation Asian-American must reconcile his ivy-league mentality with the very existence of these age-old gangs in a modern world.

"When I first moved to New York City, I looked for that beautiful gritty city found in the movies of 'Midnight Cowboy,' 'Dog Day Afternoon' and 'Serpico.' But it didn't exist except in the outer boroughs," Kang told CTV.ca.

Growing up in Flushing, Queens, Kang's homage to his ethnicity and these influential films of 1970s "exercised his own demons." As Kang says, "It took me a while to embrace my own cultural background. I wanted to take this disparity to the extreme in this story."

No biz like showbiz -Christine Choy's "Long Story Short," also makes a strong addition to this year's festival. In 1989 Choy earned an Oscar nomination for the documentary "Who Killed Vincent Chan?" Now the Shanghai-born director spotlights the multi-generational struggles of one Asian American family to break into mainstream show business.

Narrated by American actress Jodi Long, "Long Story Short" follows her parents, Larry and Trudie Long, as they rise from Chinatown's nightclub circuit to an appearance on the "Ed Sullivan Show.

"For the longest time we Asians thought of anyone in show business as dirty. Asian girls who pursued that path were never able to marry well. They were considered the lowest of the low," Choy told CTV.ca. As Choy says, "Sixty years after Larry and Trudie I see young people picking up cameras and doing movies. They don't feel limited or tainted by their dream to be in show business. But sadly that was not always the case."