TIFF 2025: Our Review of ‘100 Sunset’

Posted in Festival Coverage by - September 05, 2025
TIFF 2025: Our Review of ‘100 Sunset’

Days get colder and the characters of Kunsang Kriyong’s 100 Sunset hunker down, staying in their apartments, and it gives the protagonist Kunsel (Tenzin Kunsel) to use her stolen camera. Kunsel steals things like cameras from within her community of Little Tibet in Toronto, using the thing to spy on her neighbour, Passang (Sonam Choekyi).

100 Sunset depicts Kunsel’s community, meeting through card games, her striking while everyone’s vulnerable. Sometimes, it just shows her and Passang’s fast friendship, as they explore Ontario. But Kunsel and Passang’s story doesn’t begin well and it may not end well. Passang knows Kunsel’s MO, so why does she trust her during their trips?

These two characters serve as fresh eyes in capturing a city I live in. The film depicts Toronto beautifully, a city of movement, of people anticipating new discoveries. Yes, sometimes, 100 Sunset feels like a film where characters just drink tea and eat. There’s nothing wrong with a hangout film that has a mystery that’s bubbling underneath. The film does have its share of filler scenes but it’s an otherwise good diptych. Kunsel and Passang’s youth serve as a contrast in a community of quirky elders.

There’s also something enigmatic about the day trip scenes in 100 Sunset and its silences. Evoking twentieth century art, the cinematography evokes a nature that holds generations of secrets. Using a lo-fi approach doesn’t always work 100% in depicting Tibet’s diaspora, but for the most part, I like its artistic choices and its indelibly haunting aura.

This post was written by
While Paolo Kagaoan is not taking long walks in shrubbed areas, he occasionally watches movies and write about them. His credentials are as follows: he has a double major in English and Art History. This means that, for example, he will gush at the art direction in the Amityville house and will want to live there, which is a terrible idea because that house has ghosts. Follow him @paolokagaoan on Instagram but not while you're working.
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