This year’s Dragons & Tigers: The Cinemas of East Asia showcase promises a host of must-see films from Asia, with a particular spotlight on regions not typically represented, including Inner Mongolia and Tibet.

Dragons & Tigers is the largest exhibition of Asian films in North America, according to fest programming associate Mark Peranson. London-based Tony Rayns is back programming the series for the 17th year, after having traveled throughout Asia to keep abreast of local projects, often screening films in rough-cut stage.

For Asian film fans, this year’s hot screening is South Korean director Hur Jin-ho’s April Snow, starring popular 33-year-old South Korean TV star Bae Yong-Jun – known to his admirers as ‘Yon-sama.’ The film chronicles the story of a man and a woman (played by Yong-Jun and Son Ye-Jin), whose spouses are coincidentally in the same hospital at the same time. But, as it turns out, it was no coincidence at all – the two spouses, involved in a car accident, were having an affair, which leads the betrayed characters into a romantic relationship of their own.

Peranson notes that the success of top South Korean films is spreading.

‘[They] have become extremely popular in Japan over the last few years,’ he says. ‘Over 100,000 advance tickets were sold in Japan for April Snow alone. Meanwhile, we received e-mails requesting April Snow to be shown at the VIFF for months.’ He expects big crowds for the film’s screenings on Oct. 1, 10 and 12.

Another film that lands with a great deal of excitement is Nagasaki Shunichi’s Heart, Beating in the Dark, screening as the Special Dragons & Tigers Gala on Oct. 2. The Japanese film is a new take on the director’s 1982 feature of the same name, and features the same stars. (The original is also being shown at VIFF.)

Whereas the original explores sexual politics in a young couple’s relationship, the 2005 version is ‘part remake, part sequel and part rethink,’ according to VIFF notes. ‘Muroi Shigeru and Naito Takashi return as Inako and Ringo, older and maybe wiser, while a new young couple go on the run.’ Both Shunichi and Shigeru – now one of Japan’s leading female stars – are scheduled to attend VIFF.

A rare view from inside Tibet is presented in The Silent Holy Stones.

Directed by Wanma-caidan – who will be on hand ­- the drama examines three days in the life of a young lama caught between the worlds of Tibetan religion and Chinese secularism. The world premiere is slated for Oct. 4, followed by screenings Oct. 5 and 11. The film is one of eight in the Dragons & Tigers competition for young Asian cinema.

The Mongolian-made Kekexili Mountain Patrol, directed by Lu Chaun, recounts a tale of volunteer patrollers on Tibet’s Kekexili plateau who try to protect the chinu – a rare antelope – from poachers. Based on a true story, the film depicts poachers as mostly impoverished farmers driven to crime out of desperation. The realistic drama, bereft of dramatics and heroics, garnered the film a prize at the Tokyo Film Festival. There is even growing hype that it could challenge for the best foreign-language-film Oscar. It screens at VIFF Oct. 8 and 11.

Fifty-five films in all are scheduled for Dragons & Tigers, including selections from Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.