Hafu: The Mixed-Race Experience in Japan (2013) 
It’s been a few years since I’ve attended the Vancouver Asian Film Festival. The last time I was there, I watched The Mountain Thief and was blown away by the documentary. This time time, I caught a documentary from Japan and was equally blown away. As much as we may talk about the rise of interracial couples in North America, have you ever considered what it’s like to be a person of mixed heritage in Japan?
As I’ve discussed in the past, Japan tends to be something of a closed off society. It’s remarkably difficult for foreigners to become citizens and the culture, generally speaking, is quite homogeneous in nature. With Hafu, we look into the lives of several individuals of mixed race. What happens when you mix Japanese bloodlines and culture with someone from Mexico, Ghana, Australia or Korea? The challenges are great, but the “hafu” population (from the English half-breed) is growing in Japan. The documentary digs deep into their stories and their struggles, discussing whether “hafu” is a derogatory term and what it means to understand who you really are.
While I am not a mixed-race individual, I can empathize. I’m surrounded by Chinese culture and Chinese food, to be sure, but I self-identify more as a Canadian. And even so, when I travel, I still have people give me a confused look when they ask me where I’m from and I tell them I’m Canadian.
“But where are you really from?”
Living in a cultural and racial purgatory, as one of the people interviewed in the documentary put it, leaves you yearning for a sense of belonging. Who am I and where do I fit in?
13 Assassins (2010)
Set toward the end of feudal period in Japan, 13 Assassins
While we did get to enjoy some fun swordplay in Rurouni Kenshin, the final epic battle in 13 Assassins is on a far grander scale. For my part, it was the only real big redeeming element of an otherwise slow-developing film. That said, there is one scene along the way where we see a woman who has had all four of her limbs severed, so this is certainly not a film for the faint of heart. It’s raw, it’s brutal and it’s unapologetic in its presentation.
The Birds (1963)
It’s hard to believe that it’s already been fifty years since this film was originally released. Having never actually seen it before and recognizing the legendary reputation of Alfred Hitchcock for horror, I figured it was worth a shot. Perhaps I come from a different sentimentality or maybe the film hasn’t aged as well as others, but I didn’t find The Birds
A well-to-do big town girl goes to visit a smaller seaside town, only to get attacked by a gull out on the water. This cascades into a series of unexplained phenomena where not only the seagulls, but also the crows and other birds have started to gather in alarmingly large numbers, attacking and even killing the townspeople at random. We’re never offered any sort of real explanation.
I understand that The Birds is largely a mood-driven piece rather than a plot-driven one, and I understand that the special effects were very impressive for the time, but The Birds just didn’t do it for me…. as frightening as a marauding murder of crows may be.
It makes total sense that you wouldn’t like The Birds. While you might like some of his other pieces, your age precludes you from understanding the piece in context. It is/was taken from a real life town in California that experienced something similar a few years before Hitchcock wrote The Birds.
It plays on something strange that really happened and I personally think he did a good job of embellishing the real life to make it eerie and spectacular for the time period. I was 4 when it came out and saw it years later with my father. He told me the back story and we read about it at the library.
The Birds is from the era of slow burn, use your own imagination sort of suspense. We’re too far into the ADD of movies now to enjoy stuff like this, I think…or at least we aren’t going to be scared by it. Some movies hold up…EXORCIST TOTALLY DOES…but others seem rather outdated. I appreciate Hitchcock’s style but I don’t get the same sensation I do from watching modern movies.
That being said, my Angry Birds feature length film will be a way more awesome movie about birds.
I’d say Psycho definitely holds up too. Still haunted by that movie.