Obâchan's Garden

As they grow older, many people discover how little they really know about their family history. For Linda Ohama, what began as a simple tribute to mark the centennial birthday of her Obaachan (grandmother) blossomed into a full-length film that took five years to complete.

The film examines the journey of Asayo Murakami, who came to Steveston British Columbia as a "picture bride" from Hiroshima in 1923. As her research continued, Linda made a remarkable discovery: although Asayo's life was repeatedly touched by history - the 1923 Tokyo earthquake, World War II, and arguably, BC's most shameful chapter, the internment and disenfranchising of Japanese Canadians - it was a painful secret that challenged her indomitable spirit. This revelation took the film in an unexpected direction and would eventually help her progeny understand their identity and put them in touch with their past.

Ohama had a difficult task before her - given the nature of the subject matter, she had to carefully balance all the elements to avoid the cheesy melodrama typical of the genre, while taking care not to minimize the emotionality of the events. She also had to avoid the continuity gap trap when combining the historical footage, with dramatizations and present day footage. To Ohama's credit, the sequences blend seamlessly. The project also turned into a family affair: family members are featured throughout and Linda's sister Natsuko Ohama, an established actress in her own right, portrays the young Asayo, capturing her resilience and a defiance uncharacteristic of her grandmother's culture and generation.

Obaachan's Garden is a beautiful film that reminds us to always look deeper if we expect to truly understand someone. There was no shortage of damp eyes and sniffling among the preview audience, so remember to bring some Kleenex.

This sort-of documentary started as a short film that director Linda Ohama wanted to make about her grandmother (Asayo Murakami) for her 100th birthday. The title comes from the Japanese word for grandmother (obaachan), and from the fact that Ohama's grandmother had a large garden that she cherished for many years.

The documentary portion of the film was interesting and relatively well done. Ohama interviews her grandmother and others, and travels to where her grandmother lived in Japan and later in Canada. She combines this with photos and archival footage, and manages to unravel some deeply hidden mysteries. The film chronology follows the order than Ohama learns each fact, which works to maintain the mystery, but is perhaps less coherent than a truly chronological telling. The quality of the archival footage is generally poor, while the modern day footage is better but still looks like video, despite the fact that the program indicates 35mm film.

The real problem, however, was that this film departs from the normal documentary approach and uses actors to reenact events from when the grandmother was younger. These actors are not very good or at least do not demonstrate their talents, so the film feels amateur during these scenes. The actress who plays the younger Obaachan is actually another granddaughter (Natsuko Ohama), but is theoretically also an actress. I'm afraid I wasn't convinced.

The director and her daughter (a great-granddaughter) were at the screening at the 2002 Hawaii International Film Festival on 11/3/2002 to answer questions. They were on their way to Japan to show it there for 30 days. Obaachan wanted to come on the trip, but the doctors recommended against it. She's about 104.

When Linda Ohama started the film, her grandmother had recently gone into a nursing home. Ohama discovered that her grandmother stretched out the filmmaking process by refusing to talk too much on any one day, because she liked the attention. At one point we see her leading a cheer of "Banzai!" from a wheelchair. This is the kind of spirit that makes the film watchable.

Note that while the film is primarily in English, there is some subtitled Japanese.

I have seen "Obaachan's Garden" three times now. It is a very moving film on the life of Asayo Murakami. The director, Linda Ohama, has made an outstanding film. One can actually "feel" the loss, the separation, the joy, the pain and strength of her 103 year old grandmother in the film. Brilliantly edited and photographed and with beautiful sound.

Sue Murphy

As they grow older, many people discover how little they really know about their family history. For Linda Ohama, what began as a simple tribute to mark the centennial birthday of her Obaachan (grandmother) blossomed into a full-length film that took five years to complete.

The film examines the journey of Asayo Murakami, who came to Steveston British Columbia as a "picture bride" from Hiroshima in 1923. As her research continued, Linda made a remarkable discovery: although Asayo's life was repeatedly touched by history - the 1923 Tokyo earthquake, World War II, and arguably, BC's most shameful chapter, the internment and disenfranchising of Japanese Canadians - it was a painful secret that challenged her indomitable spirit. This revelation took the film in an unexpected direction and would eventually help her progeny understand their identity and put them in touch with their past.

Ohama had a difficult task before her - given the nature of the subject matter, she had to carefully balance all the elements to avoid the cheesy melodrama typical of the genre, while taking care not to minimize the emotionality of the events. She also had to avoid the continuity gap trap when combining the historical footage, with dramatizations and present day footage. To Ohama's credit, the sequences blend seamlessly. The project also turned into a family affair: family members are featured throughout and Linda's sister Natsuko Ohama, an established actress in her own right, portrays the young Asayo, capturing her resilience and a defiance uncharacteristic of her grandmother's culture and generation.

Obaachan's Garden is a beautiful film that reminds us to always look deeper if we expect to truly understand someone. There was no shortage of damp eyes and sniffling among the preview audience, so remember to bring some Kleenex.