Around one in 49 babies born in Japan today are of mixed heritage. That's a surprising figure considering that the country was closed off to foreigners for close to three centuries, way back when.
Until about two decades ago ha￣fu (meaning "half-Japanese") were viewed with a mixture of awe, envy, a bit of suspicion and a barrage of other emotions, some positive and some not. Now, mixed-race people are no longer that rare, and Japan has become more open about the whole thing. But have things really improved? Megumi Nishikura and Lara Perez Takagi's documentary "Hafu" takes the bull by the horns and the results are intriguing.
The directors themselves are both of mixed cultures — and together they have a boatload of experience when it comes to looking, acting and feeling different on the archipelago. This is reflected in the questions they put to their subjects, from 10-year-old Alex whose mother is Mexican to 35-year-old Fusae whose Korean mother didn't tell her daughter about her heritage until she turned 18. Each interviewee has a story to tell, rich with emotion and observation.
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