Hasami (Scissors)

Logline

Synopsis

In 2015, my mother, Eiko, lost her younger sister Akiko to cancer. Akiko’s final wish was not to be interred in the family plot in Hasami, refusing to rest eternally beside her abusers—her siblings and other family members. To honor her sister's wish, Eiko keeps Akiko’s ashes close, still seeking a peaceful place for her to rest.

Hasami (Scissors) unfolds through a rich tapestry of dreamlike reenactments and intimate interviews, capturing a daughter’s quest to understand their mother and support her journey toward healing from an abusive past.

This short, experimental documentary explores intergenerational trauma, healing, domestic violence, the complex bond between mother and daughter, Japanese-American identity, and the heartache of moving forward after profound loss. The film weaves together performances by Butoh dancers and Eiko herself, transforming memory into movement and emotion into catharsis.

Through a tapestry of dreamlike reenactments of memories interwoven with personal interviews, this experimental hybrid documentary film captures a daughter's attempt to understand their mother and to aid in her journey to heal from an abusive childhood.

Director’s Statement

Shot on location in Hasami, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, I presented this experimental documentary short film as a culmination of my graduate MFA thesis work in Social Documentation at UCSC. The doc explores heavy topics like domestic abuse and the transfer of intergenerational trauma that is tended to emotionally, visually, and sonically with great care.

My initial project centered the US military bases in Japan, and specifically, where I am from in southern Kyushu, Sasebo-city. My mother was always the central character as she had married my father, a US Marine, in 1989. As I spent time in my childhood home where my aunt, grandmother, and grandfather all died, I realized I needed to help my mother process her grief and to heal from her deeply rooted familial trauma. When my aunt passed away from cancer before any of her siblings, she pleaded to not be buried in the family grave to avoid being bound to her abusers in eternity. Her ashes sit in our home in Ureshino, the town that sits next to Hasami. She appears in my mother's sleep and haunts her nightmares by wandering around the house at night, seemingly restless.

Through playing with performance & realist documentary format, this film is an experiment, prayer, meditation on the ghosts in our memories and dreams.

Trailer

Credits