"Tracing Her Shadow" is about an old Chinese lady in her 70s
Travels to Nara, Japan 2 00:00:10,159 --> 00:00:14,560 To find her adopted Japanese daughter
"Grandma's adopted daughter is Japanese"
"She's trying to find a war orphan"
"How do you plan to find auntie Lihua"
"She has an address on the envelope"
"Do you know where she is now"
Those orphans were born in 1945 in China
Their parents escaped because of their defeat
These Chinese adoptive mothers brought up the offspring of their enemies'
Two people with different nationalities became a family
In 1972 China and Japan established diplomatic relations
The orphans could finally go home but this also meant another family separation
A lot of foster mothers dream about going to Japan in their lifetime
To see the homeland of their children
But few of them will ever make it
In 2019, I wanted to fulfill their dream with a film
"Dear visitors, welcome to Nara"
At first the place appears very strange to the grandma
And Xiaoze takes her to look for clues
The process leads them closer and closer to China
They met the president of the overseas returnees association
And where the daughter works, and a Buddha temple
Jun Kunimura played a part in Kitano Takeshi's film
I adore his face
The police officer does something nice
He goes to find the war orphan with them
"They say that there aren't many war orphans left"
"In Nara, and even in the entire country"
Before the camera started rolling, we spent about 8 months in Nara
Trying to locate the war orphans
"Tastes good, Chinese cabbage stuffing"
They all have Chinese qualities
They speak with an accent typical of northern China
"I hang up the phone as soon as I hear people saying hello in Japanese"
"Honey, we have a guest"
I've been studying Japanese for more than 10 years
I don't speak Japanese but I am aware that it's elementary level
I forget all about what I learned the moment I got home
It's hard to retrieve and identify with his culture
"Hello"
"How old are you"
"Auntie, she's born here"
"She doesn't speak Chinese"
The artistic design of the Peking Opera scene
Was designed after the second generation of the war orphans’ home
We basically moved their entire house here
To enhance the realistic atmosphere of the film
To show people the life of the war orphans
“Why did you raise her knowing she is Japanese”
Grandma said, all babies cry in the same way
I can’t leave a baby crying alone on my doorstep
Many foster mothers, sometimes they have a little selfish thoughts
I brought you up, after all these years you just left
You just leave me behind? You just forget all about me?
But the emotions are just temporary
Those mothers are great because they agree to let them go
The adopted daughter never shows up in the film
Back to Japan, she has a hard time searching for her families
And finally fails to find them
In reality, many of them do live a difficult life
They can’t fit into the society, they don’t speak the language
Most war orphans do labor works that don’t require their language skills
Such as rinsing salad vegetables for convenient stores
Washing sheets for hotels
Men do construction works or drive forklift trucks
“Now Japanese still treat me as a Chinese”
“Maybe it’s because I think and behave”
“Like a Chinese”
For Chinese people
I think this is an anti-war film
We can’t afford to have another war, because our people are hurt the most in wars