Vulnerable Histories (A Road Movie)

As racist sentiment and discrimination continue to pull Japanese society apart, artist Koki Tanaka stages a series of conversations between Christian, a half-Swiss, half-Japanese-American man and Woohi, a Japan-born third-generation Korean (zainichi) woman living in Japan. The two young people discuss the disconcerting rise and increased presence of hate speech in the world, investigating not only the cold minutiae of law to reveal the lack of legal repercussions against the agitators, but also the devastating emotional consequences for those who are targeted.

Implementing his characteristic workshop style that allows his subjects to determine the course of the conversation, Christian and Woohi exchange experiences and views on identity politics, something discussed very rarely in Japan. Exposing an increasingly polarized society, Tanaka calls for the people of his home country to take time to reflect and listen – and it is these two modes that structure the quiet activism of this artist documentary.