BY INDIA C. ALLEN

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

When most people think of Japanese film, the thought is usually void of an African American presence or experience. But, with the introduction of his first feature film, “The Harimaya Bridge,” award-winning writer-director Aaron Woolfolk has changed that.

Starring Ben Guillory, Danny Glover and Saki Takaoka, “The Harimaya Bridge” is a heart-warming and inspirational story about the power of love, forgiveness and healing, through which Woolfolk poignantly bridges two cultures, creating an experience to which Japanese and black audiences alike can relate.

Centered on Daniel Holder (Guillory), the film mostly takes place in modern-day Japan.

After losing his only son, Mickey Holder (played by Victor Grant), Daniel travels to Japan, where his son died, to collect his son’s artwork. As he uncovers the legacy his son left in Japan, what begins as a seemingly objective and straightforward trip ends up taking Daniel on an emotional rollercoaster.

Through his journey, Daniel is forced to confront his own deep-seated resentment toward Japan, a country he blames for the estranged relationship he had with his son before his death and the loss of his own father who fought in World War II.

Despite a few abrupt and awkward scene transitions at the beginning of the film, the viewer is swept into the drama unfolding across continents.

Through the use of simple camera shots and gestures by the actors, emotion is conveyed — characteristics that partly define Japanese film.

In “The Harimaya Bridge,” action truly speaks louder than words.

It is Woolfolk’s commitment to this Japanese aesthetic that evokes feelings of a real human experience. We’ve all been in situations where there’s an elephant in the room no one is willing to confront or address. And when this happens, our interaction with others speaks volumes.

“The Harimaya Bridge” is full of elephant-in-the-room moments.

Tension is always threatening to break at the surface of seemingly simple exchanges. Woolfolk also utilizes this same simplicity to convey what it feels like to be both a foreigner and a black man in Japan — having to duck in every doorway; being stared at in public; not knowing how to read a restaurant menu and only trusting the simplest of items on it — rice.

There are a number of things that make this film different from others.

First and foremost, it’s the first Japanese film to be directed and written by an African American. But the true gem is in Daniel’s transformation from a man hardened and closed by the pain of the past into a man brave enough to confront and admit his mistakes and forge a new future in an entirely new culture — a future his son began, a future Daniel feels compelled to continue. Woolfolk uses the universal language of art as one of Daniel’s main vehicles to forgiveness, love and freedom. This language reminds the viewer that there is at least one experience we all can relate to, regardless of ethnicity, background or class — art.

“The Harimaya Bridge” doesn’t just represent two varying cultures on a single screen. It truly bridges and merges them, creating an entirely new experience for the viewer.

It’s as if the film is a truthful dialogue between two people from different ethnic backgrounds, in which both participants are not afraid to say what they’re really thinking.

This of course results in confrontation, but the confrontation is necessary for healing and growth. And it is what transpires in the healing and growth of Daniel that leads viewers to walk through the theater exit doors inspired to challenge themselves to explore the world beyond the confines of their cultural identity.

In this boundless moment, viewers are reminded that we are human first and black, Japanese, or whatever ethnic group, second. Racial traits, while significant to how we see ourselves are secondary.

Photo:  AC-Harimaya.jpg