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Clip description
Frank (Nicholas Eadie) and his son Ken (Christopher Parker) return home to find Mac (Chris Haywood) visiting. Mac tries talking to Ken in Japanese, angering Frank. His reaction upsets Aya, and she leaves the room. Frank, looking a little rueful, asks Mac if he would like a beer.
Curator’s notes
The film shows slices of Aya’s life in Australia over 20 years. When it begins she and Frank are newly in love and living in rural Australia.
In this sequence they have moved to Melbourne, have a five-year-old son and Aya has abandoned kimonos. The tension in the marriage around cultural issues is obvious. Frank serves the narrative by typifying Australians’ attitude to foreigners: thoughtless and disrespectful rather than overtly racist. Mac’s role in the film is as an observer and an example of how it is possible to embrace other cultures.
