Wisdom Gone Wild

Ever since the onset of her dementia, reality, dream and nightmare have become intertwined for Rose, making her something like a maverick time traveler. Her filmmaker daughter Rea Tajiri is also her caregiver. In this fond portrait, she visualizes Rose’s spiritual, philosophical and sometimes surprisingly specific stories in the order they come: a non-linear sequence illustrated by her own footage shot over many years, accompanied by snatches of conversations and images from the family archive. Rose’s eventful journey through time is rich with memories and sensitively accompanied by a fitting soundtrack.

Rose, who is Japanese-American, talks about her youth spent among the strawberries, and about her fellow detainees in an American internment camp. Then the focus of this tender film shifts to being a woman, to the task of caregiving being transferred from one generation to another, and to how you can construct any life story you like, once the facts have disappeared into the mists of time.

The film’s form and subject matter coalesce perfectly, with the ineffable logic of dreams, in this humorous and curious exploration of mortality, aging, transformation and loss.