Directed by Matthew Hashiguchi
Good Luck Soup is a transmedia documentary project on the journey of Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians before, during, and after World War II. Told through a traditional film, a virtual reality documentary and an interactive website, the film and VR piece tell the story of one Japanese American family, while the interactive website tells the stories of many.
For filmmaker Matthew Hashiguchi, growing up half Japanese/half Italian in a white Irish-Catholic neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio, was a difficult experience. In Good Luck Soup, Hashiguchi sets out on a journey to discover how the rest of his multi-racial family made sense of their lives and their Japanese American heritage. Surprisingly, he finds a role model in his elderly Japanese grandmother, who lived through internment during World War II but now says, "I am Japanese but my mind is modern and US, freedom."