"Obachan" is Japanese for grandmother. This National Film Board of Canada documentary is a celebration by Canadian filmmaker Linda Ohama of her own grandmother, an exceptional grand old lady in her own right and someone whose life offers many insights into the Japanese Canadian experience of the last century.

Asayo Murakami was 25 when she set sail for Canada in 1925 to marry a man she had never met. Ohama investigates why she boarded the boat in the first place - a traumatic past that "Obachan" kept from her family for decades - and how she coped within the small Japanese fishing community in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her lifestory touches on the Tokyo earthquake, Japanese internment camps during the Second World War and the bombing of Asayo's home town Hiroshima.

In what is a curious hybrid of styles, Ohama uses first-person narrative, archive footage, interviews and footage of family (including her smiling, bright-eyed "Obachan"), and recreations of historical events to tell what is an emotional personal story. Keeping it in the family, the part of Asayo is played by one of her granddaughers, Natsuko Ohama.

The docu-drama elements sit a little awkwardly with the real life sections of the documentary, yet at times offer the kind of narrative tension and immediacy that would be lacking in a dry retelling of her story. For example, there is a vivid scene which illustrates the conflict of loyalties for Japanese Canadians as war breaks out in 1941 after the bombing of Pearl Harbour. Asayo's husband, sitting with his friends at the dinner table, is challenged to toast the Emperor of Japan. His eyes are swept by a wave of doubt mirroring his inner conflict. He struggles for a painful few moments to find the correct response, before jumping to his feet and lifting his glass.

Bearing in mind the personal nature of this story, Ohama has greater freedom to breathe life into history through dramatisations than were she doing a biopic of a famous historical figure. Although it feels stylistically a little awkward, Asayo's story will draw you in. It is easy to see why such a film has struck a chord with audiences in Canada.