‘Welcome Back, Farewell’ explores what it means to reunite after years apart

When parents leave Brazil to work in Japan and their children grow up back home, what happens when the family finally comes together again? In Bem-vindos de novo / Welcome Back, Farewell (2021), director Marcos Yoshi looks at the years families spend apart and the work of getting to know one another again.

The documentary explores the dekasegi phenomenon, in which many Brazilians of Japanese descent moved to Japan for work. For some families, a move intended to be temporary led to more than a decade of separation. Yoshi focuses on what happens after the reunion, when parents and children must reckon with how much has changed in each other’s lives.

The University of California, Irvine scheduled a screening for Wednesday, February 4, 2026, at 5 p.m. in Humanities Gateway, Room 1070, with a discussion to follow. The film runs 105 minutes and is presented in Portuguese with English subtitles.