BRAVE FATHER ONLINE: OUR STORY OF FINAL FANTASY XIV

Official Selection, 2019 Fantasia International Film Festival

Akio—a prototypical millennial—lives at home with his parents, works a menial desk job, but lives his best life by night in the virtual realm of Final Fantasy XIV. His online clan feels more like a family than his distant father, busy mother, and boyfriend-obsessed sister.

But when Akira, his stoic, workaholic patriarch father, suddenly announces his retirement and spends all his time at home, Akio begins to wonder if he can find out who his father really is. So, Akio devises a modern solution: get his dad to play Final Fantasy XIV online and secretly befriend his avatar so they can talk like they can’t seem to do IRL. Akio’s kawaii, cat-eared online persona goes on adventures to slay villains alongside his father’s strapping muscular avatar, debriefing and sharing real-life advice in the virtual world, until a devastating secret comes to light and changes the dynamic of their family forever.

BRAVE FATHER ONLINE is a unique film experience: half of the film’s emotional highs and lows are vividly set in the high-resolution world of Final Fantasy XIV, validating the online community as a legitimate space for genuine relationships to prosper. Based on a true story, the film lightheartedly explores the intersection of generations meeting at a technological crossroads and seeks to define what true reality is—the setting where we physically exist or any realm where we form authentic, loving connections?

–Maryanne Bilbao

Our Saturday, November 9th Screening will be an Official Cosplay Gathering! All attendees are invited to cosplay in any Final Fantasy costume. RSVP to our official event: HERE.

Co-Presented by UCSD Eleanor Roosevelt I-House, USD Japanese Studies