FAMILY SCHISM. Our Homeland, the Japanese submission for the Best
Foreign Language Film Oscar, tells the moving story of a family divided by
the historic political conflicts between Korea and Japan. The film is
screening February 21 and 23 as part of the 36th annual Portland
International Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of the Northwest Film Center)
From The Asian Reporter, V23, #04 (February 18, 2013), page 11.
Haunting homecoming explored in Our Homeland
Our Homeland
Directed by Yong-hi Yang
Screening February 21 at Regal Lloyd Center
and February 23 at Cinema 21
By Josephine Bridges
The Asian Reporter
I have never put much energy into imagining North Korea. Part personality
cult, part concentration camp, this bizarre country hardly inspires reverie.
The film Our Homeland is not without glitches, yet it presents North
Korea at a gut level, through contrast with Japan, thus making it possible
for the willing viewer to at least begin to imagine.
The story is simple enough. Sungho, sent to North Korea at age 16 under a
repatriation program, returns to Japan 25 years later for the treatment of a
brain tumor.
The shocking contrast between Sungho and his family, friends, and an old
sweetheart overshadows all their touching reunions from the moment of his
arrival at Tokyo’s North Korean Association.
Following an absurd sort of ceremony in which thanks are given to Kim Il
Sung, "our beloved commander general," while family members stand on
opposite sides of a room, Sungho’s sister Rie wraps her arms around her
brother. He bends just slightly to allow the embrace, even tentatively
reaches out a hand in an attempt to return the gesture, but his posture
shows the harrowed, flinching aftermath of trauma.
Released from his sister’s hug, he approaches his father and uncle.
Keeping a safe distance, he says, "I’ve arrived," and bows.
Everything goes wrong. His minder, a North Korean agent, prompts him not
to forget a "deal," but this bit of subterfuge is not going to come to
fruition. The three months he has been allowed for the course of treatment
are not nearly enough for his doctor to even begin any sort of medical
intervention, and his prognosis, while uncertain, could be very bad indeed.
An extension of his stay to six months is under discussion when word comes
from North Korea that all of its citizens who are abroad must return
immediately.
In a conversation with his sister the night before his departure, Sungho,
who has up to this point deflected every question about his life in North
Korea, is finally candid: "When you’re in that country, you don’t ask
questions, you just follow. Once you start thinking, you start losing your
mind. You just think how to survive. That’s all there is. You stop thinking.
You just stop."
The glacial pace at which the film moves may try the patience of a number
of viewers. In addition, Sungho and his uncle both have emotional outbursts
that are painful to watch not because of the distress they convey, but
because they are completely unbelievable both as acting and as plot
elements.
On the other hand, the visceral glimpse of North Korea that Our
Homeland gives viewers, as they watch Sungho’s unguarded moments of
looking eagerly around and even reaching out to touch the rest of the world
he can only briefly visit, may be worth a couple of drawbacks.
Director Yong-hi Yang was born in Japan of a North Korean family, and
Our Homeland is said to be based on her own experience. The ability, and
perhaps even more the willingness, to turn such experience into a work of
art, however flawed, is deserving of admiration.
Our Homeland is screening Thursday, February 21 at 6:30pm at Regal
Lloyd Center (1510 N.E. Multnomah Street, Portland) and Saturday, February
23 at 9:00pm at Cinema 21 (616 N.W. 21st Avenue, Portland) as part of the
36th annual Portland International Film Festival (PIFF). To order advance
tickets, call (503) 276-4310. For more information, or to view a complete
PIFF schedule, visit <www.nwfilm.org>.
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