Yang Yong-hi ( ヤン・ヨンヒ) is a Japanese-born Korean (or
Zainichi
() are ethnic Koreans who immigrated to Japan before 1945 and are citizens or permanent residents of Japan, or who are descendants of those immigrants. They are a group distinct from South Korean nationals who have immigrated to Japan since t ...
)
film director
A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...
. Yang has directed multiple films, particularly focusing on her cultural and familial experiences in modern
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...
.
Life and career
Yang Yong-hi is a second-generation Korean resident who was born in
Osaka
is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
,
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
New School University
The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...
, where she gained a
master's
A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...
in media studies. She is fluent in three languages.
Her famed
documentary
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
'' Dear Pyongyang'' picked up the Jury Special award at the World Cinema section for documentaries at the
2006 Sundance Film Festival
The 2006 Sundance Film Festival was held in Utah from January 19 to January 29, 2006. It was held in Park City, with screenings in Salt Lake City; Ogden; and the Sundance Resort. It was the 22nd iteration of the Sundance Film Festival, and the c ...
56th Berlin International Film Festival
The 56th Berlin International Film Festival was held from 9 to 19 February 2006. The festival opened with '' Snow Cake'' by Marc Evans. Digitally restored version of Sam Peckinpah's 1972 film '' Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid'' served as the clos ...
. She based it on her dual identity and the difficult relationship with her father. Yang's father was an influential member of the GAKR (General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, or "
Chongryon
The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, " ''
" which is also sometimes referred to as "Soren") — a controversial organization in Tokyo that ostensibly helps North Koreans in Japan with travel or legal problems, or acts as a pipeline between North Korea and their families in the archipelago. She and her father had passionate political arguments over the years. Chongryon, the organization Yang's father was an influential member of, actually demanded a written apology from Yang for offending North Korea through her documentary '' Dear Pyongyang'' which Yang refused to do.
Growing up as the daughter of a North Korean patriot was fraught with difficulties, but Yang points out that she "was lucky. As the youngest child and the only girl, I was spared the fate of my three older brothers, which was to be shipped back to Pyongyang in their late teens." Her father's decision was motivated by the well-intentioned desire to spare his sons the social discrimination suffered by North Korean boys in Japan, but sending her brothers back to the fatherland tore the family apart. Lured by propaganda that portrayed North Korea as "a paradise," her three brothers are among the estimated 90,000 people who were
repatriated
Repatriation is the return of a thing or person to its or their country of origin, respectively. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as the return of mi ...
to North Korea under a project initiated by the pro-Pyongyang association of Korean residents in Japan from the late 1950s to early 1980s.
Yang first visited North Korea as part of a high school field trip, and she returned there several times, and got to know her niece, named Sona. Her second documentary '' Sona, the Other Myself'' is a tribute to the times Yang spent with her family in North Korea, showing unused footage collected during her earlier visits to North Korea. In it Yang lingers over Sona's guileless infant-hood followed by a no-choice induction into the rigidly disciplinarian North Korean educational system, highlighting the innocence of her niece in the brief period before school changed her, and she could recite party line rhetoric and songs to celebrate the glory of "our father."
Yang went back and forth between Tokyo and Pyongyang with her camera, first to shoot '' Dear Pyongyang'' and then to concentrate on ''Sona'', before she was officially banned from entering North Korea in 2006. That was the last time she saw her niece.
Her first feature film, ''
Our Homeland
is a 2012 Japanese drama film about a Korean man's visit to his family in Japan after a long exile in North Korea. This is the feature debut of Yang Yong-hi, a second-generation ethnic Korean living in Japan who based the film on her family ...
'' is based on her experience of a tearful reunion with her brother Seong-ho, who returned to Japan 25 years after leaving for North Korea, during a three-month visit to get medical treatment for a
brain tumor
A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the Human brain, brain turn cancerous and grow out of control, creating a mass. There are two main types of tumors: malignant (cancerous) tumors and benign ...
. The film won the C.I.C.A.E. Panorama film award at the
2012 Berlin International Film Festival
The 62nd annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 9 to 19 February 2012. British film director Mike Leigh was the president of the jury. The first five films to be screened in the competition were announced on 19 December 2011. Am ...
. It also won
Sakura Ando
is a Japanese actress. She is best known for appearing in critically-acclaimed films such as Sion Sono's ''Love Exposure'', Hirokazu Kore-eda's ''Shoplifters'' (2018) and ''Monster'' (2023), as well as Takashi Yamazaki's Academy Award–winni ...
the Best Actress Award and
Arata Iura
, previously known as Arata, is a Japanese actor, model, and fashion designer. He is the Director of fashion brand Elnest Creative Activity. He holds the position of Director at the Artisan Culture Organisation Institute.
Biography
Iura co-sta ...
the Best Supporting Actors Award at the 2012 Blue Ribbon Awards where the film itself won Best Screenplay and Best Feature Film.
Yang said she is still afraid for her brothers' safety after the release of her films over the past 15 years, but will continue to make films about her family.
Filmography
*'' Dear Pyongyang'' (2005)
*''Sona, the Other Myself'' (2010)
*''
Our Homeland
is a 2012 Japanese drama film about a Korean man's visit to his family in Japan after a long exile in North Korea. This is the feature debut of Yang Yong-hi, a second-generation ethnic Korean living in Japan who based the film on her family ...