Korean Schools in Japan(2018)

I Am From Chosun(ko)

After 15 years of knowing Chosun people in Japan I met on Mt. Geumgang in 2002, I face the history of colonization and division that I had not known before. They’ve been to North Korea many times, but never to South Korea. They tell us why they want to live as Chosun people despite the discrimination in Japanese society. 

The Hanbok on the Court(ko)

Strangers on the Field(ko)

In April 2013, unfamiliar faces appear at the Jamsil Baseball Stadium during the opening matches between Doosan and SK. The nervous middle-aged men throwing and batting the first ball are, in fact, Korean-Japanese former team members that played on that same spot in the 1982 finals of the Bong-hwang-dae-ki games.

One for All, All for One(ko)

Osaka Korean High School has provided education for the past six decades to the children of pro-North Korean residents in Japan. This school is located only about 20 minutes away from Hanazono Stadium, the mecca of Japan’s high school rugby, but it was not until 1994, 18 years after the foundation of a rugby team at the high school, that the Japanese education ministry approved the team’s entry into the official league. Since then, the team has run in the national league as a representative of the Osaka area and been considered a front-runner ever since. The team has strong players and passionate supporters, but it faces difficulties just before winning the league.

After Chosun(ko)

Imman Kim wants to reconcile with his parents, who emigrated to Osaka after April 3 Jeju Uprising. Cheolwoong Park has supported his younger sister during his entire life, blaming his father who moved to Tokyo to avoid guilt-by association. Soonam Park has devoted her life to human rights movement for a second-generation Korean-Japanese and her daughter Mayi Park who also lives as a Korean-Japanese. This film tell us about meaning of a nation through their life stories.

Twinsters(en)

Adopted from South Korea, raised on different continents & connected through social media, Samantha & Anaïs believe that they are twin sisters separated at birth.

The Voices of the Silenced(ko)

Director Park Soo-nam, a second-generation Korean resident in Japan who is losing his eyesight, decides to digitally restore 16mm film she shot a long time ago, relying on her daughter Park Ma-eui's eyesight. The blood, tears, and numerous corpses of Koreans living in Japan are clearly engraved in the film filmed over 50 years.

Discrimination(ko)

Since 2013, Japan has implemented the free high school policy. However, only 10 Chongryon Korean high schools are excluded from this policy. The reason is that there are suspicions that the grant for free education will be misused by Chochongryon and others. Five of these schools protested about this measure and filed a claim for damages against the government in 2013. After four years of hearings, the first trial decision was made on July 19, 2017, starting with the case of Hiroshima Chongryon Korean high school.

Kim Il Sung's Children(ko)

From 1950 to 1953, one hundred thousand children were orphaned by the Korean War. With no resources to mend the wounds, the two sides, North and South, took different paths to find homes and families for the war orphans. While the children of South Korea were sent to Europe and the United States through ‘International Adoption’, the children of North Korea were distributed across Eastern Europe through a method called ‘Commissioned Education’. As a result, more than five thousand children from the North had to spend nearly a decade living in foreign lands across Eastern Europe. This story is a record of their lives, which used to be kept hidden from the rest of the world. There is a key to understanding how North Korea's closed political structure began and how the ‘Juche ideology’ was formed in this documentary movie. Understanding North Korea in the 1950s is an important way to understand North Korea at present.

Dear Pyongyang(ja)

Dear Pyongyang is a documentary film by Zainichi Korean director Yang Yong-hi (Korean: 양영희, Hanja: 梁英姬) about her own family. It was shot in Osaka Japan (Yang's hometown) and Pyongyang, North Korea, In the 1970s, Yang's father, an ardent communist and leader of the pro-North movement in Japan, sent his three sons from Japan to North Korea under a repatriation campaign sponsored by ethnic activist organisation and de facto North Korean embassy Chongryon; as the only daughter, Yang herself remained in Japan. However, as the economic situation in the North deteriorated, the brothers became increasingly dependent for survival on the care packages sent by their parents. The film shows Yang's visits to her brothers in Pyongyang, as well as conversations with her father about his ideological faith and his regrets over breaking up his family.

Our School(ko)

This documentary is about the 3rd and 4th generation Korean residents of Japan who are students of Chosen elementary, middle, and high school in Hokkaido. It follows the students through one year of the eventual 11 years` national education. Rather than focusing on special occasions or issues, it reveals what it is like to live in Japan as Korean-Japanese by describing their everyday lives.

Children Gone to Poland(ko)

Tracing the footsteps of North Korean orphans who went to Poland during the Korean War, two women, one from the North and the other from the South, bond through the solidarity of wound and forge together a path toward healing.

Soup and Ideology(ko)

Confronting half of her mother’s life—her mother who had survived the Jeju April 3 Incident—the director tries to scoop out disappearing memories. A tale of family, which carries on from Dear Pyongyang, carving out the cruelty of history, and questioning the precarious existence of the nation-state.

Arirang Rhapsody(ja)

The protagonists of the film are the Zainichi Korean women living in Kawasaki. They were tossed about by the war, and after many trips to and fro across the sea in search of a place to live, they finally arrived in Kawasaki, where they have lived modestly and vigorously.

The Family of One Hundred Years(ko)

In Kawasaki, Japan, 1st to 3rd generation of Korean-Japanese and Americans share their daily lives and wish for a symbiotic society. The inter-Korean summit in 2000 brought reconciliation and hope to the divided Korean community. Meanwhile, hundreds of hateful demonstrators are approaching Sakuramoto, the Korean residence, amid deepening tensions between Japan and Korea in 2016.

Optigraph(ko)

After my grandfather 's Baek-su (age 99’s birthday party) banquet, asking me to write an autobiography for him. Two years later, he passed away and left his favor as homework to me. I discovered the history of the past that I could not associate with his name. As a filmmaker, I frequently attended burials that were far from my life. I have been living in the United States for a while, and I have often come to think about the country and nationality.

Summer of Ibaraki(ko)

This documentary is a human story. Kang Seon Hwa, a freshman at Kunkuk high school located in Osaka, Japan, is a member of Korean traditional culture club. She and her friends are going to participate in the 35th Japan High school culture competition representing the Osaka region. This is a coming of age drama about youth who are eager to achieve their dream and find their identity by completing their journey.

The King's Letters(ko)

In the 15th century, despite so many accomplishments he has made for the people, King Sejong, his biggest goal is still remaining; the invention of original letters that can be read and written by all the people. But courtiers who want to dominate the knowledge and the power, are against his will and discourage his belief. Frustrated King Sejong hears about a bonze Sinmi a phonogram expert, and secretly brings him in the palace.

Pacchigi! Love & Peace(ja)

In 1974, during the height of the recession, a Japanese Korean family relocates to Tokyo to raise money and seek better treatment for their ill son.

The Asian Angel(ja)

Aoki is a failing novelist, and Sol is a failing pop singer. Encountering each other in South Korea, speaking different languages, they and their families somehow end up in a truck heading off into the Korean countryside.