Our Homeland (かぞくのくに, Kazoku no kuni) 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 history.[1][2][3][4] The film was selected as the Japanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist.[5][6]
| Our Homeland | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Yang Yong-hi |
| Written by | Yang Yong-hi |
| Produced by | Koshikawa Michio Sato Junko Kawamura Mitsunobu |
| Starring | Sakura Ando Arata Iura |
| Cinematography | Toda Yoshihisa |
| Edited by | Kikui Takashige |
| Music by | Taro Iwashiro |
| Distributed by | Star Sands Slow Learner |
Release dates |
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Running time | 99 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
From the late 1950s and into the 1970s, more than 90,000 of the Korean residents in Japan emigrated to North Korea, a country that promised them affluence, justice and an end to discrimination. Our Homeland tells the story of one of their number, who returns for just a short period. Yoon Seong-ho (Arata Iura) was sent to North Korea as a teen by his fervently North-supporting father. Returning to Tokyo for medical treatment after 25 years, he finds it difficult to open up to his family, including his passionately anti-North sister Rie (Sakura Ando). Seong-ho and Rie are two people handed radically different life perspectives by the course of history. While Seong-ho's path is sketched out for him, Rie recognizes that a whole world of opportunities is open to her. Including the chance to rebel against her own family.[7][8]