Our Homeland
Our Homeland (かぞくのくに, 一かぞくのくに, 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.
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.
Plot
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.
