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Poster for Dear Pyongyang

Dear Pyongyang

2006 · 107 min

A quiet, intimate documentary that sits with a family's ideological fractures, letting regret and love surface slowly through conversation.

Overview
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.

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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • melancholicstrength 2 of 3
  • earneststrength 2 of 3
  • tensestrength 1 of 3
Pacing
slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • family
  • identity
  • faith
  • politics
  • guilt
Places
  • big city
  • home
Era
contemporary
Audience
adult
Form
  • true story
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language mild
  • Violence none
  • Sex none
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action0
Horror0
Humour2
Realism10
Romance0
Tension4
Darkness6
Complexity6
Emotional weight8

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Where to watch in the UK

Stream
  • Docsville Amazon Channel

Streaming data from JustWatch.All options on TMDB

Details

Genres
documentary
Directed by
Yang Yong-hi
Written by
Yang Yong-hi
Cinematography
Yang Yong-hi
Runtime
107 min
Country
Japan
Languages
Korean, Japanese

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