The Link between Politics, Family Separation, and Identity Conflicts Documentary films are utilized to highlight various issues that have faced individuals or societies over time. Such films are used to show events and situations that are visible parts of individuals’ shared experiences (Nichols, p.ix). As a result, documentary films are utilized as tools for representing reality through highlighting the shared experiences of people. Historical documentary films provide important lessons on various themes relating to the shared experiences of people in different historical periods and geopolitical configurations. Analysis of documentary films help in understanding the various issues that have faced people in different societies. For instance, Dear Pyongyang which was directed by Yang Yong-hi and History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige which was produced by Rea Tajiri are the examples of historical documentary films that have been used as representations of reality. These two films show different geopolitical configurations and provide significant insights relating to family experiences. As shown in these two historical films, politics has a strong link to family separation and identity conflicts.

There are some similarities and differences between these two films which plays a critical role in their portrayal of the different historical contexts. One of the similarities between both films is that they are both documentary films that provide historical accounts of groups of people in different periods. Dear Pyongyang highlights the life of Zainichi i.e. North Koreans living in Japan after the division of Korea. History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige provides the experiences of Japanese Americans in internment camps in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor. These films are similar on the premise that they highlight the impact of geopolitics on the experiences of different groups of people. Both of the films are projects to remember personally, to remember for her brothers, parents and the global community.

One of the differences between these two films relate to the cinematic elements utilized by the directors or producers of the films. In Dear Pyongyang, Yang constantly uses first-person voiceover narration rather than direct conversations with her father to demonstrate her astonishment at her parent’s convictions and commitment to the vision of a unified, Communist Korea (Koehler par, 1). The use of first-person voiceover narrations as a cinematic element for expressing her surprise is attributable to the fact that it was a means for Yang to show her respect for elders, which was held at a high premium in the Korean culture. Through this process, she avoids familial confrontations which would be considered disrespectful.

On the contrary, in History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige, Tajiri includes her own video footage and her mother’s recollections of the family experiences of internment. Tajiri’s narrative structure in this film is juxtaposition. Juxtaposition is the film editing technique of combining two or more shots to evoke an idea or state of mind (Hollywood Lexicon, par,1). Tajiri relies on the testimony of her family member who experienced life in internment camps. She intends to evoke viewer’s awareness of Japanese Americans’ internment experiences. The testimony is presented as inconstant audio with various visuals. She also used the text on a black background to represent the imagined memories of her ancestors.

Secondly, the two films differ with regards to sources that are utilized by the directors or producers to express their message. In History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige, Tajiri relies on a variety of sources in order to develop a historical image where none exists. In this case, she utilized different sources to create the documentary film including government propaganda, Hollywood spectacle, memories of real people, spirits of the dead, newsreels, and her own intuition (Women Make Movies par, 3). Tajiri relies on different sources including footage filmed during World War II to mimic the complex nature of remembered history. Since the remembered history never capture the truth, she has to build the history by different times, texture and changing shape as it is remembered through the filters of different subjects. In this case, Tajiri’s use of different sources helps in constructing collective memory of her family experiences which is a critical component in her film....

For example, the film starts with a few family photos taken at the internment camp. Since cameras are not allowed in internment camps, the photos that Tajiri released are rare. Her most successful use of visuals in this film is her effort to show the memory with her unexperienced history.
On the contrary, in Dear Pyongyang, Yang does not utilize different sources to create the film, but simply focuses on her daily life and engagement with her parents. Yang presents with her video recorder as viewers never see her except in photographs and at the very end when her hand appears. Unlike Tajiri who focuses on collective history, Yang specifically focuses on her father’s political convictions. Her focus is to understand how her father would value political convictions and why is he loyal to the North Korean government. Therefore, Yang narrows the scope of the film to her family experiences because she was surprised with her father’s decision to destroy his family in favor of political conviction and loyalty.

Analysis:

Despite their differences, the two films provide significant insights on geopolitics and its impact on people’s lives, particularly family unity and personal identity. Geopolitics is a concept that refers to politics that is influenced by geographical factors or international relations. In Dear Pyongyang, the geopolitical concept is highlighted in the political struggles between South and North Korea and the different life experiences in North Korea and in Japan (Flowers par, 1). At the beginning, Yong-hi outlines 1945 Korean liberation from Japanese Empire and division of Korea between North and South with the establishment of Republic of South Korea and Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea.

South Korea’s vibrant democracy is as a result of the movement of students, intellectuals and middle-class citizens. South Korea is officially a democratic country. Life in South Korea is full of entertainment, energy and the style of capitalism. It is the ideal lifestyle that Yong-hi yearns for, so she asked her father if she could gain South Korean nationality. Being a North Korean means a lot for Yong-hi since it would be much easier to work and study. In North Korea, the state ideology of self-reliance was used to consolidate the Kim family’s one-man rule, while reproducing a certain mode of thinking designed to help the regime survive. The possession of any foreign book or media was strictly forbidden. Pyongyang is a ghost city since after 10 p.m., most electricity had been turned off, there were no more cars on the already empty roads, most people were in bed, and there were no entertainment venues whatsoever. The audience could feel Yong-hi’s brothers and their families lived in the highly controlled, and stagnant environment of Pyongyang. Yong-hi also recorded thousands of torch-carrying youths rushing around the stadium in formation, making patterns, symbols and slogans to worship their leader. This reflects how Yong-hi could not understand North Koreans’ political loyalty.

As Yong-hi’s father was a North Korean patriot, he dedicated his entire life to the ideologies of the country. His seemingly irrational commitment to politics eventually resulted in family separation and generated Yang’s identity conflicts. He sent his three sons to North Korea as human gifts to Kim Il-sung. Yang struggles with her North Korean identity in Japan like many Japanese North Koreans who are unwilling to own up or accept their roots (Shoji par, 2). She struggles with her dual identities and has to learn how to live with them in Japan. This can be partly attributable to the fact that Zainichi ethnicity is largely rooted in traumas of post-colonial dis-recognition (Dew, p.27). Despite growing up in Japan and speaking fluent Japanese, Yong-hi maintained Korean tradition and speaks fluent Korean. However, when people asked her if she was Japanese, deep down she would say no because she is North Korean. Even though she never lived in North Korea and only visited North Korea to see her brothers, her identity lies in North Korea. Japan formally no longer recognized Koreans as Japanese citizens pursuant to the 1952 San Francisco Peace Treaty. In 1945, the Election Law took away ethnic Koreans’ voting rights (Koreans in Japan, p.2). Zainichi Koreans are faced with many challenges such as social benefits, obtaining employment, and racial biases. Through the film, Yang struggles to…