Evaluation of Two Films

Film Research
Films have traditionally been utilized as tools for expressing different issues that have faced different groups of people across different historical periods and varying geopolitical configurations. Nichols contends that films, particularly documentary films, are utilized to show events and situations that are visible parts of individuals’ shared experiences (p.ix). In essence, films are utilized as tools for representing reality through highlighting the shared experiences of people and groups across historical periods and geopolitical configurations. Some examples of films that have been utilized as representations of reality is Dear Pyongyang, which was directed by Yang Yong-hi and History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige, which was produced by Rea Tajiri. These two films are from different geopolitical configurations and provide significant insights relating to family experience. Politics has a strong link to family separation and identity conflicts as shown in these two historical films.
Comparison of the Two Films
The two films i.e. Dear Pyongyang and History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige provide significant insights regarding the themes of politics, family separation, and identity. However, there are some similarities and differences between these two films, which plays a critical role in their portrayal of the different historical accounts of the different issues they address. One of the similarities between both films is that they are both documentary films that provide historical accounts of groups of people in different historical periods. Dear Pyongyang highlights the experiences of Zainichi i.e. Koreans living in Japan during the struggle for a unified, Communist 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. Secondly, these films are similar on the premise that they highlight the impact of geopolitics on the experiences of different groups of people. Dear Pyongyang highlights how geopolitics in Korea and Japan affected the experiences of Koreans whereas History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige highlights the impact of geopolitics on the life experiences of Japanese Americans. Third, both films highlight difficulties of the main characters in tracing their personal identity amidst the challenging experiences of their families. The main characters in both films attempt to discover their personal history and identity through examining the past experiences of their families.
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 held at a high premium in the Korean culture. Through this process, she avoids familial confrontations, which would be considered as a sign of disrespect for elders. 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. While she also utilizes voiceover narration, Tajiri relies on her mother’s recollections as the premise for highlight the experiences of Japanese Americans internment.
Secondly, the two films differ with regards to sources that are utilized by the directors or producers to convey their message. In History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige, Tajiri relies on a variety of sources in order to develop an image where none exists. In this case, she utilizes 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’s reliance on different sources including footage filmed during World War II and footage she filmed herself in the 90s is attributable to the fact that she is interested in the idea of history and memory. In this case, Tajiri’s use of different sources helps in constructing collective memory of her family experiences, which is a critical component in History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige. This essentially means that Tajiri attempts to portray a collective memory of the experiences of Japanese American in internment camps during the Second World War.
On the contrary, in Dear Pyongyang, Yang does not utilize different sources to create the film, but simply focuses on recollections from and engagement with her parents. Unlike Tajiri who focuses on collective memory, Yang specifically focuses on her family experiences, particularly political convictions. Yang does not utilize different sources for the film since her focus is to understand how her father would value political convictions and loyalty at the expense of family unit. 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. This essentially means that the focus of Yang is in understanding why her father would value politics so much rather than highlighting the experiences of Zainichi during the split of Korea.
Third, the two documentary films also differ in the sense that the directors utilize different filmmaking techniques. Tajiri combines memorabilia, interviews, story of her parents, and a pilgrimage to the camp in order to highlight the experiences of her family and other Japanese Americans during internment. History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige is based on a non-traditional approach since the film maker focused on recalling her family’s history and experiences during the Second World War. The non-traditional approach is evident in the fact that the documentary was experimental. In this case, Tajiri utilized footage from things that were documented during the war as well as footage from things she filmed herself in the 1990s. This presents a non-traditional approach for recounting her family’s experiences during World War II since it involved a combination of footage from different time periods. On the contrary, Yang largely relies on her parents’ recollections and her own memory to highlight her family’s experiences. Dear Pyongyang employs a more conventional approach in recounting the experiences of Yang’s family since the memories of the parents is the basis for the recollection. Unlike Tajiri, Yang does not depend on footage from different time periods, but focuses on the recollections of her parents. These recollections shape the footage of the film and help in conveying the experiences of Yang’s family.
Analysis of the Two Films
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 experiences of life in North Korea and in Japan. Even though the split of Korea into two countries is not the main focus of the film, its plays a significant role in the experiences of Yang and her family who were living in Japan. Yang and her family are Zainichi who took sides during the division of Korea in 1948 (Flowers par, 1). As a North Korean patriot, Yang’s father was strongly affectionate to communism and devoted himself to a vision of a united, Communist Korea.
Family separation and identity conflict characterize Yang’s experience of life as she struggles to understand her father’s commitment to the vision of a united, Communist Korea. In this regard, her father political loyalty and commitment was detrimental to family unit since he sent Yang’s three brothers to live permanently in North Korea. Yang does not understand why her father would opt to destroy his family due to political loyalty and commitment to a secluded and enigmatic regime. As a result, the film highlights political ramifications on her family and identity, which demonstrates the strong link between geopolitics and family separation and identity conflicts. As part of her struggles to understand her father’s convictions, 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). This can be partly attributable to the fact that Zainichi ethnicity is largely rooted in traumas of post-colonial dis-recognition (Dew, p.27).
Politics and its negative impacts on family relationships and identity is a central theme in Dear Pyongyang. According to Shoji, North Korean living in Japan are faced with numerous problems because of poor relations between Japan and North Korea (par, 4). The poor relations between the two countries have affected Japanese and North Koreans to an extent that most of them do not want to accept their roots. The poor relations between these two countries is attributable to geopolitics. As a result of these poor relations between Japan and North Korea as well as political issues that resulted in the split of Korea, Yang’s father was a North Korean patriot dedicated to the vision of his country. His seemingly irrational commitment to politics eventually resulted in family separation and generated Yang’s identity conflicts. Through the film, Yang struggles to understand how politics would be more important to her father than family as well as whether she was North Korean or Japanese. These struggles demonstrate that politics has a strong link to family separation and identity conflicts.
History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige highlights the difficulties Tajiri faces in reconciling her past with respect to her family experiences and personal identity. These struggles to reconcile the past in order to shape her personal identity are reflected in the fact that Tajiri faces significant difficulties in attempts to reactivate the past from the pieces of available images (Marks, p.32). Notably, internment had significant impacts on the lives of Japanese Americans, particularly with respect to family relationships and personal identity. This is primarily because the evacuation and relocation of Japanese Americans during this period had significant impacts on their daily life experiences and family relationships. The negative impacts of internment camps on Japanese Americans forced many of them to conceal their experiences in a cover of silence and forgetting (Women Make Movies par, 1).
The decision by many Japanese Americans who lived in internment camps to conceal the memories of their experiences has contributed to identity conflicts among successive generations including Tajiri’s generation. As shown in the film, Tajiri seemingly struggles with identity conflicts because of the difficulties in creating a traditional historic account of her family experiences in internment camps. Identity politics and minority issues contributed to cultural upheavals that in turn contributed to Tajiri’s identity conflicts (Boyle, p.2).
It appears that Tajiri is facing identity conflicts because her search for collective memory of her family’s experiences in internment is part of the process of shaping her own identity. Tajiri sought to deal with her identity conflicts through search for her own history and revisiting memories that her family members preferred to conceal and forget. Tajiri explained that her search for her own history through the film was fueled by the fact that she felt lost and ungrounded. She states, “… I had known all along that the stories I had heard were not true and parts had been left out. I began searching because I felt lost, ungrounded” (Boyle, p.11). She felt that she was witnessing other people live their lives while she was not living her own life because of the struggle with identity conflict. Therefore, through searching for her own history, Tajiri would shape her own identity and live a life of her own (Boyle, p.11).
The experiences of Tajiri’s family during internment was largely as a result of politics, which had significant impacts on the wellbeing of many Japanese Americans during the Second World War. During this war, many Japanese Americans were evacuated and forced to live in internment camps, which made their lives complicated and very difficult. The experience of living in internment camps had significant impacts on their health and wellbeing, particularly psychological wellbeing. Consequently, most of Japanese Americans who lived in these camps preferred not to recollect their experiences as part of healing and continuing with their lives. However, this ended up affecting successive generations like Tajiri who were faced with identity conflicts as highlighted in History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige. While this film does not show any linkages between politics and family separation, it demonstrates the link between politics and identity conflicts. As shown in Tajiri’s experience in the film, politics contributed to her identity conflicts through affecting the experiences and history of Japanese Americans including her family.
In conclusion, History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige and Dear Pyongyang are two documentary films from different geopolitical configurations that highlight the themes of geopolitics, family separation, and identity conflicts. The films have some similarities and differences relating to the experiences of the main characters and cinematic elements. However, the key aspect of these two documentary films is the attempts by the main characters i.e. Yang and Tajiri to reconstruct the past in order to determine their personal identities and shape their future. As demonstrated in these two historical documentary films, politics has a strong link to family separation and identity conflicts.
Works Cited
Boyle, Deirdre. “History and Memory: On Visual Media and the Collective Memory of the Japanese American Internment.” The New School, The New School, http://www.newschool.edu/nssr/historymatters/papers/deirdreboyle.pdf. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.
Dew, Oliver. Zainichi Cinema: Korean-in-Japan Film Culture. Springer International Publishing, 2016.
Flowers, Neil. “Dear Pyongyang.” Elevate Difference, Elevate Difference, 26 Nov. 2010, http://www.elevatedifference.com/review/dear-pyongyang. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.
Koehler, Robert. “Dear Pyongyang.” Variety, Variety, 23 Jan. 2006, http://www.variety.com/2006/film/markets-festivals/dear-pyongyang-1200519116/. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.
Marks, Laura U. The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses. Duke University Press, 2007.
Nichols, Bill. Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary. Indiana University Press, 2010.
Shoji, Kaori. “Double Life of a North Korean Japanese Filmmaker.” CNN Travel, 4 May 2011, http://www.travel.cnn.com/explorations/life/double-life-north-koreanjapanese-filmmaker-038337/. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.
Women Make Movies. “History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige.” Women Make Movies, Women Make Movies, 2005, http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c111.shtml. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.