Geopolitics, Family, and Identity in Dear Pyongyang and History and Memory

Introduction

Films have traditionally been utilized as tools for expressing the experiences of different groups of people across varying historical periods and 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 serve as tools for representing reality by highlighting those shared experiences across history and geography. Two notable examples are Dear Pyongyang, directed by Yang Yong-hi, and History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige, produced by Rea Tajiri. These films emerge from different geopolitical contexts yet both provide significant insights into family experience. As demonstrated through these two historical documentaries, politics has a strong link to family separation and identity conflict.

Comparing the Two Films

Dear Pyongyang and History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige offer significant insights regarding the themes of politics, family separation, and identity. Despite their differences, the two films share important similarities in how they portray historical accounts of communities under geopolitical pressure.

First, both are documentary films that provide historical accounts of specific groups of people. Dear Pyongyang highlights the experiences of Zainichi — Koreans living in Japan — during the struggle for a unified, Communist Korea. History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige documents the experiences of Japanese Americans held in internment camps following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Second, both films illustrate the impact of geopolitics on the lived experiences of marginalized communities: Dear Pyongyang examines how Korean and Japanese geopolitics shaped the lives of Zainichi, while History and Memory traces the consequences of wartime policy for Japanese Americans. Third, both films follow main characters who struggle to establish personal identity while grappling with their families' difficult pasts. In each case, the filmmaker attempts to discover her own history and identity by examining the experiences of the generation before her.

Cinematic Techniques and Source Materials

One of the most significant differences between the two films lies in the cinematic elements each director employs. In Dear Pyongyang, Yang constantly uses first-person voiceover narration rather than direct conversations with her father to convey her astonishment at her parents' convictions and commitment to the vision of a unified, Communist Korea (Koehler par. 1). This choice is rooted in Korean cultural values: voiceover allowed Yang to express her feelings while avoiding direct confrontation with her elders, which would have been considered disrespectful. In contrast, Tajiri in History and Memory includes her own video footage alongside her mother's recollections. While she also uses voiceover narration, Tajiri grounds her film in her mother's memories of internment rather than in her own reflections alone.

The two films also differ markedly in their source materials. In History and Memory, Tajiri draws on a wide variety of sources to construct an image where none originally exists — including government propaganda, Hollywood spectacle, memories of real people, accounts from the dead, newsreels, and her own intuition (Women Make Movies par. 3). Her use of wartime footage alongside footage she filmed herself in the 1990s reflects her sustained interest in the relationship between history and memory, and her aim to construct a collective memory of her family's internment experience.

In Dear Pyongyang, by contrast, Yang does not draw on external archival sources. She focuses instead on the recollections of and her engagement with her parents. This narrower scope is deliberate: Yang's central concern is understanding why her father valued political conviction and loyalty over the integrity of his own family. Rather than constructing a collective historical record, Yang explores the deeply personal question of how political ideology could lead a father to send his sons to live permanently in North Korea.

A third difference concerns overall filmmaking approach. Tajiri combines memorabilia, interviews, family stories, and a personal pilgrimage to the internment camp, creating an experimental, non-traditional documentary that blends footage from different eras. Yang, by contrast, employs a more conventional approach, building the film around the memories of her parents and her own recollections. These memories provide the film's structure and drive its emotional core.

Geopolitics and Family Separation in Dear Pyongyang

Despite their differences, both films offer significant insights into geopolitics and its impact on people's lives, particularly on family unity and personal identity. Geopolitics — politics shaped by geographical factors and international relations — operates as a central force in both narratives. In Dear Pyongyang, this concept is expressed through the political struggles between South and North Korea and the divergent experiences of Koreans living in Japan versus those on the peninsula. Although the division of Korea is not the film's primary focus, it profoundly shapes Yang's family history. Yang and her family are Zainichi who took sides during the division of Korea in 1948 (Flowers par. 1). As a committed North Korean patriot, Yang's father devoted himself to the vision of a united, Communist Korea.

Family separation and identity conflict define Yang's experience. Her father's political loyalty led him to send Yang's three brothers to live permanently in North Korea — a decision Yang struggles throughout the film to understand. She cannot comprehend why her father would choose to fracture his family in devotion to what she views as a secluded and enigmatic regime. The film thus foregrounds the political ramifications on her family and identity, demonstrating the direct connection between geopolitics and both family separation and identity conflict. Yang's struggle with her Zainichi identity in Japan mirrors the experience of many Japanese-North Koreans who are unwilling to acknowledge or accept their roots (Shoji par. 2) — an ambivalence partly rooted in the traumas of post-colonial dis-recognition (Dew, p.27).

According to Shoji, North Koreans living in Japan face significant difficulties because of poor relations between the two countries (par. 4). These strained relations, themselves a product of geopolitics, have led many Zainichi to distance themselves from their origins. Yang's father's seemingly irrational commitment to political ideology resulted in family separation and generated Yang's identity conflicts. Through the film, Yang wrestles with two intertwined questions: how politics could have mattered more to her father than family, and whether she herself is North Korean or Japanese. These struggles confirm that politics has a strong and damaging link to family separation and identity conflict.

Conclusion

History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige and Dear Pyongyang are two documentary films from different geopolitical configurations that illuminate the themes of geopolitics, family separation, and identity conflict. The films share important similarities — both are historical documentaries that show how political forces shape the lives of marginalized communities — while differing significantly in cinematic approach, source materials, and filmmaking technique. The central concern of both films, however, is the attempt by their makers to reconstruct the past in order to establish their personal identities and shape their futures. As these two historical documentaries demonstrate, politics has a strong and consequential link to family separation and identity conflict.

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, Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.

Koehler, Robert. "Dear Pyongyang." Variety, Variety, 23 Jan. 2006, http://www.variety.com/2006/film/markets-festivals/dear-pyongyang/. 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.