Yang Yong-hi facts for kids

Yang Yong-hi is a talented film director born in Japan. Her family has Korean roots, and she is part of the Zainichi community. This means her family came from Korea and settled in Japan. Yang Yong-hi is well-known for making movies, especially documentaries, that explore her family's experiences and their connection to modern North Korea.

About Yang Yong-hi

Early Life and Education

Yang Yong-hi was born in Osaka, Japan, on November 11, 1964. Her family belongs to the Korean minority group in Japan. Many of these families are descendants of Koreans who moved to Japan when Korea was under Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945.

Yang studied at the Korea University in Tokyo. Later, she went to New School University in the United States. There, she earned a master's degree in media studies. She is very good at languages and can speak three different ones.

Making Films About Family

Yang Yong-hi's films often tell personal stories about her family. She explores what it means to have a dual identity, being both Japanese-born and having strong Korean roots.

Dear Pyongyang and Family History

Her famous documentary Dear Pyongyang won special awards at big film festivals. These included the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and the 56th Berlin International Film Festival. The film is about her own identity and her sometimes difficult relationship with her father.

Yang's father was an important member of an organization called Chongryon. This group helps North Koreans living in Japan. Yang and her father often had strong discussions about politics. The Chongryon organization even asked Yang to apologize for her film, saying it offended North Korea. But Yang refused to do so.

Growing up, Yang faced challenges because her father was a strong supporter of North Korea. She was lucky, though, as the youngest child and only girl. Her three older brothers were sent to Pyongyang, North Korea, when they were teenagers. Her father believed this would protect them from unfair treatment in Japan.

Her brothers were among about 90,000 people who moved to North Korea. This happened from the late 1950s to the early 1980s. They were told North Korea was a "paradise," but sending them there caused a lot of sadness for the family.

Sona, the Other Myself and North Korea

Yang first visited North Korea on a high school trip. She went back several times and got to know her niece, Sona. Her second documentary, Sona, the Other Myself, is a tribute to the time she spent with her family in North Korea.

The film shows Sona as a young child before she started school. It then shows how the strict North Korean education system changed her. Sona learned to recite political slogans and songs. Yang was banned from entering North Korea in 2006. That was the last time she saw her niece.

Our Homeland and Reunions

Yang's first feature film, Our Homeland, is based on a real-life event. It tells the story of her brother Seong-ho. He returned to Japan after 25 years in North Korea to get medical treatment for a brain tumor. Their reunion was very emotional.

This film also won an award at the 2012 Berlin International Film Festival. The actors in the film, Sakura Ando and Arata Iura, also won awards for their performances.

Continuing Her Story

Yang Yong-hi has said that she still worries about her brothers' safety because of her films. However, she plans to keep making movies about her family's experiences.

Films by Yang Yong-hi

• Dear Pyongyang (2005)
• Sona, the Other Myself (2010)
• Our Homeland (2012)
• Soup and Ideology (2021)