Zainichi Koreans and the Jeju 4.3 Incident: Focusing on Soup and Ideology

Director Yang Yong-hee, a Zainichi Korean who has portrayed the relationship between her family and North Korea in films such as Dear Pyongyang (2005) and Our Homeland (2012), released a new 2021 documentary, Soup and Ideology, regarding her mother and the Jeju 4.3 incident. The novels of Kim Sok-pom, who too is a Zainichi Korean, including “The Death of the Crow” and “Volcano Island,” were what publicised the Jeju 4.3 incident in Japan. Although Kim Sok-pom himself was born in Osaka and did not directly experience the incident, he said he was shocked by the stories he heard from stowaways from Jeju Island, which inspired him to write the novels. It is only in recent years that Yang Yong-hee’s mother has spoken about her experience of it. The films Pacchigi! LOVE & PEACE (2007) and Barbecue Dragon (2018) also portray or refer to the Jeju 4.3 incident. Both films have a Zainichi Korean director or producer, who have incorporated their own father’s story into the film. Focusing on Yang Yong-hee’s Soup and Ideology, which narrates her mother’s story, I would like to examine what the Zainichi Korean directors and producers have tried to convey by using the incident as the basis of their films.