Soup and Ideology

This film screening series presents three films that explore experiences and memories related to violence, imperialism, and the Cold War in East Asia. By critically examining the Japanese armed group's resistance against neo-imperialism (East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front), the unrecorded memories of women in U.S. camptowns in South Korea (The Pregnant Tree and the Goblin), and the herstory of the April Third Incident that spans Japan, South Korea, and North Korea (Soup and Ideology), these films delve into the enduring impacts of state violence and socio-cultural trauma. These discussions are essential not only for understanding the past but also for addressing its ongoing resonance in contemporary society.

Synopsis

Tracing back mother’s very last memory, we finally become a family. On one fine day in Osaka, Yong-hi invites her Japanese fiancé to her mother's house. When her father was alive, he never allowed her to meet a Japanese man, but her mother happily prepares the traditional chicken soup that’s only served to sons-in-law in Korea. Though shocked by the photos of KIM IL-SUNG on the wall, her fiancé says, “our ideologies are different but let’s enjoy the soup”. And now as a husband, he stands by them when the mother gets Alzheimer’s disease after confessing her old-time buried hometown secret that the daughter never knew; Jeju uprising.

Event organizer’s introduction

Soup and Ideology explores the history and forgotten memories of the April Third Incident in 1947, a tragic event in which the South Korean government carried out a genocide during a period of intense confrontation with the North. When the resistance movement emerged on Jeju, a remote southern island, the government responded with an indiscriminate massacre of the islanders. The film's central figure, Kang Jeong-hee, is a survivor of that massacre. Born in Japan, Kang returned to her hometown of Jeju after Korea's liberation. However, the brutal April Third Incident forced her to move back to Japan, where she became part of the "Zainichi" community, the Korean diaspora in Japan. Amidst the severe Cold War tensions, this diaspora community faced intense ideological pressures, being forced to choose allegiance between the South and the North. As a Zainichi woman activist, Kang played a role in the Repatriation Movement, which encouraged the relocation of Zainichi Koreans to North Korea from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s. The film, directed by Kang’s daughter, follows her journey of understanding her mother's stubborn resistance to South Korea and her support for North Korea, which even led her to send all her sons there. Soup and Ideology illustrates how vast political forces, such as Cold War dynamics, can deeply impact personal lives, as seen through Kang’s story. The memory of state violence and genocide irrevocably shaped the course of her life and that of her family.

Program

2:30 Venue open for audience
3:00 - 3:05 Greetings and introduction
3:05 - 5:05 Screening
5:05 - 5:20 Break
5:20 - 6:20 Conversation with Professor Janet Poole

Director YANG Yong-hi / 2022 / Japan, Korea / Documentary /Starring KANG Jong-hi, ARAI Kaoru, YANG Yong-hi / Running time 118min

This film screening is part of the Uncovering Memories: Violence, Cold War, and East Asia Series.