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Our Homeland
Our Homeland
Directed by	Yang Yong-hi
Written by	Yang Yong-hi
Produced by	Koshikawa Michio ; Sato Junko ; Kawamura Mitsunobu
Starring	Sakura Ando ; Arata Iura
Cinematography	Toda Yoshihisa
Edited by	Kikui Takashige
Music by	Taro Iwashiro
Distributed by	Star Sands ; Slow Learner
Release dates	11 February 2012 (Berlin); 4 August 2012 (Japan);
Running time	99 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Our Homeland (かぞくのくに, Kazoku no kuni) is a 2012 Japanese drama film about a Korean man's visit to his family in Japan after a long exile in North Korea. This is the feature debut of Yang Yong-hi, a second-generation ethnic Korean living in Japan who based the film on her family history.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] The film was selected as the Japanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist.^[5]^[6]

Plot

From the late 1950s and into the 1970s, more than 90,000 of the Korean residents in Japan emigrated to North Korea, a country that promised them affluence, justice and an end to discrimination. Our Homeland tells the story of one of their number, who returns for just a short period. Yoon Seong-ho (Arata Iura) was sent to North Korea as a teen by his fervently North-supporting father. Returning to Tokyo for medical treatment after 25 years, he finds it difficult to open up to his family, including his passionately anti-North sister Rie (Sakura Ando). Seong-ho and Rie are two people handed radically different life perspectives by the course of history. While Seong-ho's path is sketched out for him, Rie recognizes that a whole world of opportunities is open to her. Including the chance to rebel against her own family.^[7]^[8]