FEATURE: Megumi Yokota film resonates with audiences for its universal appeal

Japan Policy & Politics, Jan 29, 2007

NEW YORK, Jan. 25 Kyodo

Although the award-winning U.S. documentary about Megumi Yokota, which recently opened in Manhattan, focuses on the 13-year-old Japanese schoolgirl abducted by North Korean agents in 1977, it also appeals to moviegoers for its universal theme.

Chris Sheridan and his wife, Patty Kim, the Canadian co-directors and co-producers of ''Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story,'' remember their initial shock after learning in 2002 that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il admitted to then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that 13 Japanese nationals had been taken.

Of those abductees, officials in Pyongyang claimed that eight were dead, including Yokota, who allegedly killed herself, although this remains disputed.

''It really touched us because of the story of this family and what they have been through,'' said Sheridan after Shigeru and Sakie Yokota, a banker and housewife, had their lives turned upside down by her sudden disappearance.

The Yokotas, and other families like them, faced enormous challenges in their decades-long search and tireless efforts to lobby fellow citizens and government officials for help in finding their kin.

Yokota's mother even paid a visit to U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House last year in efforts to bring their concerns onto the international stage. After their encounter Bush was said to have called the meeting one of his most moving experiences.

''We saw ourselves in the story of these people,'' Sheridan added, saying it was not difficult to imagine himself or his parents in their place.

While the couple had no direct links to Japan, as a Korean-Canadian Kim had initially spotted the story through learning of the historic summit between the Japanese and North Korean leaders in 2002.

Because of her age, Yokota stood out among the Japanese who were kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s and forced to become Japanese-language teachers.

The junior high schooler from Niigata was suddenly whisked away from her hometown on Nov. 15, 1977, after heading home from school.

The day her daughter failed to return Yokota instinctively knew something was wrong. After turning off dinner she ran to the school hoping to find her, but could not. It was as if she just vanished into thin air after saying goodbye to her friend.

During the 85-minute film An, a North Korean defector and acquaintance of Yokota's kidnapper, explained how the girl screamed for her mother during the 40-hour boat ride and scratched so desperately at an iron door that she lost all her fingernails.

Kim told Kyodo News that the Yokota story contained dramatic undertones that touched on politics, mystery and international intrigue. But the real heart of the film -- the intrinsic love that parents have for children -- was what impacted audiences most.

''It's this epic ballad of love,'' Kim explained. ''It's an incredible testimony of a parent's devotion for their child.''

For Dominik Eisenhut, who works at the German Mission and attended a special screening at the United Nations, the film personalized the hardships of the abductees, who he had known little about before.

''They never gave up hope so that was really impressive,'' he explained.

Although the Yokotas' dedication to their daughter also moved Noema Chaplin, she felt the abductee issue highlighted the prevalence of global human trafficking.

''We need to unite our efforts to solve this problem,'' she said. ''It is not just Japan, it is everywhere.''

Takahiro Shinyo, Japan's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations who also deals with the abductions, said he thought the filmmakers succeeded in making the Japanese story relevant to American and international audiences.

''I think this film brought this issue very close to the audience, but the undercurrent of this film is love,'' he said, adding that Megumi's mother, in particular, was an inspirational force whose strength was admirable.

Having worked hard to bring the abductee issue to the attention of the international body, Shinyo was instrumental in pressing member states to pass an international convention at the General Assembly last year to prevent such ''enforced disappearances.''

Shinyo and the filmmakers want more ordinary Americans and Europeans to learn about the abductees' plight. But they also hope more South Koreans, especially the families of the some 485 people from the South who have been abducted by their northern neighbor, as well as relatives of abductees from other countries will come forward in larger numbers.

Kim and Sheridan feel that the film brings the issue to life in ways that headlines and international conventions cannot and may fire up citizens to lobby officials for an eventual resolution.

''At the end of the day we are trying to share what makes us the same, not what divides us,'' Kim said.

The film, which was shown to dignitaries and U.N. staff members at the Dag Hammarskjold Library auditorium on Jan. 8, opened in Manhattan on Jan. 12 at the Cinema Village.