YNOT at the Movies

Imagine that suddenly your loved ones disappeared without a trace, only many years later you find out that they were abducted by North Korea spies, and you have no idea if they are still alive. That's a story this powerful documentary "ABDUCTION The Megumi Yokota Story" presents. Thirteen-year-old Megumi Yokota didn't return home from school in November 1977. Years later, her family found out that she was abducted by the North Korea. Her parents went on a crusade to bring her back to Japan, along with other family members of 13 Japanese who were abducted by North Korea.

The film masterfully crafts footages and interviews and it tells us a heartbroken story. I cried, many times, like so many people in the sold out theatre. It still brings tears to my eyes when I recall the image of the weak Japanese lady tearful pled for her abducted son's return. She has been sick in bed for years after her son was abducted.

We probably simply shake our heads if we read the news about the abduction in a newspaper, thinking how crazy North Korea is. But watching this film, it puts human faces on those news reports. Everything becomes so real and so close to heart, because we can all related to our own families with those victims. Our families all have parents, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters, just like those 13 abducted Japanese.

We live in a very sad world. Japanese invaded China and Korea, among many other countries during (and before) World War II. They did similar things as the North Korea did to these families, only perhaps not that secretly. Now, North Korea is doing the same thing to Japanese. When will all this come to an end? Can we just live together peacefully?

After the screening, the directors answered a few more questions which should have been explained in the film, and had more insightful discussion with the audience. This is a terrific documentary.

My rating: 9 out of 10.