ABDUCTION The Megumi Yokota Story
credits:
Directors: Chris Sheridan, Patty Kim
Producers: Chris Sheridan, Patty Kim
Writer: Patty Kim
San Francisco Premiere
USA 2006 | 85 mins | Color Video | Japanese, Korean w/E.S.
IN PERSON: Chris Sheridan, Patty Kim
In November 1977 in Japan, thirteen-year-old Megumi Yokota said goodbye to her friends as she walked home from school. She then vanished without a trace. Her parents were left to grieve for years, until 2002, when North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il admitted what had long been suspected—that Megumi was one of thirteen Japanese citizens abducted from 1977-82 to teach Japanese language and culture to North Korean spies.
Chris Sheridan and Patty Kim’s gripping documentary offers a near-chronological account of this event, which has become an explosive issue in Japan’s fragile relationship with North Korea (Megumi Yokota is now a household name in Japan). Tracking Megumi’s mysterious disappearance (some thought she was “spirited away”), ABDUCTION uncovers the strange layers of facts and deceptions that shroud what exactly happened. More intimately, the film follows the extraordinary journey of Megumi’s parents, as their search for a missing daughter thrusts them into the center of a volatile international conflict.
Though the film seeks to draw attention to a tragedy largely ignored by Western media, it proves to be much more than a political or investigative exposé. At heart, the film is a moving testament to the indomitable love of a parent for a child.
—Taro Goto
Directors Chris Sheridan and Patty Kim will join University of San Francisco scholars for the panel discussion
Abduction: Political Kidnapping, Japan, and the Koreas
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