New documentary about Japanese girl kidnapped by North Korean spies

by Carmen Van Kerckhove

This new film, Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story, from Jane Campion (The Piano) looks interesting. Here’s the synopsis:

JAPAN,1977. A dark, lonely road leads to the windswept shores. This is the remarkable story of a 13-year-old Japanese girl abducted on her way home from school by North Korean spies. For 20 years, her parents had no idea what had happened to her or if she was even alive. Then, one day the whole world learned the shocking truth.

An extraordinary tale of mystery, intrigue and most of all, love, the film’s told through the eyes of the girl’s mother and father who have been searching for their daughter for nearly 30 years. The film begins with the day Megumi vanishes, traces the astonishing course this personal tragedy takes, as it becomes a battle between two nations, rising to a shocking climax.

North Korea’s government always denied having anything to do with the disappearance of Japanese citizens like Yokota, until 2002, when North Korean president Kim Jong Il confessed to then-Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that his country’s spies had abducted 13 Japanese citizens between 1977 and 1983. The abductees are believed to have been used to teach Korean spies how to impersonate Japanese citizens.