North Korea’s nuclear capabilities have kept many an American awake at night, but a new documentary reveals a smaller tragedy that unfolded with little fanfare stateside.
“Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story,” which opened at the Landmark E Street Theater in Northwest on Friday, recalls the communist government’s 1977 kidnapping of a 13-year-old Japanese girl and its global ramifications.
Husband-and-wife District-based filmmakers Chris Sheridan and Patty Kim let the key Japanese players tell the story without interference. There was little they could have added to such a harrowing saga.
Young Megumi left for school one day, a day like any other, but never returned home. Her parents were tortured by not just her disappearance but a total lack of clues as to what happened to her.
Mr. Sheridan says few people in Japan believed the Yokota family when, 20 years after Megumi’s abduction, they discovered the truth behind her disappearance after receiving a tip gleaned by a local journalist.
“People said, ’Gimme a break.’ … They were very skeptical. [The Yokotas] had to do a lot of work to convince them this really happened,” Mr. Sheridan says.
The family did just that, working tirelessly to find out the full story behind not just their daughter’s abduction but that of 12 other Japanese citizens who had gone missing over the years. North Korea needed captives to teach their spies how to emulate Japanese customs and language traits for future missions.
Young Megumi, though, was the only child ensnared in the plot.
“There’s something incredibly tragic about a child, on the cusp of the rest of her life, being swept away to who knows where,” Miss Kim says.
The film’s poster features one of the last pictures taken of Megumi by her father. She is standing outside, dressed in her mother’s red kimono and wearing lipstick for the first time.
“You can see all the possibility of her life crystallizing in that picture,” Miss Kim says.
The story’s tragic elements are clear, but gaining the trust of Megumi’s family took time.
“The Japanese people are very private. It’s hard to get inside their lives,” Mr. Sheridan says, adding that neither he nor his wife speak much Japanese.
Watching “Abduction” shows just how much the family eventually embraced the duo. The film lets us share personal moments with the older couple, from the mundane to episodes where they can’t contain their grief.
The filmmakers, who freelance for CBS News and National Geographic, maxed out their savings and credit cards to provide the project’s funding, which ultimately reached $450,000. The documentary drew the attention of the BBC toward the end of the editing process, and the company “saved the day” by helping defray the film’s costs, Mr. Sheridan says.
The couple received a creative assist from Oscar-winning filmmaker Jane Campion, a longtime friend of Miss Kim’s. The writer-director of 1993’s “The Piano” served as the executive producer and helped the filmmakers winnow down their vision into a movie that didn’t indulge in histrionics.
“We definitely needed those third eyes and Jane Campion was that for us,” Mr. Sheridan says.
The film has already had an impact in Japan.
“We thought the Japanese people wouldn’t care about it. They see it on the news every night. The opposite happened. It started a firestorm of interest,” he notes.
“Abduction” has made a mark stateside, too, playing at a dozen film festivals and picking up six awards along the way.
“It played to predominantly non-Asian crowds,” Miss Kim says proudly.
It’s hard to fathom any audience not relating to the families at the heart of the story.
The impact of the abductions is devastating. The Yokotas’ lives are never quite the same. The mother of another victim suffers severe anxiety and becomes a shell of her former self.
“Abduction” is the kind of ominous tale that will make viewers hug their loved ones a bit tighter while walking out of the theater. It also might make Kim Jong Il’s next saber rattle a bit more frightening.
For Mr. Sheridan and Miss Kim, the film could be the start of a promising big-screen career.
At the very least, the couple has made lifelong friends of Mr. and Mrs. Yokota.
“I feel like they’re close relatives by now,” Mr. Sheridan says. “It doesn’t matter that we don’t speak the same language.”
***1/2
WHAT: “Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story”
RATING: NR (Brief adult language)
CREDITS: Directed by Chris Sheridan and Patty Kim. Executive produced by Jane Campion.
RUNNING TIME: 85 minutes
WEB SITE: https://www.abductionfilm.com/ MAXIMUM RATING: FOUR STARS
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