Tiger Spirit

Dunchon Jugong Apts. at the edge of the metropolis, Seoul. It has been over 10 years since discussions of rebuilding these old apartment complexes began. The inhabitants tell us about their soon-to-be-demolished houses and apartments. Some of them have spent long spans of time here and some of them short. Some people are now raising daughters in the house they lived in since their childhood, some families came from other places and struggled to adjust. Each add their different forms of love to this space in their own way. As the long-postponed reconstruction nears reality, the day-to-day scenery of the apartment complexes and households is quietly coming to a close.

The film deals with the rights of Japanese-Koreans -born in Japan but without Japanese passport or nationality- and the social rejection that they face if they don’t integrate completely, abandoning their Korean identity. The film’s main thread is the story of a Korean man, who in the times of the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula, is sent to Japan to fight along with the Japanese in the Philippines, but after the war and fearing discrimination, creates a Japanese identity for himself and manages to get married and have children without his family ever knowing about his origins for 50 years until he is arrested in 1985 for forging official documents and in suspicion of being a spy from North Korea. (…) © timegoesbyin.wordpress.com/tag/i-wanted-to-be-japanese

Tracing the footsteps of North Korean orphans who went to Poland during the Korean War, two women, one from the North and the other from the South, bond through the solidarity of wound and forge together a path toward healing.

This is a journey like no other, after several months of wrangling with North Korean authorities in Paris reporters Michaël Sztanke and Julien Alri obtained a visa for Pyongyang but as soon as they arrived the scene was set by a compulsory photo shoot. Journalists are kept under close surveillance and to go to North Korea is to accept the presence of guides who provide supervision 24 hours a day, their primary role is to protect the countries image. In North Korea’s eyes every foreigner is a potential enemy who must be closely watched, this being said Sztanke and Alri attempt to delve deeper into the inner workings of the hermit kingdom, discovering the real nature of this political regime and how life is for your everyday North Korean.

Portrait of Mrs. B., a tough charismatic North Korean woman who smuggles between North Korea, China and South Korea. With the money she gets, she plans to reunite with her two North Korean sons after years of separation.

Nora Noh, the best fashion designer, who dominated the scene of Korean women’s fashion and culture of the time. She was the first person ever to hold a fashion show in Korea and to make designer readymade clothes. She boldly dressed the Korean singer Yoon Bok-hee in a miniskirt and styled the duo vocal group Pearl Sisters in pantallong (flare-style pants). One day, when Noh was preparing for her show, a young stylist named Suh Eun-young comes to see her out of the blue. What kind of show will the two of them create amidst their differences and conflicts?

This two-hour special reveals the complicated history, extreme politic, and rigid societal standards that have created a legacy of internal oppression and external aggression. As the North Korean people suffered famine, labor camp and public executions, the Kim regime spent three generations relentlessly pursuing nuclear ambitions. They operate as a criminal syndicate, using counterfeit money, drugs and cyber espionage to fund their war machine. Now, with weapons rivaling the world’s superpowers, their aggressive rhetoric has pushed the world to a crisis point.

Korea's past was whale worship; its present is industry. Is the future whales AND industry?

"You belong to the country for the next two years." The film describes Woo-cheol's struggles with becoming part of a group while trying to maintain his individuality throughout his military service period. A humorous yet cynical portrait of military groupism.

Things That Do Us Part is a documentary that reframes the stories of three women fighters who dove into a tragic war in modern Korean history, using witness statements and reenactments.

Sexual violence against women has accompanied almost every large-scale conflict, yet most of its victims are silenced. One such sad episode is that of the "comfort women," or more accurately, the estimated 200,000 women who were recruited to sexually serve the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. As part of this immense system, many young women from all over Japan's occupied territories in Asia were forced into service where they faced rape, torture and extreme violence at military camps, euphemistically termed "comfort stations.'

The film describes the microcosmos of the small village Wacken and shows the clash of the cultures, before and during the biggest heavy metal festival in Europe.

No warheads, no jackbooted soldiers, no statues of the god-emperor – instead, this is a poetic, evocative snapshot of everyday life in North Korea, the country ruled by the world’s most paranoid and secretive regime.

Operating under a pseudonym which means 'no boundaries' - North Korean defector Sun Mu creates political pop art based on his life, homeland, and hope for a future united Korea. His hidden identity is nearly compromised when a massive historical exhibit in Beijing is shuttered by Chinese and North Korean authorities.

Founder of VICE Shane Smith spends an eternity on a train and hops out at the end of the line in Siberia to investigate logging camps that use North Korean slave labor.

Recording Nguyen Thi Thanh, the only survivor of Phong Nhi Phong Nhat massacre, where civilians were killed during the Vietnam War. Having lost all of her family at the age of eight and survived by herself, she is an open witness to the massacre of Vietnamese civilians and demands an official apology from the Korean government.

Punk bands in Korea get invited to biggest hardcore punk festival in Tokyo. This movie shows how one of the loudest and most active punk bands in Asia live and deliver message very closely and pleasantly.

Miryang Arirang - Legend of Miryang 2

The Lark Ascending

A journey through several countries to find those who really know Kim Jong-un, North Korea's leader, in an attempt to profile a contradictory dictator who seems to rule his nation with both disturbing benevolence and cold cruelty while being worshipped as a living god by his subjects in exalted displays of ridiculous fanaticism.