Through the Night (Yoru o kakete)

U.S. premiere.

2002, 133 min., 35mm. Directed by Kim Sujin. Written by Shoichi Maruyama, based on the novel by Yan Sogil. With Taro Yamamoto, Ryoo Jyounkyoung, Kirin Kiki, Ri Reisen and Nijiko Kiyokawa. Print courtesy of Cine Qua Non.

Kim Sujin, a famed zainichi (a Korean born and living in Japan) theater director, made his debut as a film director by adapting Yan Sogil’s popular tragi-comic novel. Set in 1958, the story portrays the harsh lives of the Koreans who collected and sold iron scraps from a wartime military factory in Osaka in order to survive. The huge set was constructed in Korea and shot with a Korean and Japanese crew and cast, starring charismatic Taro Yamamoto.