SYNOPSIS

In 1943, an ingenuous 14-year-old girl, Jeong-min is
 taken away from her family by Japanese army. Jeongmin
 is accompanied with lots of other girls including
 Young-hee who also is brought in a train whose
 destination is unknown to the girls. Jeong-min and
 other girls are thrown out into the middle of a freezing
 battle field of World War II. What awaits them is the
 site filled with miserable pain and agony forged by
 Japanese soldiers.

Program Note

In Joseon in 1943 a 14-year-old girl
 named Jeong-min (Kang Ha-na) is drawn to a strange place by the Imperial
 Japanese Army without even knowing why, and, from that time, she is forced to
 live a horrendous life as a sex salve in Japanese military brothels. In 1991,
 South Korea, Eun-kyeong (Choe Ri) is sexually assaulted by a recently
 discharged criminal, and witnesses the death of her father and the perpetrator
 who fight against each other in front of her very eyes. Her shock makes her into
 a psychic, and she becomes connected to the painful space and time in which
 Jeong-min is shackled, able to hear her voice.

Spirit\'s
 Homecoming line-height:115%;mso-ascii-font-family:\" 맑은=\"\" 고딕\";mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;=\"\" mso-fareast-font-family:\"맑은=\"\" 고딕\";mso-fareast-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-font-family:=\"\" \"맑은=\"\" 고딕\";mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin\"=\"\"> depicts women’s lives in the face of
 sexual assault, hovering between the last days of Japanese Empire and the
 present day through the act of spiritual calming. In this sense, the spiritual calming
 in this film represents the symbolic meaning of the ‘Statue of Peace,’ which
 the Japanese government is trying to take down. The shadow of a girl with her
 fists clenched in the statue looks like that of an elderly woman, and the
 butterfly of hope flies upon the chest of the shadow, which stands for the
 official apology from the Japanese government, and an institutional settlement
 of the pain. Connecting the present with the past, and survivors with victims,
 the statue shows the will for spiritual healing through the act of remembering
 the past. This film is also the story of healing made possible by the encounter
 of the dead and the living.

 line-height:115%;mso-ascii-font-family:\" 맑은=\"\" 고딕\";mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;=\"\" mso-fareast-font-family:\"맑은=\"\" 고딕\";mso-fareast-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-font-family:=\"\" \"맑은=\"\" 고딕\";mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin\"=\"\">An unexpected box office smash hit, this
 film was one of the biggest issues in the South Korean film industry during the
 first half of 2016. Its total audience reached 3.5 million under the communal
 anger aroused by the December 28th ‘irreversible agreement.’ The audience’s
 support for this film sheds a clear light on the necessity to endeavor for a just
 solution between the Japanese and South Korean governments, instead of the
 communal creation of a scapegoat from the victims of the Japanese Imperial Military’s
 ‘Comfort Women.’ [Jay SOHN]