"Soup and Ideology" Director Yang Yong-hee Depicts the moment when a mother's cooking transcends nation and ideology [Director's Interview Vol.213]

Her husband's presence is the driving force behind the film.

Yang: From the moment I met him, I told him, ``My mother had an experience like this, and I've been taking pictures of her from time to time.'' So he immediately read the book ``4.3'' and said, ``Your mother's story is a very important testimony.'' Then, about three months after we met, he proposed.

Q: That's a pretty quick proposal.

Yang: He's a year younger than me, and I've been divorced once before, so I told him, ``I appreciate your feelings, but I think you should think about it slowly.'' But he said, ``I just want to go say hello to my mom.'' When I heard that, I said, "Wait a minute..." It's hard for a challenger like him to go to the home of a Korean resident in Japan who told them, ``You can't marry a Japanese man,'' let alone a house that has portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. , I thought it was a bit like a comedy (lol).

Q: That's the scene where Mr. Arai appears. It was an unexpected and very good scene.

Yang: I don't know how my mother will react to him. They may be sarcastic and may oppose marriage. So I asked him, "Can I take a picture of him going to say hello?" Then he was like, ``Yeah!?'' But in the end he said OK. I told him to be careful and not show my face, but he said, ``If my face doesn't show, wouldn't it be boring?'' Don't give up!'' (laughs)

“Soup and Ideology” (C) PLACE TO BE, Yang Yonghi

Q: That's great determination.

Yang: The day before he was to meet his mother, I went to his parents' house in Osaka and waited for him. Then my mother bought a bunch of garlic and was peeling it. ``Tomorrow, I'm going to cook chicken early in the morning.Why don't we have lunch together?'' my mother said. I said, "So you're going to welcome him? He's so different from before!" I started saying, ``Really, it doesn't matter (nationality).'' For me, I was like, "It's too late now!" (lol).

So the next day, he came to our house and we shot that footage, and I started thinking that if he really became our new family member, we could turn it into a full-length documentary. So I told him, ``From now on, I'll photograph you every time you go to Osaka, and I'd also like to photograph our life in Tokyo.'' Then I said, ``Let's try it.''

The moment when my mother's soup transcended ideology