ABDUCTION The Megumi Yokota Story (For Educational/Institutional Use)
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Film Overview

Directed By: Chris Sheridan Directed By: Patty Kim View Official Website	Release Date: 2006-11-20 Running Time: 1:25 Content Rating: PG (Parental Guidance)	DVD Region: All Regions Media Format: NTSC-DVD Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Audio Language(s): Japanese, Korean Subtitle Language(s): English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin
Genres: Documentary >> International :: Documentary >> Politics :: Documentary >> Crime & Conspiracy

Synopsis

In November, 1977, 13-year-old Megumi Yokota was walking home from school when she vanished. For 20 years, her parents had no idea where she was or even if she was alive. One day, the whole world learned the shocking truth: Megumi had been abducted by North Korean secret agents. What begins as a simple missing persons case turns into a battle between two nations as Megumi's parents turn their personal tragedy into a public campaign to bring their daughter home. Called, "spine-tingling" by the Los Angeles Times and "engrossing" by the New York Times, this tale of mystery, espionage and deceit is also a testimony to a parents' love for their child and the lengths they're willing to go to reunite their family. Winner of numerous film festival awards and hailed by critics, this film will make you hug your loved ones tighter as you sit on the edge of your seat hoping for a happy ending for Megumi's parents. Executive Producer of this film is Jane Campion, the Oscar-winning director of "The Piano".

Cast

Megumi's Mom: Sakie Yokota | bio
Sakie Yokota is the mother of Megumi, the girl whose disappearance in the film sparks an international incident.
Megumi's Dad: Shigeru Yokota | bio
Shigeru Yokota is the father of Megumi, whose disappearance sparked an international incident.
Rumiko's Brother: Teruaki Masumoto | bio
Teruaki Masumoto is the brother of Rumiko, who was kidnapped by North Korean secret agents in 1978.

Crew

Director: Chris Sheridan | bio
Chris Sheridan is an award-winning producer/director whose work has been seen on CBS News, NBC News, CNN, the National Geographic Channel and MSNBC. "ABDUCTION The Megumi Yokota Story" is his first feature-length documentary. He runs Safari Media along with his wife Patty Kim.
Director: Patty Kim | bio
Patty Kim is an award-winning producer/director whose work has been seen on the Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, Canada's CBC and PBS. She runs Safari Media along with her husband Chris Sheridan.
Executive Producer: Jane Campion | bio
Jane Campion is an Oscar-winning director best known for her fiction filmmaking. Jane's films include "Sweetie", "The Piano", "An Angel At My Table", "Portrait of a Lady","Holy Smoke" and "In The Cut". Her film, "The Piano" was an international smash hit winning three Oscars as well as the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Associate Producer: Yuko Kawabe | bio
Yuko Kawabe started on the film as an interpreter/translator but quickly made her mark as a solid producer. She was promoted to the role of Associate Producer in the summer of 2005. "ABDUCTION The Megumi Yokota Story" is her first feature film.
Composer: Shoji Kameda | bio
Shoji Kameda is a professional musician/composer and founding member of On Ensemble, a California-based group that combines Eastern and Western musical influences to produce some of the most original sounds anywhere. He is an expert and master of Asian instruments and has studied among some of the finest performers in Japan.

Bonus Features

Making Of Featurette
Deleted & Extended Scenes
Director Commentary
Theatrical Trailers
Outtakes

Accolades

Awards

Winner, Audience Award, Best Documentary, Slamdance Film Festival 2006
Winner, Audience Award, Best Documentary, Omaha Film Festival 2006
Winner, Jury Award, Best Documentary, Asian Film Festival of Dallas 2006
Winner, Jury Award, Best Documentary, Austin Film Festival 2006
Top Ten Favorite, Hot Docs Film Festival 2006
Top Five Audience Favorite, Sydney Film Festival 2006
Nominee, Best Documentary, Starz Denver Film Festival 2006
Nominee, Best Documentary, Atlanta Film Festival 2006
Nominee, Best Documentary, United Nations International Film Festival on Human R
Winner, Best Documentary, San Francisco International Asian American Film Festiv

Festivals

Official Selection, Independent Film Festival of Boston
Official Selection, Cleveland International Film Festival 2006
Official Selection, Docaviv (Tel Aviv) Film Festival 2007
Official Selection, IDFA 2006
Official Selection, IDA Docuweek Theatrical Showcase 2006
Official Selection, New Zealand International Film Festival 2006
Official Selection, Bangkok International Film Festival 2007

Press Reviews

Los Angeles Times | show/hide snippet
"It starts in spine-tingling detective saga fashion with the disappearance of a 13-year-old Japanese girl in 1977 but suddenly turns into an espionage tale when it's determined that the choir-singing, beach-loving Megumi was one of multiple kidnappings at the hands of North Korean spies...All this is rendered with not only narrative mastery but also an exquisitely photographic and aural sense of humanity and place, of memory and the present, with lingering interstitial shots of Japan's natural beauty and its modern metropolises that play as if Ozu had directed a sobering "Frontline" report. Perhaps it's no wonder the ghostly ache of "Abduction" — the filmmakers' poetic sense of how the missing can dominate our lives in a way they might not have had they never vanished — captured the eye of one of modern cinema's most resonant chroniclers of souls in transition: Jane Campion, who joined the project as an executive producer."
New York Times | show/hide snippet
“Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story” is an engrossing nonfiction detective tale about the 13-year-old girl of the title, who vanished on the way home from school in Niigata, Japan, in 1977. But it also succeeds as a thumbnail review of a painful chapter of Asian history, and as a portrait of lives transformed by trauma."
Chicago Tribune | show/hide snippet
"This superb, quite moving film (in Japanese with English subtitles) combines interviews, news footage and some reality TV-like sequences and works on a number of levels. It's a gruesome story of one decent family's nightmare, a shocking account of international intrigue and a case study in the Japanese character, one capable of extraordinary grace under pressure."
New York Post | show/hide snippet
"Abduction" uses interviews, vintage photos and re-creations to tell the sad story of love and hope in riveting, suspenseful style. So powerful is this film, it brought tears to my eyes."
Anthony Lane, The New Yorker | show/hide snippet
"The events that unfold in the new documentary “Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story” could have been told as fiction, but they would have seemed too much—too unbelievable, too merciless...But the testimony gathered here gives the film an enduring grip, and none of us could hope to match the forbearing persistence of Megumi’s parents. The worst aspect is, as so often, the most prosaic: the main reason that North Korea stole human beings was because it needed language teachers for its spies. All that grief, just for a chance to talk."