[Anchor]

Back in 2016, there was a film called "Spirits' Homecoming" that made a massive impact. The former Japanese military comfort woman who served as its motif passed away recently, and the film is returning to theaters after 10 years. Plans are also underway for its official theatrical release in Japan.

Reporter Lee Joo-hyoung has the story.

[Reporter]


Sprouting from a single drawing, the film achieved a miraculous box-office success with 3.5 million viewers in 2016.

[Cho Jung-rae / Director of "Spirits' Homecoming" (at the time of the 2016 initial release): After seeing the drawing titled 'Burning Virgins' drawn by Grandmother Kang Il-chul, I was deeply shocked. I received inspiration from it and began writing the scenario.]

Amid public backlash against the Park Geun-hye administration's so-called "final and irreversible" South Korea-Japan comfort women agreement, the film "Spirits' Homecoming" raised its production costs through public crowdfunding and created a huge wave as the first commercial film dealing with comfort women victims.

[Late Kang Il-chul / Comfort Woman Victim (at the special preview in 2015): Even if we leave this world, the people of the Republic of Korea, I will never forget them.]

At the time of its release, there were 47 comfort woman survivors. However, with Grandmother Kang Il-chul passing away last March, only five remain now.

And at the end of this month, the film will be re-released after 10 years.

[Cho Jung-rae / Director of "Spirits' Homecoming": The biggest motivation for deciding to re-release this film was the passing of the grandmother, and also because Grandmother Lee Yong-soo, one of the survivors, told me, 'Do what you can do,' which really made me make up my mind.]

The re-released version, featuring an additional six minutes of unreleased footage dealing with a Chinese victim, held a screening in Osaka, Japan, last month.

About 200 audience members, including Zainichi Koreans as well as Japanese citizens, attended the screenings held just for three sessions across a single day.

[Japanese Audience Member: I thought that everyone must not forget this painful and difficult matter.]

[Japanese Audience Member: I hope people live today knowing that Japan did such things in the past.]

The director stated that "Spirits' Homecoming," which failed to get an official release 10 years ago due to threats from the far-right during its first Japanese screening, has received an offer for an official release this time and is currently in discussions with Japanese theaters.

(Video by Choi Ho-jun | Video Editing by Ahn Yeo-jin)