2016 / CN Editorial / 1999-made Korean film screening at Little Tokyo would not heal wounds

The screening schedule of “Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women” on Wednesday, April 27 at 4:30 pm at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo already draws strong oppositions from the Japanese-speaking community in Los Angeles.

The screening schedule of highly politically motivated film “Silence Broken” was set as a program of the 32nd annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.

The original and ongoing mission of this film festival is to promote Asian and Asian Pacific American cinema. And the LAAPFF has been successful because the festival becomes the premiere screenings of important new works as well as the development and nurturing of emerging talents via innovative programming initiatives by sponsored organization Visual Communications.

The Korean comfort women issue is the most sensitive and difficult agenda between Japanese and Korean governments for last several decades. The latest governmental agreement to support former comfort women was reached in December 2015.

It was 17 years ago when “Silence Broken” was released in 1999. The screening of the highly political-motivated film at the 2016 LAAPFF does not fit the purpose of the film festival to introduce emerging filmmakers from Asian counties and the U.S.

The screening of “Silence Broken” in Little Tokyo would draw only more backlash from each side, and would not heal wounds of the wartime experiences.