Ryun-hee Kim, a North Korean housewife, leaves home in order to receive supplementary health care in China, only to find herself working off the incurred debts in South Korea. When she is discovered, she is accused of being a spy and forced to become a South Korean citizen against her will. Separated from her family in Pyongyang, she defiantly tries to return by any means possible. She attempts to smuggle herself out of the country, seeks political asylum at the Vietnamese embassy, and stages protests and appeals to the media and government for assistance. But all her efforts are in vain. Shadow Flowers logs her protracted struggle as she is sabotaged and denied by an absurd and hypocritical political situation of reverse defection. In one woman's desire for reunification with her loved ones, we observe an even larger one in the complicated politics, propaganda and history of Korea as a whole. Angie Driscoll
Co-presented with Korean Cultural Center
World Showcase program sponsored by
