Her Story - Movie Review

As soon as I saw that this film was centered around Korean comfort women in the HIFF program, I knew I had to watch this movie. As someone very close to my Korean heritage and knowing the horrific history behind these women's struggles, it felt wrong for me to not gain more information about that cultural history. For me, this was very personal and I knew it would arouse my emotions (which it did).

In a nutshell, Her Story retells the narrative of the Shimonoseki trials that occurred during the 1990's. Essentially, former comfort women from Busan, South Korea participated in these trials against the Japanese government for some monetary compensation and a formal apology for the abuse and sufferings they and other women experienced.

This film put me on an emotional rollercoaster (also, I have some bias because I'm part Korean but not the point)--I felt happiness, excitement, sorrow, anger, amusement, and curiosity. I'm not a fan of slow-paced movies, but it was very important for this film because it wasn't about telling the story in "boxes." By that I mean, 'x caused y, then z happened. The slow pacing was to retell the narrative, but most importantly, to ensure the audience understands the series of events. Along with that, the audience was able to connect with the various comfort women, who each had a unique and distinct personality, and learn their stories.

The process of establishing a relationship between the audience and characters was successful, especially when we began to hear some of the horrific acts the women suffered. What stung a lot for me was knowing the accuracy of these types of accounts, and that these women have passed or continue to live on without the apology they want--there is no closure for them. Tears were coming from my eyes, but I didn't turn my head or move too much so my friends couldn't see me crying. After a rolling wave of tension, there were so many great moments of comic relief and humor that had me pointing to my friends saying, "That's you!" or "That's me."

Overall, I'm really happy I got to see the film, but I should watch these types of films alone so I can cry by myself. I don't think I learned anything new that shocked me; instead, it only added to my knowledge surrounding Korean comfort women. If anything caught me by surprise, it was the concepts of "anti-Japan" messages against Korean women trying to grasp and retain strength in telling their trauma. From my perspective, I see it as women trying to tell their stories for internal peace/closure, for a nation to acknowledge and apologize for its crimes, and to teach a lesson to prevent it from happening again.