Coalminer Yong-Soo of North Hamkyong Province led a poor but relatively happy life with his wife and son, Jun, until the pregnant wife — weakened by malnutrition — was found to have tuberculosis. A doctor prescribed medicine, but Yong-Soo could not find it in North Korea.
Coalminer Yong-Soo of North Hamkyong Province, and his son, as depicted by actors in the feature film "Crossing."
DailyNK.com
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He decided to cross the river into China to earn money and get the medicine for his pregnant wife, leaving her with his young son. He was arrested by Chinese agents for illegal entry. But after being approached by a South Korean broker, made his way to Seoul where he found the medicine he had so desperately sought.
After saving money, he employed a broker to bring his family to South Korea. However, his wife had already died. He paid to have his son cross the border into Mongolia, but the boy died in the desert.
The story touched on similar experiences most North Korean defectors share, but this well-made and fast-paced film depicted the North Korean refuges’ life so vividly that they were heard frequently uttering the words “yes, yes” throughout the movie. “The scenes were so real and exactly like we experienced,” one said afterwards.
Director Kim Tae-Kyun said he tried to edit out divisive ideology from the movie and leave only the “true face of South and North Korea without makeup.”
Kim said he had been haunted by an image he saw on TV five years ago of a North Korean boy picking a noodle off the ground, rinsing it in dirty water and eating it.
“If 10 million people see this movie, they may change the fate of the people in North Korea,” said actor Cha In-Pyo, who played the coalminer.
"Crossing" is scheduled for a preview at the European Parliament in Brussels in early July, at which the real refuge father will be introduced.
“I am so happy that I can do what I always wanted but could not in North Korea,” said Kim Chul-Yong, a North Korean defector who worked as an assistant director on the film.
