Shin Sook-Ok, one of Japan’s most prominent women’s rights activists, became the target of Japan’s far-right after a terrestrial TV network broadcast fake news about her in 2019. Facing threats to annihilate her family, she fled to Germany and sought asylum. Having left Japan behind, Shin now returns to document her ongoing lawsuit against DHC Television. Her voice, intertwined with the hundred-year history of the Zainichi Koreans, resonates through the courtroom in Tokyo and echoes out into the world.

After Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonialism in 1945, many Koreans in Japan (Zainichi) who could not return to their homeland survived by taking discarded animal intestines from Japanese butchers—grilling them to eat and sell. That was the beginning of horumon (offal barbecue). I first encountered Shin Sook-Ok, while studying in Japan. She was on a television debate show about Korea–Japan relations. I still vividly remember shouting “Hurrah!” in excitement in my small rented room as I watched her calmly dismantle the logic of a far-right commentator. After graduating from film school, I met her again while making a documentary about hate speech. By then, her aura—delivering bold speeches in Japan’s National Diet—had grown even stronger. She exuded a powerful, positive energy that captivated everyone around her.
When I saw her again recently, however, she shed tears of deep sorrow. After being singled out by a far-right terrestrial TV station, Shin endured relentless threats and had to flee to Germany to live in exile. Eventually, the Tokyo District Court ruled partially in her favor in a defamation lawsuit against DHC Television, ordering the broadcaster to pay about 58 million won (approx. 6 million yen) in damages. I told her I wanted to make a documentary with her as the protagonist. She replied, “No more Zainichi melodramas. It is time to create something wonderful to pass on to the next generation.” And then she added, “If so, I will devote my very body to it.” This film is my answer to her.
The narrative unfolds along two major intertwined tracks: 1) The story of three generations of women in the Shin family, and 2) The ongoing narrative centered on Shin Sook-Ok’s lawsuit. Moving fluidly between past and present, the film reimagines the past through cinematic images that merge the movements of contemporary dancers and the dances of elderly Zainichi women, evoking layered emotions. Finally, the film confronts forms of internal violence within the Zainichi community—against women, within families, and through ethnicity—connecting them to external state violence. Horumon offers an opportunity to reflect on a century of East Asian modern history and serves as a powerful wake-up call to a Japanese society drifting toward right-wing extremism.

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