Drama, Period

Yakiniku Dragon

焼肉ドラゴン

Directed by: Wishing Chong
2018 / 126 minutes / Under 15s must be accompanied by an adult

Charred by the outside world, tender at heart

Screens in all JFF Main cities.

From their ramshackle yakiniku restaurant, a Korean family endure the battles of their migrant experience in Japan. Having united their torn families together after Korean War, Yong-Gil (Kim Sang-Ho) and Young-Soon (Lee Jung-Eun) are model migrant parents: industrious, resilient, and working tirelessly to support their three daughters and youngest son.

The two elder sisters, one of whom has a permanent limp, are locked in a romantic rivalry; while their younger half-sister develops a romance with a married man. Pinned by the hopes of their father, younger brother Tokio (Shinpei Ooe) struggles to attend his private high school, where his bullying highlights the discrimination of ‘outsiders’.

While planes fly overhead and urban development progresses, the family and the small Korean community resist the government’s eviction notices. In the most trying circumstances, somehow, they’ll find a way to see their makeshift world stay afloat.

Jeonju International Film Festival 2018 Opening Film