Movies Similar to Yellow Ribbon

K-Family Affairs(2025)

In her first feature-length documentary, filmmaker Nam Arum turns her camera on her parents, two members of South Korea’s 386 Generation. The political activism of this generation came to a head in June 1987 with major protests that forced the authoritarian government to hold universal suffrage elections and implement key democratic reforms. Over 35 years later, the filmmaker reflects on the state of this democracy through a warm-hearted family portrait set against the backdrop of the country’s recent history. Using a personal and intimate cinematic style, Arum examines her father's adherence to conventionality as a high-ranking civil servant and her mother's fervent enthusiasm as a feminist activist. In the midst of these two contrasting dynamics, Arum seeks to discover her own role and how she can contribute to social change.

The Talent Show(2023)

Middle-aged women start acting and launch a drama club. However, nothing big or small goes right. But they never give up the play.

Patriot Game 2 - To Call a Deer a Horse(2019)

My Love, Don't Cross That River(2014)

There lives a couple known as "100-year-old lovebirds". They're like fairy tale characters: the husband is strong like a woodman, and the wife is full of charms like a princess. They dearly love each other, wear Korean traditional clothes together, and still fall asleep hand in hand. However, death, quietly and like a thief, sits between them. This film starts from that moment, and follows the last moments of 76 years of their marriage.

The VICE Guide to North Korea(2008)

"Getting into North Korea was one of the hardest and weirdest processes VBS has ever dealt with. They finally said, “OK, OK, you can come. But only as tourists.” At the airport, the North Korean consulate brought us to a restaurant and these women came out and started singing North Korean nationalist songs. We were thinking, “Look, we were just on a plane for 20 hours. Can we just go to bed?” but this guy with our group who was from the LA Times told us, “Everyone in here besides us is secret police. If you don’t act excited then you’re not going to get your visa. So we got drunk and jumped up onstage and sang songs with the girls. The next day we got our visas. A lot of people we had gone with didn’t get theirs. That was our first hint at just what a freaky, freaky trip we were embarking on…" -VICE Founder Shane Smith

Ghost Ship(2020)

A thousand lies to conceal the truth of the Sewol Ferry. As many as 1,000 ships, 160,000 AIS data, were manipulated to hide the truth behind the sinking of the Sewol Ferry on April 16, 2014. Who are the organizers of this and why did they build a ghost ship! We must ask persistent questions. Since that day, nothing has been revealed yet. Government AIS data of a thousand lies. Now it is time for the Korean prosecution to answer.

Project Cheonan Ship(2013)

Interpreting an event of ROKS Cheonan corvette, torpedoed and sunken by North Korea, this documentary rebuilds the event with a different insight. No one can tell if the investigation of Cheonan has reached compelling conclusion. But the film tells and reveals how unreasonable Korean society is.

After Diving Bell(2018)

A documentary that reports on the the rescue failure of the Sewol incident. In the days of media control, Park Geun-hye and her government sabotaged the screening of "Diving Bell" at the Busan International Film Festival.

Intention(2018)

A documentary that scientifically analyses and tracks down the route of the Sewol Ferry that sank on the 16th of April in 2014 using its AIS to discover the cause of the unconfirmed sinking.

Army(2018)

"You belong to the country for the next two years." The film describes Woo-cheol's struggles with becoming part of a group while trying to maintain his individuality throughout his military service period. A humorous yet cynical portrait of military groupism.

Cruel State(2015)

In April 2014, the entire nation of South Korea watched on television live as The Sewol capsized off the coast of Jindo. The tragedy left life-long wounds in the hearts of people whose family and friends had been among the 304 passengers killed. The majority of the victims were high school students on a school trip. Their parents were not even given the luxury of grieving, as they had to camp out in front of the Parliament, City Hall and the Presidential House, asking for only one thing - to know the truth about why their children had been left to die. But after more than a year, that truth has yet to be brought to light. This film is a documentation of the year-long struggle and painful soul-searching of people destined to be labelled as 'bereaved families' for the rest of their lives, as they come face to face with the naked face of their cruel country.

In the Absence(2018)

When the MV Sewol ferry sank off the coast of South Korea in 2014, over three hundred people lost their lives, most of them schoolchildren. Years later, the victims’ families and survivors are still demanding justice from national authorities.

Aim High In Creation!(2013)

A revolutionary film about the cinematic genius of North Korea's late Dear Leader Kim Jung-IL, with a groundbreaking experiment at its heart - a propaganda film, made according to the rules of his 1987 manifesto. Through the shared love of cinema, AIM HIGH IN CREATION! forges an astonishing new bond between the hidden filmmakers of North Korea and their Free World collaborators. Revealing an unexpected truth about the most isolated nation on earth: filmmakers, no matter where they live, are family.

I Wish I Could Be Japanese(1992)

The film deals with the rights of Japanese-Koreans -born in Japan but without Japanese passport or nationality- and the social rejection that they face if they don’t integrate completely, abandoning their Korean identity. The film’s main thread is the story of a Korean man, who in the times of the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula, is sent to Japan to fight along with the Japanese in the Philippines, but after the war and fearing discrimination, creates a Japanese identity for himself and manages to get married and have children without his family ever knowing about his origins for 50 years until he is arrested in 1985 for forging official documents and in suspicion of being a spy from North Korea. (…) © timegoesbyin.wordpress.com/tag/i-wanted-to-be-japanese

Tiger Spirit(2008)

Korea is a divided nation. Filmmaker Min Sook Lee sets out on a revelatory, emotion-charged journey into Korea’s broken heart, exploring the rhetoric and realism of reunification through the extraordinary stories of ordinary people.

No Money, No Future(2017)

Punk bands in Korea get invited to biggest hardcore punk festival in Tokyo. This movie shows how one of the loudest and most active punk bands in Asia live and deliver message very closely and pleasantly.

Reset(2025)

On April 16th, 2014, the Sewol Ferry sank in South Korea, taking with it the lives of 304 of its 476 passengers. South Korea's worst maritime disaster traumatized a nation while simultaneously sinking the country's emotional spirit. The film asks why the rescue of Korea's children and people was neglected on the fateful day the Sewol sank.

Eastern Memories(2018)

At the turn of the 19th and 20th century Finnish philologist G. J. Ramstedt travelled around Mongolia and Central-Asia. In this documentary Ramstedt’s memoirs are heard in the modern day setting, where tradition is replaced with hunger for money, and deserts give way to cities.

The Cross of North Gando(2019)

The Christians of North Gando lose their country and leave their hometown, but gain the Gospel. The cross they hold in their hands is the symbol of daring for independence and a royal summon of the generation they have to endure. Historian Sim Yo Han retraces the footsteps of the late Father Moon Dong Hwan and finds meanings of the anti-Japanese independence movement hidden in various parts of North Gando.

The Truth Shall Not Sink with Sewol(2014)

A documentary on the South Korean ferry disaster that claimed the lives of more than 300 passengers in April, 2014.