The documentary film Dear Pyongyang illuminates the lives of Zainichi Koreans who have resided in Japan since Korean independence, capturing the complex layers of modern Korean history. Director Yang Yonghi focuses on her father, who dedicated his life to North Korean ideology, ultimately relocating his three sons permanently to North Korea. Centering on her father’s 70th birthday celebration in Pyongyang and journey from Japan to North Korea, the director attempts to unravel the inner sentiments her father experienced throughout his almost 55-year struggle in Japan. The film captures him reflecting on his life while grappling with the reality of his only daughter in Japan and the precarious nature of her national identity as a North Korean, which she holds with respect for her father’s convictions.

This essay was originally published in Korean in Sassanggye, Vol. 210 (Relaunch No.5), 2026 New Year Special Issue

Brooklyn-based artists Xinran Guan and Sophy Chang stage Gallery 456 as a site of encounter and reflection. In Between Worlds: The Intangible Thread, the two-person show features oil paintings with dynamic brushstrokes and vibrant sculptural figures made from various materials. The artworks by the two artists seem to possess different visual logics and narratives, but these differences provide a clue as to how to embrace them within a visual dialogue, blurring the boundaries of individuals, worlds, and art itself.

A prominent Indian modern and contemporary artist, Maqbool Fida Husain (1915-2011), suffered unwilling exile after depicting Untitled (Bharat Mata) in 2006 (figure 1). Husain’s painting Untitled (Bharat Mata) depicts the Indian subcontinent as a woman folding her body in nudity, and consequently, the Hindu nationalists charged him for violating the sacred image of the goddess (Ramaswami, 2011, 2-4). The painter made the painting as a geo-body illustration, as clear by writing names of the city, such as from north of Srinagar in Kashmir, passing through Gujarat where the massacre happened in 2002, and Bhopal where the worst chemical disaster happened, and south to Cochin and Chennai (Ramaswami, 2011, 86). The wheel used in the national flag is located in the right center, indicating India herself.