LOOKING FOR THE WOLF
(aka EAST ASIA ANTI-JAPAN ARMED FRONT)
(동아시아반일무장전선)
dir. Kim Mirye, 2018
74 min. South Korea.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

SATURDAY, MAY 3 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, MAY 16 – 5 PM
TUESDAY, MAY 20 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 28 – 10 PM

A blast shook the office buildings in Tokyo on August 30th, 1974. A time bomb had detonated and blown up part of the headquarters of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, leaving eight people dead and hundreds injured. The ‘Wolf’ cell, a unit of the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front, claimed responsibility. Others, claiming to belong to the cells ‘Fangs of the Earth’ and ‘Scorpion’, carried out a series of bombings, targeting major corporations. Deeply conscious of Japan’s imperialist heritage, the members of the horizontal network EAAJAF were committed to ending the history of Japanese capitalist exploitation in Asia. More than 40 years have passed since then. Some members are no longer in the world, others remain incarcerated, while still others remain at large. In search of traces of these revolutionaries, the Korean documentarist Kim Mirye makes a painstaking trip through the Japanese archipelago, from the day-laborer district in Osaka to the northern marshes of Ainu Mosir (known as Hokkaido). Looking straight in the eyes of those who came together in support of the EAAJAF, despite the glaring shortcomings of the group’s project, she challenges us to discover what is left unthought and unimagined within our notions of Japan and East Asia.

KIM MIRYE‘s work has constantly zoomed in on the experience of exclusion in the everyday life of ordinary people, compelled by their energy. While her films investigate a nd uncover the structural and historical roots of their dehumanization, they invite viewers to share in the protagonists’ perspectives on life, prompting them to reflect on their own grasp of life in relationship to others and the world. Her films have won awards at Fribourg International Film Festival (2004) and DMZ International Documentary Film Festival (2015). Spectacle first showed LOOKING FOR THE WOLF as well as her documentary NOGADA – about the migrant laborers who constitute “the scorned base of the pyramidal system that rules the construction sector in South Korea and Japan” – in 2022.

Special thanks to Hajime Imamasa, Sabo Kohso, Ken Sasaki and Kim Mirye.