Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:23
Fresh:19
Rotten:4
Average Rating:7.2/10
Synopsis: Produced by Jane Campion and directed by Christ Sheridan and Patty Kim, this documentary examines the life of Megumi Yokota, a 13-year-old girl living in 1977 Japan who is abducted by North Korean... [More]
Director: Chris Sheridan, Patty Kim
Reviews for Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story
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 2/5 |
This topic deserved better than America's Most Wanted. Full Review |
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Abduction is a skillful interweaving of emotional, personal stories with the thicker strands of history, and a reminder that in reality such tales rarely have a tidy end. Full Review |
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3.5/4 |
Incredibly powerful -- and never more so than when the filmmakers turn their cameras on the Yokotas and other victims' families, many of whom channel their pain and anger into political activism. Full Review |
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3.5/4 |
This superb, quite moving film combines interviews, news footage and some reality TV-like sequences and works on a number of levels. Full Review |
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B- |
... as thickets of history and culture are (too) neatly avoided, the viewer is also left in the dark. Full Review |
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The events that unfold in the new documentary Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story could have been told as fiction, but they would have seemed too much -- too unbelievable, too merciless. Full Review |
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4.5/5 |
This is one of the best docs in quite a while. Full Review |
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There's no denying the fascinating nature of the story, about a 13-year-old Japanese girl whose mysterious 1977 disappearance was ultimately credited to nothing less than a kidnapping by North Korean spies. Full Review |
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3.5/4 |
At heart, it remains a wrenching human-interest story about a group of family members who refuse to allow their loved ones to become casualties of international diplomacy by simply disappearing. Full Review |
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3/4 |
Abduction uses interviews, vintage photos and re-creations to tell the sad story of love and hope in riveting, suspenseful style. So powerful is this film, it brought tears to my eyes. Full Review |
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3/4 |
Canadians Chris Sheridan and Patty Kim's spellbinding documentary focuses on the relentless search for the truth by Megumi's parents and families of other abductees. Full Review |
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B- |
This is a fascinating, underreported piece of recent world history, but Patty Kim and Chris Sheridan's documentary Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story doesn't do it full justice. Full Review |
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4/5 |
The documentary Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story succeeds as a true crime story and is compassionate and engrossing throughout. Full Review |
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6/10 |
A touching but slender piece on the number one news piece in Japan. But what is the rest of the story? Full Review |
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3/4 |
The temptation to juice up the squalid elements of this story would be hard to resist for most filmmakers. Yet, for the most part, [the directors] manage to balance the story's jolting, world-shaking elements with the more intimate details. Full Review |
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Abduction unfolds as a tightly plotted mystery, and it wouldn't be fair to reveal much more than that. Full Review |
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4/5 |
The story it tells is a shattering mystery of violation and loss, if only because by the end, certain answers only lead to more punishing questions. Full Review |
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The documentary never finds the appropriate rhythm to match the severity of its subject matter. Full Review |
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Details a Japanese cause célèbre with ramifications for Pacific Rim Asia and, today, for world politics at the highest levels. Full Review |
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3/4 |
Abduction pushes its poignant buttons while casting Megumi's kidnapping as a heinous crime, yet to its credit, it consistently does so with a deftly understated, devastating touch. Full Review |
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