The Jeju Uprsing films at NYAFF 2026: HALLAN (2025) and MY NAME (2026)

The New York Asian Film Festival has several films focusing on the Jeju Uprising which occurred in 1948 and 1949 on a small island off the Korean peninsula. 

The briefest and most basic of explanations tells the story of how in the wake of Independence Movement celebrations protests were organized, which were then crushed. This sparked revolts and those revolting fled into the forests on the sland. Authorities cracked down on everyone and people fled into the forests to get away. The authorities then moved into the forest to get the rebels which was anyone in the forests. Thousands were massacred. The incident was then covered up, especially in light of the Korean War which started shortly there after.

At least two films playing NYAFF tie directly into the Uprising (there maybe more, as I write this I haven't seen all the films).  I am mentioning this upfront because if you are not aware of the basic  history of the Uprising then these films are going to mean less to you. I say that because even though I ended up stopping HALLAN to read the Wikipedia entry, I still felt lost. While I give the festival credit for showing the films, I have to question their running films you need to have a background to fully get.

HALLAN
A mother and her daughter try and survive the horrifying events of the Jeju Uprising.

This is a well made and well intentioned war film that wears its heart on its sleeve. It not so subtlely looks to convict anyone and everyone who wasn't an islander of war crimes. There is no gray here and the film very much wants everyone to feel the pain. I'm not certain it always works since the film, for all the truth feels stacked. The result was the while ending wants to leave us broken I was simply ready to move onto the next film.

MY NAME 
The story of a mother and son trying to deal with their pasts and the damage it cost. The son has to deal with the issues that his name, and the trauma his mother fed him, causes him in life, while his mother has to deal with the hidden pain in her past- she was one of the survivors the Jeju Uprising.

This is an okay film that could have used another pass at the script stage. I say that because while the story of the mother finally coming to terms with the hidden secrets of her past is interesting and not quite something we've seen before , the son's story is much more by the numbers. It might have worked had that been the focus but the stuff involving the mother is so strong it makes the film seem weaker.