In the 1980s, North Korean mass culture experienced an unprecedented influx of films and fiction on foreign themes.

These works invited audiences to a bright, unfamiliar world and were popular; though the most popular were films and fiction which depicted the lives of Zainichi (Japanese) Koreans.  

Unlike fiction and films about Western life, which used secondary sources and were produced in North Korean studios, works about Japanese Koreans were filmed in Japan and made with the active participation of members of Chongryon, the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, a pro-North Korean organization created in 1955.

These films