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Comfort women film ‘The Last Tear’ accepted to 21 festivals, 4 award nominations

November 3, 2015
"The Last Tear"

“The Last Tear”

By Brian Han

When Christopher H.K. Lee funded most of his latest documentary “The Last Tear” out of his own pocket, he assumed he wouldn’t make his money back.

Instead his motivation came from sharing the stories of elderly South Korean women who were victims of sexual slavery back in World War II.

Quite a bit of controversy surrounds the topic at the moment especially with South Korean President Park Geun-hye engaging in talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday in Seoul. The two publicly agreed to make progress on the long-standing issue that has plagued bilateral ties between the two countries.

Lee’s vision revolved around sharing the stories of these comfort women in the most human way possible, not to take sides or demand an apology.

“Everyone is talking about the comfort women issue in the news especially since we are close to the 70th anniversary of Liberation Day,” Lee told the Korea Times. “I didn’t want to get caught up in the controversy. I wanted to get to know the halmonis (grandmothers) and their stories while also giving them a chance to have closure on the issue.”

Less than three months after its release, the film has already received invited to over 20 festivals around the world including the Russian International Film Festival, Los Angeles CineFest and the Chinese American Film Festival just to name a few.

It has also received numerous award nominations at multiple festivals and most recently won Best Feature for the World Humanitarian Awards.