Sunny Yi, a Korean-Canadian film director, has recently introduced to Korean viewers her 2004 documentary film on North Korea, which got somewhat embarrassing responses with some calling it “ideologically biased.”

For Yi, well-known in Canada for a set of Asia-related fine documentaries, the responses from people of her motherland were not what she first expected.

But she appeared to take the responses as part of becoming better in her documentary production.

“I will not wince back. I want to live closer to Korea,” she was quoted as saying in a media interview.

The film, titled “North Korea: Inside the Hermit Kingdom,” was presented at the Canadian Embassy in Seoul last Friday. The film, which was already broadcast across Canada, depicted South Koreans’ complicated perceptions of their northern brethren and the unique culture highlighting national division.

Some viewers argue that her film was ideologically skewed toward the political left while others claim that her film did not sufficiently reflect what people of the divided nation are going through as she never experienced the 1950-53 Korean War.

Yi, 45, immigrated to Canada with her family when she was 10. She graduated from the journalism department at the University of Regina in 1991 and has worked as journalist and documentary producer since then.

Her 1996 debut film about Korean immigrants, titled “Scenes from a corner store,” received awards from film festivals in New York and San Francisco. Another film of hers about prostitutes, titled “Longing and Belonging,” has been sold in some 30 countries.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)