Educational Media Reviews Online

Relevant, timely and direct, Mrs. B, offers viewers the opportunity to connect human faces and voices to impoverished, oppressed North Koreans seeking freedom and survival. The documentary, directed by Jero Yun, captures the story of Mrs. B, a North Korean woman who was smuggled and sold to marriage in China. Over the course of the film, viewers get to follow Mrs. B’s journey to reunite with her family in South Korea. Once there, Yun interviews each family member on their experiences fleeing North Korea which shed some light on the realities of living under the totalitarian nation. Audiences also catch a rare glimpse of the arduous smuggling and illegal immigration process North Koreans go through to reach China and South Korea - all in hopes for a better life, liberty and reunification with relatives who have left before them.

In just over an hour, Yun presents a coherent and tightly narrated arc around the savvy Mrs. B capturing her day-to-day work smuggling North Koreans into China. We also hear Mrs. B’s own story of being trafficked and witness her conflicted emotions towards her past and present families as she makes plans to leave China for South Korea. However, once there, she discovers taking such a risk did not guarantee the stability and lifestyle she actually wanted for herself.

Mrs. B is a must-watch documentary, especially during these fractured times, when the global discussion around immigration and asylum for refugees is highly-charged and, at times, misunderstood. The film is exemplary in its simplicity, humanity and straightforwardness by letting its subjects speak freely and honestly in regards to the hardship, discrimination and personal loss they each experience as immigrants or as their allies. Mrs. B is highly recommended for political science and sociology courses examining issues of immigration, foreign policy and human rights.