Sometimes Satire Is Truer Than the Record [Slate]

The Bare Face of the System Revealed Through the Yodo-go Incident in 'Good News'
Transforming Fact into Fiction... Illuminating the Truth Between the Records

Netflix Movie 'Good News' Still Cut

The Netflix film 'Good News' is inspired by the hijacking of Japan Airlines Flight 351 in 1970, also known as the Yodogo Incident. Rather than faithfully reconstructing historical facts, the film boldly reimagines the situation of the time, rewriting it as a black comedy.

The incident involved the radical left-wing Japanese organization, the Red Army Faction, hijacking an aircraft and heading to North Korea. Mistaking Gimpo Airport for Pyongyang during a stopover, they released a large number of hostages.

Director Byun Sung-hyun does not approach this context in a textbook manner; instead, he translates the structure of the incident into the language of the present. By borrowing a story from the past, he satirizes today's 'systemic incompetence.' Although the events took place 55 years ago, the characters' ways of thinking and their conversations evoke the bureaucracy and systems of today.

The focus is less on the hostage situation in the sky and more on the confusion among the bureaucrats on the ground. When reports come in that the hijacked plane has passed over Korea, Park Sang-hyun (played by Ryu Seung-bum), the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, convenes a countermeasure meeting. The moment the plane is guided to land at Gimpo Airport, cheers erupt in the meeting room.

Netflix Movie 'Good News' Still Cut

However, when the Red Army Faction refuses to negotiate, the meeting devolves from discussing 'countermeasures' to a blame game over 'responsibility.' They become preoccupied with questioning who authorized the landing and which department should be in charge. Avoiding responsibility takes precedence over the value of human life.

Despite the clash of differing opinions, the discussion makes no progress. This peculiar rhythm feels strangely familiar. Although it is a scene from the past, it is not much different from what we see in today's news. The way the state 'manages' a crisis remains similar across eras: trapped by protocols and passing the buck, the crucial moment when someone must make a decision is left empty.

The bureaucrats are not depicted as villains. They are simply faithfully following the logic of the system they belong to. Their incompetence is less a matter of intent and more a product of structural flaws. Thus, the film exposes not 'malice' but 'absurd truths.' The audience's laughter does not last long, as the absurdity and helplessness on screen soon become a reflection of our own reality.

The core of 'Good News' is not just satire. By transforming a true story into fiction, the film paradoxically approaches a deeper truth. Director Byun focuses less on listing facts and more on the lingering resonance of emotions. While actual records organize the events, his direction shines a light on the silences left between those records. Through the characters' flustered actions, evasive language, and empty meetings, the film shows that truth can never be just a single voice.

Netflix Movie 'Good News' Still Cut

Truth is always fragmented and scattered. Director Byun binds these fragments together through satire. Emotional truths such as distrust, resignation, the shadow of the Cold War, and the opacity of the system are not preserved in official records. The film recreates these as fiction, preserving the texture of emotion. Paradoxically, laughter may be the most earnest way to confront the truth.