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Two Views on North Korea
Dec. 15th, 2010 08:48 amAh, thank you Netflix livestreaming, for granting me the ability watch documentaries both obscure and not for $9.85 a month
First up, National Geographic's Inside North Korea which purports to be an incredibly dangerous secret view inside the Hermit Kingdom, as a NatGeo film crew pretends to be documenting a western doctor's attempt to do one thousand critical eye surguries in just a week.
The tone for this hour long doc is slightly hesterical, looking at the tight and paranoid border the North and South Koreas share, testaments from refugees who made it out and the intense emotions of the cult of personality Kim Il Jong and his son have created to prop up their regime. While it is pretty damned creepy watch one patient after another approach portraits of the Eternal President and the Great General to give thanks to them for regaining their eyesight, it's hard to get a view of what the average Korean's life is under the regime.
Second is A State of Mind, a British documentary which follows two average schoolgirls (well, average for the capitol Pyongyang, which is showcase for the North Korean regime) preparing for the Mass Games, an insanely well... massive combination of stadium rally, gymnastics demonstration and grand opera, celebrating North Korea, its leader, and involving up to eighty thousand gymnasts at any one time. The documentary is about two hours long, which is about two thirds longer than the NatGeo one and filmed over several month during the "Sunshine Policy" period of open engagement with Nroth Korea, allowing for a slightly more naunced perspective of the place.
In all, it goes to show that people are people all over. The girls are simply slightly giggly, gym obsessed ten and twelve year olds, with parents who alternately chide and indulge them. It all seems very nice and ordinary, until you listen to the translations of the songs they sing, with even the happy cheerful ones being about the Great Leader and their eternal struggle against Western Imperialists and the devils in the United States. Not to mention both girls' feverent desire not just to perform, but to be seen by Jong Il himself, an act which seems to them the equivilent of getting a personal audience with the Pope.
Still, you do get bits of surprising honesty, where one parent is describing the effects of the massive famines of the 90's, where even in privlidged Pyongyang, her eldest daughter's birthday consisting of getting an entire bowl of rice for herself, while the rest of the family, grandparents included, were reduced to one half.
First up, National Geographic's Inside North Korea which purports to be an incredibly dangerous secret view inside the Hermit Kingdom, as a NatGeo film crew pretends to be documenting a western doctor's attempt to do one thousand critical eye surguries in just a week.
The tone for this hour long doc is slightly hesterical, looking at the tight and paranoid border the North and South Koreas share, testaments from refugees who made it out and the intense emotions of the cult of personality Kim Il Jong and his son have created to prop up their regime. While it is pretty damned creepy watch one patient after another approach portraits of the Eternal President and the Great General to give thanks to them for regaining their eyesight, it's hard to get a view of what the average Korean's life is under the regime.
Second is A State of Mind, a British documentary which follows two average schoolgirls (well, average for the capitol Pyongyang, which is showcase for the North Korean regime) preparing for the Mass Games, an insanely well... massive combination of stadium rally, gymnastics demonstration and grand opera, celebrating North Korea, its leader, and involving up to eighty thousand gymnasts at any one time. The documentary is about two hours long, which is about two thirds longer than the NatGeo one and filmed over several month during the "Sunshine Policy" period of open engagement with Nroth Korea, allowing for a slightly more naunced perspective of the place.
In all, it goes to show that people are people all over. The girls are simply slightly giggly, gym obsessed ten and twelve year olds, with parents who alternately chide and indulge them. It all seems very nice and ordinary, until you listen to the translations of the songs they sing, with even the happy cheerful ones being about the Great Leader and their eternal struggle against Western Imperialists and the devils in the United States. Not to mention both girls' feverent desire not just to perform, but to be seen by Jong Il himself, an act which seems to them the equivilent of getting a personal audience with the Pope.
Still, you do get bits of surprising honesty, where one parent is describing the effects of the massive famines of the 90's, where even in privlidged Pyongyang, her eldest daughter's birthday consisting of getting an entire bowl of rice for herself, while the rest of the family, grandparents included, were reduced to one half.
