It is good if your flowers smell like gasoline -
The smell of petroleum is the fragrance of the people!
The smell of petroleum is the fragrance of the people!
I'm going to hell for admitting this, but I love watching North Korean films. They're available for free on the DPRK's YouTube channel, and most have English subtitles. Yes, I know, these movies are clearly government propaganda and produced by the state to show the glamor of Communist life. According to The Peoples Motion Picture Company, my life in Chicago doesn't hold a candle to the thousands of candles that illuminate Pyongyang between outages. It's a paradise of the people. Especially if you enjoyed the Soviet Union of the seventies.
To be fair, I watch DPRK films in the spirit of RiffTrax & Mystery Science Theater 3000. I "riff" the movies, yelling at the screen and suggesting character dialogue when I'm not laughing:
LINE: "Mother, I'm hungry."
RIFF: "No shit. You live in North Korea."
LINE: "Your officer's apartment is so lovely."
RIFF: "Your family of six must have at least 400 sq ft of living space!"
To be fair, I watch DPRK films in the spirit of RiffTrax & Mystery Science Theater 3000. I "riff" the movies, yelling at the screen and suggesting character dialogue when I'm not laughing:
LINE: "Mother, I'm hungry."
RIFF: "No shit. You live in North Korea."
LINE: "Your officer's apartment is so lovely."
RIFF: "Your family of six must have at least 400 sq ft of living space!"
North Korean films have no opening credits. North Korean films are just...terrible. And not just because of Orwellian messages. They have no conflict, no character development, and they're scripted with the stiff simplicity of a children's Christmas play. "The smell of petroleum is the fragrance of the people" is not made up - it's a real line from a real movie. Even worse, most North Korean cinema is shot in/around Pyongyang - a city that's filled with joyless, Stalin-era architecture. By filming in a municipality that's trapped in the past, even modern movies end up looking like 1950s high school educational films. Or in worst cases, Godzilla movies.
My current favorite DPRK movie is called "Wish," a drama that was featured in Pyongyang's 2012 film festival. I'm not really sure how to describe the movie's genre; it's sort of a combination family drama/love story/coming-of-age-in-The-Ministry-of-Love piece. The film is pure North Korean propaganda, and when compared to American culture, its plot is chilling:
From the YouTube description: "Wish concerns the struggle of a young North Korean married couple to reconcile their personal emotions with their duty to the state and leadership. The hero and heroine realize that it is important to be a good public worker, but that one must also be sensitive and thoughtful in cultural and family life."
In other words, the state is more important than the lives of individual citizens.
My current favorite DPRK movie is called "Wish," a drama that was featured in Pyongyang's 2012 film festival. I'm not really sure how to describe the movie's genre; it's sort of a combination family drama/love story/coming-of-age-in-The-Ministry-of-Love piece. The film is pure North Korean propaganda, and when compared to American culture, its plot is chilling:
From the YouTube description: "Wish concerns the struggle of a young North Korean married couple to reconcile their personal emotions with their duty to the state and leadership. The hero and heroine realize that it is important to be a good public worker, but that one must also be sensitive and thoughtful in cultural and family life."
In other words, the state is more important than the lives of individual citizens.
"I just whipped up a little something..." North Korean films have two levels of propaganda: 1, morality lessons for its citizens, and 2, sanitized information for the outside world. The message for the local audience is clear - put up, shut up, and tow the party line - but it's the message for the world audience that's far more interesting (especially when a film tries to contradict known facts about DPRK). Take "starvation," for example. Everybody knows that North Korea can't feed it's people, yet in the film Wish, food is featured in as many scenes as possible:
* A wife prepares a ridiculously-large feast for a husband coming home late from work - enough food to host a small Thanksgiving. When hubby gets home, he says: "No thanks...I've already eaten." Apparently, he had kimchee at Wendy's.
* A neighbor throws a child's birthday party, with a spread that includes every kid's favorites: boiled chicken, boiled cabbage, and two bottles of water for eight people. Games include photos (to show we have a camera), and pictures posed on the apartment's loveseat (to show we have a couch).
* Two grandparents wait outside an apartment (in the dark, into the wee hours) just to wake their grand kid up and give him rice cakes & oranges. The food btw, is purposely placed/kept in the center of the shot to tell the world, "We're not starving. Look - our actors have oranges!"
My favorite Wish scene involves a housewife raising baby chicks on her tiny apartment balcony, in what's supposed to be a sign of wealth. (Message: We are so rich in the DPRK, we can afford to raise poultry on our 3'x 6' balcony). The scene - literally - comes across as a "Green Acres" episode, and all involved are totally clueless to the blatant urban poverty.
* A wife prepares a ridiculously-large feast for a husband coming home late from work - enough food to host a small Thanksgiving. When hubby gets home, he says: "No thanks...I've already eaten." Apparently, he had kimchee at Wendy's.
* A neighbor throws a child's birthday party, with a spread that includes every kid's favorites: boiled chicken, boiled cabbage, and two bottles of water for eight people. Games include photos (to show we have a camera), and pictures posed on the apartment's loveseat (to show we have a couch).
* Two grandparents wait outside an apartment (in the dark, into the wee hours) just to wake their grand kid up and give him rice cakes & oranges. The food btw, is purposely placed/kept in the center of the shot to tell the world, "We're not starving. Look - our actors have oranges!"
My favorite Wish scene involves a housewife raising baby chicks on her tiny apartment balcony, in what's supposed to be a sign of wealth. (Message: We are so rich in the DPRK, we can afford to raise poultry on our 3'x 6' balcony). The scene - literally - comes across as a "Green Acres" episode, and all involved are totally clueless to the blatant urban poverty.
The Pyongyang Film Festival, 2012 The biggest threat to the modern Kim regime is the avalanche of flash drives & DVDs that are smuggled into North Korea every day. In addition to news/information from the outside world, these items contain entertainment - especially American films & South Korean soap operas. The South Korean shows are extremely well-liked because their culture is similar enough that the North's citizens understand the programs - and see what their lives could be like if they lived within a free country.
Rush Limbaugh once said that CBS's "DALLAS" was the reason that the USSR ultimately fell. Rush explained that the Soviets assumed all Americans lived like Ewings, so the citizens revolted - ending the Communist state. In many ways, our entertainment is doing the same thing for North Korea today - and there are definite signs that it's working. The DPRK government just struck a deal with the BBC to import Top Ride, Doctor Who, and the Teletubbies in an effort to compete with all the smuggled programming. Will it work? Who knows. But it's a definite sign that Kim Jung Ick is losing control. It's a shame that Team America isn't a real organization, because in addition to kicking out the Kims, they could show North Koreans what a genuinely funny film is like.
Rush Limbaugh once said that CBS's "DALLAS" was the reason that the USSR ultimately fell. Rush explained that the Soviets assumed all Americans lived like Ewings, so the citizens revolted - ending the Communist state. In many ways, our entertainment is doing the same thing for North Korea today - and there are definite signs that it's working. The DPRK government just struck a deal with the BBC to import Top Ride, Doctor Who, and the Teletubbies in an effort to compete with all the smuggled programming. Will it work? Who knows. But it's a definite sign that Kim Jung Ick is losing control. It's a shame that Team America isn't a real organization, because in addition to kicking out the Kims, they could show North Koreans what a genuinely funny film is like.
But until that happens, we can only hope that the people of North Korea can recognize the (sad) humor within their own.