{"id":1963,"date":"2010-12-23T15:09:15","date_gmt":"2010-12-23T20:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=1963"},"modified":"2010-12-23T15:09:15","modified_gmt":"2010-12-23T20:09:15","slug":"dvd-kimjongilia-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=1963","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Kimjongilia (2009)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to: <\/strong>Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>J to L<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Film: Very Good\/ DVD Transfer: Very Good\/ DVD Extras: Good<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0Mongrel (Canada) \/ Lorber (U.S.) \/ Region: 1 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released:\u00a0October 12, 2010<\/p>\n

Genre: Documentary \/ North Korea<\/p>\n

Synopsis: \u00a0Oral chronicles by refugees of life in North Korea under the fist of Kim Il Jong.<\/p>\n

Special Features:\u00a06 Deleted Scenes<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can travel miles while sitting down! Kim Il-Sung has superhuman powers! He\u2019d appear simultaneously in the east and west. Kim Il-Sung can fly north, south, east and west!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

As one of the interviewed refugees in Kimjongilia<\/strong> recounts, North Korea\u2019s founder, Kim Il-Sung, developed a cult that presented himself as a kind of divine superhero – an all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-smiling, well-dentifriced creature guiding the newly minted country with the benevolent but firm hand, like a fatherly disciplinarian. To disagree or attempt to flee his worker\u2019s paradise, though, was a heinous deed, punishable with singular or differing combinations of internment, torture, and death,<\/p>\n

Frequently billed as \u2018the world\u2019s most isolated country,\u2019 Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea (aka the DPRK) has a peculiar aura that\u2019s more alluring than the former East Germany because DPRK citizens have been bullied since 1953 into a massive cult surrounding each successive ruler in the Kim dynasty, with statues, posters, art and music peppering the landscape and airwaves to ensure total subjugation and brainwashing that everything about the Kims is really, really swell.<\/p>\n

Radios are hardwired to present reception of South Korean airwaves, art must be approved by Soviet-styled bureaucratic bodies, architecture and memorials of grand scale reduce any sense of individualism, and major cultural events are tied to the birthday of Kim Il-Sung, as well as the Mass Games \/ May Day circus held in the Rungrado May<\/a> stadium, which houses up to 150,000 spectators and has featured parades, soccer matches, and the burning alive of treasonous souls.<\/p>\n

Writer \/ director N.C. Heikin doesn\u2019t have any revelatory footage of life in the DPRK, but he uses the testimonies from a diverse group of refugees to illustrate the cruelties of its regime under Kim Il-Sung<\/a>, and his current successor, the ailing Kim Jong-Il<\/a>, who recently inferred his green-eared son Kim Jong-un<\/a> will take over the nuclear reigns real soon.<\/p>\n

The victimized refugees are youths, young adults, adults, and seniors, and some of their tales include experiences of torture, beatings, and public executions where children were forced to watch their parents die.<\/p>\n

Because of China\u2019s relationship with North Korea \u2013 it\u2019s one of the DPRK\u2019s few friends with diplomatic ties \u2013 there\u2019s an agreement to repatriate refugees, forcing those on the run to stay under cover. Some manage to escape Chinese borders, whereas others become ensnared in tortuous situations, such as one girl\u2019s account of being a sex slave for 5 years.<\/p>\n

The most gut-wrenching account comes from an older woman whose parents were murdered by the Kim regime, whose sons died while trying to escape, whose daughter was given up for adoption, and whose husband has been missing for 35 years.<\/p>\n

Heikin\u2019s documentary relies on personal recollections which he\u2019s arranged into a loose narrative, with the occasional historical diversion and pictorial montages on the Kim dynasty, its cultural quirks, and a few rare snippets from propagandistic films extolling the virtues of life in the workers\u2019 paradise.<\/p>\n

Because of a fear of government reprisals towards family members still in North Korea, a few of the refugees are filmed in arty extreme close-ups and roving macro shots. Heikin also interpolates brief vignettes in which creative dance evokes the torment of the refugees, and while it\u2019s a risky creative move, it generally works, enhancing the memories with abstract or sometimes symbolic movements.<\/p>\n

Heikin\u2019s superimposition of the dance motif in the intro montage is a clever device: a dancer in a traffic worker<\/a> outfit mimics the tightly clipped arm gestures where traffic is alerted to move using a baton. The dancer\u2019s movements initially function as animated bullet points for onscreen text before later movements move towards the abstract.<\/p>\n

The doc eventually focuses on the new struggles that refugees face after they\u2019ve crossed the border into China, the contrast between the two distinct North and South Korean cultures, and whether the Kim dynasty can survive another generation.<\/p>\n

The DVD\u2019s extras include a handful of deleted scenes, of which most are short bits that don\u2019t add much to the doc. Longer segments with unused interviews were likely dropped because of repeated information, whereas a montage in which refugees were asked to sing a national song praising Kim Il-Sung was rightly kept on the cutting room floor due to the chuckling that would\u2019ve destroyed the doc\u2019s grim and disturbing tone.<\/p>\n

Michael Gordon\u2019s minimalist score seems to consist of a few cues that are oft-repeated, sometimes evoking annoyance instead of supporting important sequences, but it\u2019s likely Heikin\u2019s responsible for overusing Gordon\u2019s generally haunting and affective cues.<\/p>\n

The doc has some rough spots, but Heikin manages to make his points through the simple, horrible anecdotes of ordinary people brutalized by an inhuman and ridiculous regime.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2010 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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.<\/span>Related external links (MAIN SITE):<\/em><\/p>\n

DVD \/ Film: \u00a0Comrades in Dreams<\/a><\/strong> (2006))<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Official Website<\/a><\/p>\n

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Buy from:<\/em><\/p>\n

Amazon.com<\/strong> \u2013\u00a0Kimjongilia<\/a><\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/strong> –\u00a0Kimjongilia<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> <\/em><\/em><\/em>\/\u00a0J to L<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to: Home \/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews \/ J to L . Film: Very Good\/ DVD Transfer: Very Good\/ DVD Extras: Good Label:\u00a0Mongrel (Canada) \/ Lorber (U.S.) \/ Region: 1 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released:\u00a0October 12, 2010 Genre: Documentary \/ North Korea Synopsis: \u00a0Oral chronicles by refugees of life in North Korea under the fist of Kim Il […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[231,232],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-vF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1963"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1963"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1967,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1963\/revisions\/1967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}