Kim Jong Il: The man who brought love to North Korea’s silver screen
August 3, 2016 1:21 PM Subscribe
Among the many weird manifestations of Kim Il Sung’s tyranny was a prohibition of romance in the works of North Korean culture ... Growing up on the very best of Soviet and Hollywood movies, Kim Jong Il comprehended that romance could be an essential spoon of sugar to help people better swallow the bitter medicine of social mobilization and various other political campaigns. “People love love,” he once claimed in his characteristically laconic manner. “We must show it on the screen”.
North Korean film, previously, 2, 3.
Oops, need coffee. Not reading very well this afternoon. Sorry, and carry on...
posted by vjpdx at 1:50 PM on August 3, 2016
posted by vjpdx at 1:50 PM on August 3, 2016
Starts off interestingly enough, then the focus starts to waver. I can only assume she's writing for people who are familiar with this topic or just... forgot it. Total crash at the end of the article where an actress is mentioned as being overweight and the final sentence is "We can only hope that their daughter Park Geun-hye is too busy with her current chores to find time to watch this serial."
There's no mention as to who Park Geun-hye (I'm assuming she's the South Korean President's daughter?) is in relation to Kim Jong Il, a TV serial, and the effects on a country's psyche of finally allowing romance and physical contact in popular media, what her current chores might be and how they relate to Kim Jong Il et al., and why those chores take so much time that they could have an effect on the whole topic. Maybe the chores prevent her from finding True Love. That would be sad. We'll never know as that's the end of the article.
posted by Zack_Replica at 2:40 PM on August 3, 2016
There's no mention as to who Park Geun-hye (I'm assuming she's the South Korean President's daughter?) is in relation to Kim Jong Il, a TV serial, and the effects on a country's psyche of finally allowing romance and physical contact in popular media, what her current chores might be and how they relate to Kim Jong Il et al., and why those chores take so much time that they could have an effect on the whole topic. Maybe the chores prevent her from finding True Love. That would be sad. We'll never know as that's the end of the article.
posted by Zack_Replica at 2:40 PM on August 3, 2016
ooops. ok. Park Geun-hye is the current SK President. I fail on Current Events. ..but it still has *nothing* to do with the main topic.
posted by Zack_Replica at 2:46 PM on August 3, 2016
posted by Zack_Replica at 2:46 PM on August 3, 2016
Yeah, the article does have this weird blend of both assuming you know a lot about DPRK cinema, and also know nothing about Korean social mores.
posted by corb at 3:27 PM on August 3, 2016
posted by corb at 3:27 PM on August 3, 2016
That's legit. I think I just feel like that's already pretty common knowledge? But I also lived in South Korea for a while so may be wrong on that. I was very interested specifically by the issue of bringing romance back to DPRK cinema though.
posted by corb at 7:05 AM on August 4, 2016
posted by corb at 7:05 AM on August 4, 2016
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posted by vjpdx at 1:47 PM on August 3, 2016