Spot Light
on North Korea Part Two: The View from the West
Since the death of Kim Jong-il in
2011, North Korean cinema has received a surge of interest. The facts and
fictions surrounding the North Korean cultural propaganda industries are as
dark as they are bizarre. This three part article interrogates the construction
and the function of the myths surrounding North Korea's global image by
examining the film produced there.
The
‘Othering’ of North Korea
The West’s recent fascination with North Korean cinema is
perhaps unsurprising given that films are one of the only things that regularly
manage to escape the country’s tightly maintained borders. Despite constant attempts, few people successfully ‘defect’ from
North Korea and images of real life in the country are limited to what can be
glimpsed from the border zones with the South, or related by those who have
managed to flee. In an age of near total communication, life inside North Korea
is perhaps the globalised world’s best kept secret; endlessly discussed but
barely understood. So it is fascinatingly peculiar when from the depths of this
sinister black hole what greets us is kitsch, B-movie Godzilla rip-offs
executive-directed by Kim Jong-il.
