A State of Mind
by Daniel Gordon
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DVD details
Actor: Daniel Gordon, Hyon Sun Pak, Jong-il Kim, Song Yun KimDirector: Daniel Gordon
Brand: Kino International
Producer: Daniel Gordon
Writer: Daniel Gordon
Cinematographer: Nick Bennet
Editor: Peter Haddon
Producer: John Battsek
Producer: Nicholas Bonner
Producer: Richard Klein
Producer: Stephen Segaller
Producer: Thierry Garrel
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Korean (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 93 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-02-07
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 4402
Studio: Kino International
Product features:
- STATE OF MIND, A (DVD MOVIE)
DVD Reviews of A State of Mind
DVD Review: Dancing for the General
Summary: 5 Stars
Some years ago, at about the time the US military was liberating Iraq, removing weapons of mass destruction and ensuring that human rights were strictly respected there and independent but embedded military correspondents were reporting on sometimes staged 'news events' such as the toppling of Saddam's statue in central Baghdad, an independent BBC crew was allowed inside hard to penetrate North Korea to chronicle a few months in the life of a young Korean girl and her family. Apparently, other than being followed and observed 24x7 by North Korean translators and guides, there was no interference with their reporting and, as far as they could tell, their subjects were allowed to talk freely about their love for the General (North Korea's leader), their hatred of US imperialism and to show their pride for North Korea's great accomplishments.
Jong-il Kim, the girl they followed was one of the tens or hundreds of thousands who were training daily for what North Koreans call the Mass Games: periodic shows of synchronized gymnastics, singing and other patriotic activities. Those games together with the large military and popular parades are/were ways for the North Korea's leadership to show the 'masses' that the people and their leaders were and were going to stay 'as one' forever, keep their own style of socialism going and repel any outside attempts at overthrowing the leadership. The training was tough and intense and it began months in advance of the scheduled Mass Games but the kids shown appeared to be always determined and motivated and, while sometimes complaining of bruises or injuries, never questioning the importance of their work: to make the General happy and proud and prove themselves as great future patriots and communists. Dancing for the General, in General's presence is the greatest honor a young North Korean can possibly dream of.
As the training and rehearsals are followed we get a chance to see brief snapshots of life in North Korea's capital city. There is an apartment were a 'working class' family lives. There is another apartment in which a family of 'intellectuals' lives, not unlike the working class family apartment. Here is a housewife shopping for semi-plucked, skinny chicken - and each citizen is allowed one chicken and 6 eggs every month. There is this incredible Orwellian footage of the speaker (NOT a radio) that apparently MUST exist in every kitchen, piping constant government propaganda, whose volume can be lowered but can NEVER be turned off. Life is tough but people say they trust their leader and say that they are ready to die defending him. Pride they have and there's little else they have but pride seems to keep them going. Without revealing the plot because there is none, once the Mass Games take place - sadly, the General can't attend - and the performances are over the girls go back to intense training for the next Games and so life in North Korea continues.
Strangely, I could not stop watching this movie/documentary once I started. Beyond the staged ten thousand kids performing some elaborate and perfectly synchronized choreography the camera keeps coming back to the girls' families, their picnics, their sad-to-us-looking pilgrimages to revolutionary sacred grounds. It's heart-warming and heart-breaking at the same time, observing the humanity of these overworked, undernourished, starved for real news little people and their quick transformation into fierce, perfectly disciplined fighters or robot-like-perfect flashy athletes and dancers, approvingly applauded by the ruling elite in the stands. These children who will never grow as tall as their chromosomes say they should, likely to begin losing their teeth and their good health at an early age and unlikely to ever travel beyond their country's and sometime their city's boundaries, they aren't that different from our own, pledging their allegiance to the flag each morning, better fed, playing different games, often within earshot of some news broadcast freely repeating what could be the consensus line on current events.
Lessons learned?
--
>> Brush your teeth, it's the law! <<
Description of A State of Mind
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