Films in North Korea show ‘Western decadence’

Press, 19 December 1986, Page 30

Films in North Korea show ‘Western decadence’

By

GRAHAM EARNSHAW

of Reuters Pyongyang A billboard advertising necklaces and earrings for dogs may sound strange, but in North Korea’s answer to Hollywood, it is just what is needed to illustrate the depths to which the decadent West can sink. Fantasy and make-be-lieve play an important role at the State-run Korean Film Studios just as they do at the major Hollywood studios in the United States, but here films must also have the correct political message. The studio, occupying a huge lot on the outskirts of the Communist North Korean capital of Pyongyang, was set up by “the Great Leader” President Kim II Sung and is guided by the wisdom of his son, the “Dear Leader” Kim Jong 11, officials say. Standing amid a group of vaguely Swiss-style chalets in a section of the lot, a studio official, Kim Gwan-Sun, described a recent production. “The last film made in this part of the studio was called ‘The Great Bosom’,’ r

he said. “It was a film about a South Korean man named Kim Gu who was very anti-communist. But after he came to our country, he looked around and was very impressed. He met the Great leader President Kim IlSung and he got excited and after that he helped our country develop. “He has new feelings after entering the bosom of President Kim 11-Sung, so it is called ‘The Great Bosom’.” The studio official stood in front of a mock-up of a Christian church, which foreign sources here said is thought to be the only church in North Korea. Kim Jong-il, the president’s son and at 44 the effective ruler of this closed and tightly controlled country, pays particular attention to the artistic world and is officially known as both “the Genius of Film” and “the Leader of Film.” He has given on-the-spot guidance at the film studio more than 30 times in the past 20 years, and the corridors of the studio’s main buildings are covered with relevant inspirational quotes from

both the “Dear Leader” and the “Great Leader”. “If we work according to the Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il’s guidelines and theory, we will have success in our work,” said studio official Kim. He said the Dear Leader sometimes changed the title or content of films after inspecting the scenarios prior to shooting. “We can give all kinds of knowledge to the people through film,” Kim said. “After watching a film, the people can try to lead life just as the heroes shown in it.” The studio, the biggest in North Korea, turns out 30 feature films a year. It is involved only in film production, and has no control over either the scenarios filmed or distribution of the finished product. The studio lot has about 400 buildings of different styles, and the official said proudly that almost all the films are made within the studio without any location shooting. Amongst the buildings were several grassthatched huts, but a guide warned us not to take photographs of them and

then try to pretend they were photographs of North Korea today. “Some foreign journalists have taken photos of this and said North Korea is really like this. This is a complete lie and propoganda so we don’t like it,” he said. Film editor Pang UngYong, 30, was cutting an epic called Children’s Guerrilla, originally shot in the 1950 s and recently re-shot on the instructions of the Dear Leader. “I have never met the Dear Leader, but I know of his great love for the film industry,” she said. “When we make a film, we study the teachings of the Dear Leader and when we have acquired all the ideological content of the film, we start the editing work.”