baturalpg Reviews

The Man Who Surprised Everyone (2018)

very brave and successful

[7/10 · 17 October 2020]

This movie is very unique. First of all the plot is incredible (at least in the beginning). I was captivated and slammed to my seat in the first half, very good cinematography and very brave scenario, everyone is long bored of. There was a few bad points especially towards the end but definitely worth watching. Also some gore content is present.

Spoiler: The second half of the movie prevented this movie from being a cult. After the initial turn of events the plot loses its dynamics towards the end. Towards the end of the movie the main characters unresponsiveness gets incredibly frustrating. I think a great opportunity was lost there. The violence climbs abruptly as the movie continues but it gets hard to understand whether this is from lack of communication or people's inner deamons.

Welcome to North Korea (2001 TV Movie)

A worthy "tourist" glimpse into North Korea

[7/10 · 22 June 2010]

This is a documentary based on the videos shot by a crew, who were accepted as tourists into the state. All videos as accompanied by the narrators comment.

The video shoot in the documentary does not actually cover anything deep of Korean Life. Because the tourist are "guided" all the way around their trip, and their contact with people is banned (as claimed in the documentary), you can only see what is shown in the tour and what an eye can see on their way in a "love north Korea" tour. Throughout the movie, the crew is constantly exposed to an absurd senseless propaganda to which they were expected to believe and respect.

While these disturbing images make a very good example of the mentality of the regime and constant isolated brainwash of the nation, I must admit that the narrators comment has some annoying aspects by itself. There were some sentimentally constructed elements in the narration, whose transferability to daily life is questionable. Some of them were even too bizarre for a country like NK.

Although it is little subjective, it is nice documental documentary. A naked leader-cult disgrace. Recommended.