Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

TxMike Watched this as a Netflix streaming video.The nominal reason to make this documentary was to follow a couple of preteen age girl gymnasts who, along with thousands of other boys and girls, men and women, train daily for hours each day in preparation for the next Mass Games. They train with no guarantee that they will be chosen to perform. Their training even takes precedence over their classroom work.North Korea is a very insular society, the people have a god-like reverence for their leader, the General, and his dead father, the founder and former dictator who they consider lives forever. Part of the method is to foment hatred for the American Imperialism, which is taught from early childhood. This is reinforced at every chance they get. Adults sometimes spoke of the invasion of Iraq, which they are taught might be the same fate for North Korea.For those of us mostly ignorant of North Korea and its society, this film is a worthwhile viewing. What I noticed is the children are not too different from children all over the world, wanting to sleep late or watch TV instead of study, or even skip out of exercise class if they could. But the whole country, officials, parents, educators, are all so closely aligned in the mission of the country,that individualism must disappear in favor of the collective, the children end up following the destiny that is dictated for them.It made me think somewhere between that, and the excessive permissiveness in many societies, is a good balance where children grow up with appropriate freedoms but still with the right amount of discipline.

sam This is one of the best documentaries I have ever seen. A fascinating insight, warts and all, into North Korea. It shows the highly regimented lives the Nth Koreans live, from the propaganda infused television to the speaker piping rhetoric into the family home. But aside from this you see the human side of the people. The mother telling her daughter to eat more breakfast to make her strong, and the two main characters sneaking into school due to there being late. The focus of the film is the build up to the Mass Games in which 6000 people perform highly orchestrated and ornate display in front of their beloved General, who failed to turn up. And boy what a climax. A fantastic film, and a lesson to the contrary of the constant demonising from the west.

Rurik_Snorri This film does NOT show what ordinary North Koreans go through. It focuses on an a family of the communist elite in Pyongyang who by western standards are filthy rich because they actually have some rice and meat for dinner. Give me a damn break. In order to live in Pyongyang where this film was shot, you need to be a member of the communist party. You need to prove your allegiance to the communist party. In order to do that you will probably need to inform on other people who will end up in a gulag and will die of starvation, beatings, exposure or other privations, if you are not outright executed. The informant is a murderer by proxy.The film follows the lives of just such people. Some may be brainwashed. Some know exactly what they're doing. Some put decency to the wind and will do anything they can to survive. It's called dog eat dog. (No Korean pun intended). Of course this all throws in the question of how exactly a UK crew was given access to a completely closed society; a society that could violently collapse at the drop of a dime if it had more information to the outside world. Could it perhaps be that these dunderheads are actually sympathetic to the murderous regime of Jong-Il? All signs point to yes. At the very least they consider this just a 'different system' of life. Just like living in your own house with your wife and kids is 'different' from being in solitary confinement in a state penitentiary... at best.If the filmmakers had any integrity, heart, soul, or bravery they would have gone against all odds to expose the horrors that occur on a daily basis in this awful place. The concept of the so-called "mass games" as a tool for brainwashing - which is exactly its purpose - could have been shown for the sham that it is but instead is given a nice gloss-over in this rubbish film. The director's commentary on the DVD is the prize winner. He actually states something to the like of "I am just trying to show ordinary people in DPRK" and "it's just a different system". Well the Third Reich was a different system too.Please try to keep your eyes open people! Relativism in the face of abject evil will make you the first in line under the firing squad when the bullshit artists come to power.

highflying_falcon Wow, I was channel surfing when I hit this this documentary and can I say that I wish I had watched the beginning of this wonderfully directed and choreographed documentary. It was a real shame that I only got to watch the second half of this film and I cannot stop kicking myself for missing so much.I had always heard and seen some footages of what they refer to as the "lavish Mass Games" in North Korea but never really quite understood what the purpose of the whole event was. It was this documentary that opened my eyes to the world and life that the North Koreans close off to the rest of the world.I'll admit there was quite a lot of North Korean propaganda involved in the content of this film such as the comments they make about the "Great General", but most most importantly I got to see what life must be like for ordinary North Koreans due to restrictions with what foreign broadcasters could show the outside world.Of course this film doesn't show to the full extent of what other North Koreans have to live through, but the story of two North Korean girls was a very touching story of their determination and will to contribute to their nations greatness and power.If I could get another chance to see this film I will watch it in a flash.