Category Archives: North Korea

Pyongyang International Film Festival 2012

Posted on October 22, 2011 by

The fine folks at Koryo Tours have given us a bit of advanced notice about the Pyongyang International Film Festival 2012. Held every other year this is an event I’ve been dying to get to for a few years now and … Continue reading →

Posted in Koryo Tours, North Korea, North Korean Films | Tagged | 1 Comment

Review: Order No. 027

Posted on August 10, 2011 by

“Immoral is the life dedicated to the Great Leader and the Party” I have an overwhelming need for genre categorisation when watching films, and “Order No. 027” (1986) certainly left me scratching my head. Yes, it’s a war film set during the Korean … Continue reading →

Posted in Kung Fu, North Korea, North Korean Films, Review, Spy | Tagged | 5 Comments

Review: The Schoolgirl’s Diary

Posted on August 3, 2011 by

Sacrifice is something that is particularly hard to comprehend during adolescence. In Jang In-hak’s modern melodrama, we see the 16-year-old Su-ryeon (Pak Mi-hyang) struggle to come to terms with the fact that her absentee father works tirelessly in the city on … Continue reading →

Posted in Football, North Korea, North Korean Films, Review, The Schoolgirl's Diary | 4 Comments

The North Korean “Titanic”

Posted on July 14, 2011 by

I seem to spend my days recently, trawling the internet, search after search, trying to find North Korean films to buy on DVD. Quite often the sources are limited and the opportunity of English subtitles non-existent. But the search will … Continue reading →

Posted in North Korea, North Korean Films, Souls Protest | Leave a comment

Women’s football documentary

Posted on May 20, 2011 by

The love of the beautiful game has certainly penetrated into the Hermit Kingdom. I’ve posted before about Centre Forward (1978), but here we have a documentary made in the DPRK about the national women’s football team. As you can tell by the footage they’re are … Continue reading →

Posted in Centre Forward, Documentary, North Korea | Leave a comment

Director: Shin Sang-ok

Posted on April 19, 2011 by

Shin Sang-ok had many lives. He began his cinematic career working on Choi In-gyu’s Viva Freedom!, the first film made in Korea after attaining independence from Japan. From there Shin went on to have a sparkling career in the “Golden Age” of … Continue reading →

Posted in North Korea | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Review: From 5pm to 5am

Posted on April 15, 2011 by

Once again, I am pleasantly surprised by this offering from North Korea. Obviously, you have to judge this film – which I imagine most would find hard to sit though, even at 78 minutes in length – with a different criteria than … Continue reading →

Posted in Crossing the Line, From 5am to 5pm, James Joseph Dresnok, North Korea, Review | 1 Comment

Review: Our Lifeline (2002)

Posted on April 3, 2011 by

What struck me most about Our Lifeline, an actually pretty good espionage thriller with a couple of cute twists in its tale, was how old the film looked. I sat through Part 1, which clocked in at around 1 hour … Continue reading →

Posted in North Korea, Our Lifeline, Review, Spy | Leave a comment

Review: Centre Forward (1978)

Posted on March 30, 2011 by

Just a great image from the film Centre Forward (1978). The banner at the top of the site is also from this film. The movie also has a special place in my heart as they used a quote from my … Continue reading →

Posted in Centre Forward, Football, North Korea, Review | Leave a comment

Centre Forward

Posted on March 25, 2011 by

The excellent folk at Beijing-based Koryo Tours (the best people to deal with if you want to travel to the DPRK) licensed this little “gem” of a film directly from North Korea around the time of the last world cup. It’s a chipper … Continue reading →

Posted in Football, North Korea, Uncategorized | Leave a comment