Johannes Schönherr

Potential Somi – the Taekwon-do Woman screening in London

/ dprkfilms / 1 Comment

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CORRECTION:

As was pointed out to me on twitter, these guys are actually searching for money to make this screening happen! If you want to see it, contribute!

Well it’s not often I get to highlight screenings of North Korean films here on the site and it’s even more rare that I get to do it in the city I live in:

The Zipangu Fest – which describes itself as UK’s independent Japanese film festival – is screening Somi – the Taekwon-do Woman (1997) – aka  Woman Warrior of Koryo – (on 35mm film!) at the Cinema Museum in Kennington, London on Friday September 14th 2012.

Regular readers will remember this is one of the films that DPRK film expert Johannes Schönherr mentioned in his interview back on the site a few weeks ago.

If you’re in London do not miss the opportunity to see this Japanese-DPRK co-production. More can be read about the project of bringing the film to the UK on the Crowd Funder page.

North Korea Animation

/ dprkfilms / 7 Comments

My word. I have been slack.

A stack of new North Korean DVDs arrived, I got in contact with possibly the biggest authority (in the west) on North Korean film (Mr Johannes Schönherr) and people left right and centre have been pointing me in the direction of more online resources for North Korean film.

And yet the site isn’t getting updated as often as it should. Let’s blame it on the day job. And keep your eyes peeled for more updates in the future.

For now, to tide you over, here’s a link to a video on YouTube of a nameless North Korean anti-American animation. There’s so much to be said about the DPRK animation industry: how it often has work from the west farmed out to it, how Nelson Shin produced a joint North-South Korean animated film called Empress Chung and, most interestingly, part of Disney’s The Lion King were animated there.

But for now, let’s just enjoy this little short. And come back soon, for more updates are surely on the way.