A Summary of DPRK Film Art by John Marchant - Staffordshire KFA and Stoke On Trent branch of the British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea

                                 

The State Film Studio was established on February 6th, 1947 at the invitation of President Kim IL Sung. The first-ever DPRK feature film to have been produced was "My Home Village" in 1949. "My Home" recollects the national liberation struggle of the Korean people against Japanese colonialism which was at the time a very recent memory. Even when the Korean War (the Fatherland Liberation War) 1950 - 1953 was waging, the film studios were able to have produced many movies in the effort to lift up the morale of the Korean people in that titanic fight against US Imperialism. More than forty feature films and documentaries were released by the DPRK's film studios during the Korean War, including the films "Scouts", "Again To The Front" and "Righteous War". In the difficult days of postwar reconstruction, Kim IL Sung visited the State Films Studios several times and gave the guidelines to be followed for the promotion of cinematic art.

                                   

Kim IL Sung and Kim Jong IL saw the importance of cinematography in the formation of a revolutionary and socialist ideological consciousness. Without a socialist culture, there cannot be a socialist society. In other words, there cannot be any empty spaces where bourgeois ideology might infiltrate through. Kim Jong IL devoted alot of attention to the issue of cinema and the role that form of media plays in shaping consciousness in a socialist society. Kim Jong IL developed his theories concerning the role of feature films in his renowned work "On The Art Of The Cinema", which was published on April 11th, 1973. In "On The Art of The Cinema", Kim Jong IL gave in-depth clarification on the ideological, artistic and technical aspects of the film making. Kim Jong IL in "On The Art of The Cinema" further evolved the theory of the seed at the core of creative work, and additionally enhanced the depictions of socialist humanism on screen. In fact, "On The Art of The Cinema" is regarded as a masterpiece of the late 20th Century's cultural development by many political activists, filmmakers and movie connoisseurs alike.

"Star Of Korea", which was made in the early 1980s is a series of films devoted to the early revolutionary activities of Kim IL Sung. The film series centring on the early Korean revolutionary movement and the Anti-Japanese struggle "Star of Korea" consisted of 10 parts and "The Sun of The Nation" had 4 parts. Throughout the 1990s, a series of films came out under the title of "The Nation And Destiny", which ran for 62 parts. "The Nation & Destiny" deals with the subject of the fate concerning the Korean Diaspora since the time of the Japanese occupation and the division of Korea. The synopsis of "The Nation & Destiny" is that the individual cannot be separated from the fate of the national and social community. This film is divided into sections dealing with various characters and topics such as "Choe Hyon Dok", "Yun Sang Min", "Naturalised Japanese Women", "Workers",
                         

Another classic film series is "Unknown Heroes", which depicts the activities of DPRK Intelligence operatives at the time of the Korean War."Unknown Heroes" which began its production in 1978, and the main protagonist in the film Yum Rim uncovers various schemes masterminded by the US Imperialists. Incidentally, there is a character named Lewis, a British Army Officer of Irish descent who becomes sympathetic to the cause of the DPRK. A Korean film series, which may be of interest to the friends of the DPRK is "The Country I Saw". "The Country I Saw" runs into five parts, three segments of the series have been subtitled into English. In Part One of "The Country, I Saw", a Japanese Journalist Takahashi Minoru experiences the reality of Juche Korea for himself and propagates the truth about the DPRK in the press of Japan, at great personal cost. The daughter of the pro-DPRK journalist Kayama Aiko upholds the Juche Idea with a deep sincerely and passion. Kayama Aiko, who is a Professor of International Politics at Tokyo University suffers all sorts of trauma at the hands of the Japanese reactionaries for her actions in the promotion of Juche among progressive academic and political circles. Parts Two and Three of "The Country I Saw" is based on the events around the launch of the artificial satellite "Kwangmyongsong No.2" in April 2009 by the DPRK. The film in question portrays the might of the Songun Politics of the Workers' Party of Korea and how many people in different parts of the world are taking up the banner of the Juche Idea.
                                                 
"A Broad Bellflower" is a film which focuses around the efforts of building a village to become a modern socialist village through the perspective of Song Rim, a Workteam Leader. An engineer by the name of Wong Bong (Song Rim's fiance') is tempted by the bright lights of the big city and leaves the village to fend for itself. Song Rim and her comrades build-up their native village through the efforts of the collective. "A Broad Bellflower" made in 1987 is a strong metaphor for the virtues of self-reliance. DPRK feature films fall into broadly five categories; movies about Ancient Korea, the Anti-Japanese Revolutionary struggle, the Fatherland Liberation War, the fight for Korean Reunification and the present-day life in Socialist Korea. The themes in some films the main character is on the wrong track and have been mistaken for anti-social behaviour, but make amends after self-criticism by heroic deeds for the good of society. Another common motif running through DPRK feature films is the high proportion of women as the leading characters and as the heroines of the narratives
                                                 
I can recommend the following DPRK films on historical themes "The Flower Girl", "An Jung Gun Shoots Ito Hirobumi", "The Emissary Unreturned, "Plugsari" (which is a mixture of historical commentary and science fiction). As regards DPRK war films among the best ones is "Wolmi Island", "From 5pm To 5am", "Order No.027", "Just Give Us Our Orders", "Song of Retrospection" and "Kim Ok Song-War Composer". As for films on contemporary themes, the ones worth watching are "A Traffic Controller", "Centre Forward", "Flower In The Snow", "Case Closed", "A Family Bright With Songs" and "The Fate of Kum Hui And Un Hui" among others. The recently made DPRK movie which I have seen was "The Story Of Our Home" produced in 2016 and is about a young woman adopts orphans. "The White Birch Of Mount Paektu" is a favourite of mine. is about how University students from all over the DPRK volunteer to keep the revolutionary sites around the Mount Paektu-san intact despite arduous circumstances reflecting their ideological purity, Another outstanding film from the DPRK is "Lifeline", which has a plot centred on the struggle of the workers of the Chollima Steel Complex in constructing a UHP furnace. Viewing "Lifeline" one can see how the working class of Korea overcomes the imperialist imposed sanctions on their socialist country in the spirit of self-reliance. Of course, there are many other splendid DPRK feature films which I have left out due to the constraints of time.

Over the years the DPRK film industry has had international collaboration, for instance in the Soviet-DPRK film "Eternal Comrades" made in the 1980s and more recently with the DPRK-UK-Belgian joint production "Comrade Kim Goes Flying" (2013). Since September 1987, there has been held the International Film Festival in Pyongyang, on a biannual basis. As we have seen with the release of the south Korean movie "Parasite" and it being the winner of several Oscars, this year 2020, there is a growing curiosity in films from outside of North America and Europe. So I hope that the fans of World Cinema can experience for themselves the wonders of feature films from the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea!!!

(A presentation given to the National Meeting of the Juche Idea Study Group of Britain and the Korean Friendship Association in London on February 2020)