FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
A STATE OF MIND
Shedding light on what some have dubbed the most mysterious country in the world, this documentary follows two young
gymnasts training for the Mass Games, an enormous choreographed celebration performed for and in honor of North Korean
dictator Kim Jong Il. This spectacle has it all - elaborate dances performed by over 80,000 gymnasts and a huge 12,000-person mosaic
that changes from one glorious image to another, all to Communist-inspired music.
Director Daniel Gordon explains in his narration that the Mass Games are a demonstration of pure Communism; that is to say,
the performers give up their individual desires for about six grueling months of anxiety and fierce training to put on this amazing
show. The two girls, Kim Song Yun, 11, and Pak Hyon Sun, 13, practice dance moves on concrete in the bitter February cold. Pak
complains the temperature dips below 20 degrees centigrade.
They are given
few breaks, and when they are, the girls spend time indulging in patriotic acts, like a pilgrimage to Mount Paekdu, the folkloric birthplace of both Korea and Kim
Sung Il, Kim Jong Il's father.
What is perhaps the most chilling aspect of A State of Mind is North Korea's intense hatred of the Western
world, particularly the United States. As Gordon points out, the Mass Games "immortalize hatred
for the United States," filling it with anti-US propaganda. The antipathy extends well beyond the
Games. Kim has a sister who is joining the
army and her father wishes he had a son to fight for reunification. Kim says to the director,
with a completely straight face, that she hates the Americans and will fight to the end for her
leader.
Devotion and obsession with Kim Jong Il are the driving force of these two girls and apparently most of North Korea.
(The most closed country in the world, it only has a few commercial outbound
flights a year - to Beijing.) As revealed here, the "US imperialists" are the scapegoats for every
hardship in their lives, from massive famines to a flickering light bulb. Fascinating, educational,
and utterly horrifying, A State of Mind should not be overlooked. Michael Wong
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