N Korean Cinema: Kidnappings and Evil Americans

NEWS TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2014 A couple of Russian Army helicopters fly over the Monument to Scuttled Ships, during a promotional campaign for contract service for the Russian Army in Sevastopol, Crimea, on Dec 20, 2014. — AP N Korean cinema: Kidnappings and evil Americans SEOUL: North Korea hates the cur- cinema with the more recent ther of current leader Kim Jong Un. cially when compared to a South rently scrapped Hollywood film that “Comrade Kim Goes Flying”. The elder Kim once declared movies Korean film industry that’s the envy revolves around the assassination of The US blames North Korea for to be the most important tool to of Asia. its beloved leader, but the country the recent cyberattack on Sony educate the masses, according to has had a long love affair with cine- Pictures, which produced “The archive material maintained by the Isolation ma - of its own particular styling. In Interview,” and also for threats of ter- South Korean government. The country’s relative isolation the six decades since North Korea ror attacks against US movie the- North Korean moviemakers have means North Korean filmmakers began to cultivate its own film aters. Sony canceled the movie’s since dabbled with science fiction, rarely get the opportunity to work industry, a South Korean director release. North Korea has denied a action and romantic comedy, but with foreign artists. A notable excep- and his movie star wife have been role in the hacking, but also praised they’re mostly expected to stoke tion was “Comrade Kim Goes Flying,” kidnapped, a Godzilla-inspired mon- it as a “righteous deed”. public animosity against rivals a romantic comedy from 2012 about ster movie has bombed at the box Pyongyang began building its Washington and Seoul, and to por- a young female coal miner who office in the South, American defec- cinema industry in the 1950s as a tray the Kim family as a fearless bas- dreams of becoming a trapeze artist. tors have hammed it up in anti-US wing of a propaganda machine tion against evil foreign imperialists. The movie was co-produced with propaganda films - and there has meant to glorify the country’s late North Korea’s progress in filmmak- Western partners. The 1980s were a even been a foray into “girl power” founder, Kim Il Sung, the grandfa- ing technology has been slow, espe- heyday for North Korean movies. The current leader’s father, Kim Jong Il, was an ardent movie buff and Fadhl calls for granting non-Muslims... ensured generous funding for filmmakers. Continued from Page 1 becoming Kuwaitis is a “stigma on the Kuwaiti constitution When Kim soured on the quality In this file image made out of film “Comrade Kim Goes Flying” released and laws”, adding that those who added it to the constitu- of films produced by his country- on Oct 3, 2012 by the Busan International Film Festival, Comrade Kim Fadhl said he chose to appeal against that constitution- tion in 1981 do not deserve to become members of parlia- men, he ordered the abduction of Yong Mi played by Han Jong Sim smiles as she wears a coal miner’s hel- al amendment in the constitutional court, the highest ment who took the oath to respect the constitution and South Korean film director Shin met. — AP court in the country and whose rulings are final, and not laws. He also stressed that the presence of the article in the Sang-ok and his then-wife, actress ment website. North Korea has long shown through the National Assembly because “he did not want Kuwaiti constitution defies the morals of the Kuwaiti peo- Choi Eun-hee, in 1978, Shin said Shin and Choi managed to American characters in its movies as to embarrass my colleagues and enter into a dispute of ple and their principles. after he escaped the North in 1986. escape during a business trip to villains, sometimes played by North personal views”. If the challenge is accepted, it will allow The Kuwaiti population of 1.27 million is predominantly Shin shook the North Korean movie Vienna in 1986, a year after Shin Koreans in makeup, but also by actu- non-Muslims to become Kuwaiti citizens. But if rejected, Muslim, with a Sunni majority and Shiite minority. But scene with his entertainment- completed “Pulgasari,” a science-fic- al Americans who defected to the the status quo will be maintained. there are around 200-250 Kuwaiti Christians who were nat- focused works. They included 1984’s tion film inspired by Japan’s iconic North in the 1960s. Four such Fadhl is not a member of any political party but he is an uralized before the introduction of that article. Most of “Love, Love, My Love,” responsible “Godzilla” series. Pulgasari, which Americans appeared together as evil independent, sometimes pro-government, liberal-secular them hail from Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon. The constitu- for the first on-screen kiss in North features an actor waddling around capitalists and military officials in lawmaker who became a member of parliament in July tional court is not expected to rule on the case before sev- Korean films, and “Runaway,” an in a padded monster suit, flopped “Nameless Heroes,” a 20-part propa- last year. He however was elected twice before but both eral months. It has to be seen first whether the court will action film released the same year when it was released in South Korea ganda film series filmed from 1979 assemblies were scrapped by the constitutional court. The accept the challenge or not, and whether it will agree to that included an exploding train, in 2000 during a period of warmer to 1981, according to the South lawmaker said the article that bans non-Muslims from rule on an issue related to citizenship. according to a South Korean govern- relations between the rivals. Korean government website. — AP.

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