ⓒ YONHAP News

Unveiled through North Korea’s state-run Korean Central TV, the stylishly-edited trailer of One Day, One Night drew special attention. 

North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper also drummed up publicity for this movie, which it says makes viewers realize that the country’s art films have reached a new level. The film revolves around a nurse who finds out a spy attempting to topple North Korea’s socialist class. 

The film is based on a real person named Ra Myong-hee, who died in 2020. Back in 1958, Ra, as a nurse, went to the house of a high-level official to give an injection and happened to learn that the official was a traitor. She sent a letter to Kim Il-sung to inform the leader of the plot she had discovered. In recognition of her loyalty, she later earned the title of heroine. The film adopted many elements of suspenseful thriller movies. 

Regarded as an art movie in North Korea, One Day, One Night was produced at the April 25 Film Studio. 

There are three major film production facilities in North Korea. The Korean Art Film Studio is the country’s largest film producer, while the April 25 Film Studio is operated by the Korean People’s Army. Pyongyang University of Dramatic and Cinematic Arts also has a youth film studio, where school seniors produce movies as their graduation project. Their films are so well made that the studio is recognized as an official film production facility in the North. Many of those films show teenagers as lead characters. 

In North Korea, those who engage in film production all belong to certain organizations. The entire production process from screenplay writing to filming and editing is inspected by the Propaganda and Agitation Department, while an agency under the culture ministry oversees the distribution of the movies. 

Some cinemas in Pyongyang are named after the districts they are located. Other than cinemas, citizens can also watch movies at different places equipped with a projector and screen, including cultural centers. North Korea also has a multiplex movie theater such as the Pyongyang International Cinema House on Yanggak Island. 

The Pyongyang International Cinema House is North Korea’s representative movie theater where the latest film One Day, One Night was shown. The cinema building was built in 1989, timed with the World Festival of Youth and Students in Pyongyang. It has six screens, small and large, with the largest cinema room capable of accommodating two-thousand people. This hall is also used for other shows such as operas and theatrical performances. 

Former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had significant influence on the nation’s film history. Known as a big fan of movies, Kim became the director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department in the late 1960s and started to bolster the cult of personality for his father and regime founder Kim Il-sung. He set up the Mt. Baekdu Studio in charge of producing films about the Kim family. One such film is a ten-part flick titled The Star of Korea that deals with Kim Il-sung’s anti-Japanese struggle during his younger years. 

Kim Jong-il rose to the position of top leader while solidifying his political base through the personality cult of his father. In the process, he implemented important policies related to films, music and art. The film The Star of Korea was inspired by a poem with the same title written by poet Kim Hyok(김혁), who praised Kim Il-sung as the nation’s Supreme Leader. The movie representing Kim Il-sung’s historical legitimacy of anti-Japanese revolution is known as the most viewed film to date in the country. North Korea claims that 120 million viewers watched the film as of 1992. Local citizens are required to see the movie, and it is assumed they watched it several times. 

The Star of Korea is the first North Korean film to embody the Supreme Leader, who had been alluded to only symbolically before, in the form of a movie character. 

In 1978, the world was shocked by the news about the abduction of a South Korean filmmaker and an actress to North Korea. Surprisingly, Kim Jong-il was behind the incident. South Korean movie director Shin Sang-ok and actress Choi Eun-hee were kidnapped separately in Hong Kong and taken to North Korea. The married couple dominated the South Korean film scene in the 1960s and left a huge mark on the history of local cinema. 

A documentary titled The Lovers and the Despot, directed by Ross Adam and Robert Cannan, was invited to the 2016 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. The film reveals in detail the abduction situation and conversation with Kim Jong-il, recorded secretly by Choi. 

In the conversation, Kim explains why he brought Shin and Choi to North Korea. 

Choi appeared on a TV program on KBS in 2009 and recalled the moment in the North. 

Kim Jong-il told us to make good movies, excluding ideological elements, so they could be more acceptable abroad. At the time, North Korea’s image was pretty bad in Southeast Asia. Kim wanted to improve the image and export films overseas. At his request, we concentrated on film production. 

Kim Jong-il wanted to further stabilize the regime by making movies that would appeal to the general public. In North Korea, director Shin produced 17 films until he escaped from the North during his trip to Vienna, Austria, in 1986. In the North, he had the full backing of Kim Jong-il. 

Shin worked at his own film studio, called Shin Films, in North Korea. Even today, some elderly North Korean citizens recall they liked Shin’s movies. In the North, the director was given full support for film production. For example, film directors usually use miniatures for a train explosion scene because it is too expensive to shoot such a scene in reality. But Shin actually blew up a real train to make the scene more realistic. For a snowstorm scene, he did not resort to the typical method of using strong fans but flew multiple helicopters instead. 

Shin had a significant impact on North Korean movies in the 1980s. His films refrained from agitating the people, compared to previous North Korean movies. Another distinctive part of his films is open displays of affection, which had been considered taboo in the North. 

North Korean flicks are rather boring. There are no erotic, horror or action movies in the North. Sexual expressions, in particular, are quite limited. For a kiss scene, for example, directors abruptly move the camera to another direction or make a tree block the scene. In the rape scene of a film titled Salt, all cameramen ran away, leaving their cameras behind, for fear that their ideology might be questioned later for shooting the scene. As a result, director Shin himself lifted the camera and shoot the scene. In another film, Love, Love My Love, the coat string of the heroine is untied. The scene itself generated huge buzz. 

In North Korea where collectivism is considered important in creating anything, Shin and Choi are believed to have contributed to exploring new territories of movies, with a focus placed on the individuality of artists. 

After Shin escaped from North Korea, the local film scene lost steam, especially in the 1990s when the socialist bloc collapsed and North Korea suffered from extreme economic difficulties known as the Arduous March. 

From the mid-2000s, North Korea began to push for film exports and collaboration with foreign countries. During the early years of current leader Kim Jong-un, North Korea released a series of films co-produced with other countries. 

In the past, North Korea would collaborate with the Soviet Union in film production. Under Kim Jong-un’s rule, a film titled Meet in Pyongyang was co-produced with China, while another film Comrade Kim Goes Flying was a co-production with the U.K. and Belgium. Meanwhile, a Korean-American named Bae Byung-jun(배병준) produced a movie The Other Side of the Mountain as a co-production between North Korea and the U.S. 

Comrade Kim Goes Flying, among others, shows where North Korean films are heading. It inserted realistic yet comic elements, using the theme of North Korean circus, one of the areas that the international community shows interest in. 

The film Comrade Kim Goes Flying is a light-hearted romantic comedy about a young woman named Kim Young-mi, a coal miner. She pursues her dream of becoming a trapeze artist, overcoming her fear of heights and her low, working-class background. 

Nine North Korean films, including Comrade Kim Goes Flying, were screened at the 2018 Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in South Korea. The 2016 North Korean film The Story of Our Home also attracted attention at the South Korean film event. 

The Story of Our Home won the Best Film Award at the 2016 Pyongyang International Film Festival. It tells the story of a young girl who takes care of orphan siblings in the neighborhood after she graduates from middle school. A number of young actors and actresses appear in the movie to portray daily lives of North Korean families and problems faced by teenagers in a natural way. The film uses diverse cuts in scenes that might otherwise be boring to make the scenes more immersive. 

Scene segmentation or alignment of North Korean films has become dynamic and sophisticated. They actively adopt cinematography techniques and different types of camera angles using various devices and equipment including a Jimmy Jib.

North Korean films have also introduced synchronous recording in place of post recording so performers can be more focused on their acting and express emotions well. 

It is significant that Comrade Kim Goes Flying and The Story of Our Home both stay away from the typical format of regime propaganda. Leader Kim Jong-un once said, “Keep your feet firmly on the ground of your home country and keep your eyes on the world.” In line with the new trend in the Kim Jong-un era, North Korean films are pursuing change little by little.