Teaching East Asia: Korea Teaching East Asia: Korea | Page 280

KOREAN FILM AND POPULAR CULTURE
A State of Mind
W RITTEN AND D IRECTED BY D ANIEL G ORDON
V ERY M UCH S O P RODUCTIONS
DVD, 93 MINUTES , 2003
The British documentary A State of Mind intro-
duces us to the daily lives of Hyon Sun and Song
Yun, two delightful North Korean school girls
©2005 Keno International.
(ages thirteen and eleven) who have been selected
to train for the Mass Games, a Communist spectacle of extravagant pro-
portions involving over 100,000 performers. The focal point of the doc-
umentary is their months of rigorous daily training that reveal
determination, discipline, gymnastic skills, and devotion to the State.
Their greatest wish is for their “Dear Leader,” Kim Jong Il, to see them
perform, so he will know they are good communists.
The film dramatically conveys how a totalitarian regime has
shaped the minds of the people and coerced individuals to subordinate
their own needs to those of society. It provides images of Pyongyang
and the way of life of the people who reside there. Although there are
no signs of prosperity, life in the capital city of Pyongyang may initially
seem quite reasonable given most media coverage of North Korea.
Most people appear healthy and cheerful. Interviews reveal that they
are interested in US involvement in Iraq and are convinced that the
United States is a threat to their way of life. Love for their Dear Leader
Hyon Sun (left) and Song Yun on their way to school.
Screen capture from the film. ©2005 Kino International.
Hyon Sun during her Mass Games performance.
Screen capture from the film. ©2005 Kino International.
The film dramatically conveys how
a totalitarian regime has shaped the minds
of people and how individuals subordinate
their own needs to those of society as a whole.
is matched only by their animosity toward Americans. A grandfather
of one of the girls recounts the brutality of the United States during the
Korean War. Others blame the wickedness of American imperialists
for their current hardships, such as food shortages and nightly power
blackouts.
On the big day, Hyon Sun and Song Yun perform in the Mass
Games along with 100,000 other North Koreans. The massive floor-
show displays columns of dancers and singers, gymnasts and acrobats,
soldiers, and schoolchildren, all dressed in bright colors. The amazing
syncopation of such numbers is a wonder of choreography. Another
stunning part of the performance is the backdrop provided by between
15,000 to 20,000 schoolchildren positioned in the grandstand, facing
the audience. They all hold large booklets of colored cards that they
flip to different pages on cue to create different scenes, such as beauti-
ful mountainous landscapes, raging battlefields, and images of Kim Il
Sung and Kim Jong Il. Viewers of the documentary will find the per-
formance to be hauntingly beautiful, frightening, and the very em-
bodiment of a perfect totalitarian state.
Gordon’s documentary provides an exceptional opportunity to en-
gage students. For a generation that does not easily understand com-
munism, this film provides an opportunity to grasp the ideology, its
implications, and its hold on the people of North Korea. In order to
allow sufficient time for discussion of the film, showing the first ten
minutes of the documentary and the last chapter is recommended. To
supplement the study of North Korea one might assign “The Son,” a
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Song Yun during her Mass Games performance.
Screen capture from the f