“The Juche Idea” is definitely a clever, entertaining and yet provocative experience courtesy of filmmaker Jim Finn and a DVD worth recommending!
© 2011 Kino International Corp. All rights reserved.
DVD TITLE: The Juche Idea
DATE OF FILM RELEASE: 2008
DURATION: 62 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Color & BW (1:85:1), 16:9, English, Korean, Bulgarian with English subtitles
COMPANY: Kino International/Kino Lorber
RATED: NOT RATED
RELEASE DATE: 2011
Directed by Jim Finn
Music by Neung Phak, Pauline Oliveros
Edited by Jim Finn
Starring:
Sung Kim as North Korean actor
Daniela Kostova as Bulgarian Filmmaker
Jung Yoon Lee as Yoon Jung
Oleg Mavromatti as Oleg
Jim Finn’s The Juche Idea is an uproarious and provocative deconstruction of North Korean propaganda and philosophy. Mixing together eye-popping archival footage with deadpan re-enactments, Finn has created a complex docu-fiction that is equally thought-provoking and entertaining. Translated as self-reliance, Juche (CHOO-chay) is a hybrid of Confucian and Stalinist thought that Kim Jong-il adapted from his father and applied to the entire culture. In The Juche Idea, a sympathetic South Korean filmmaker visits a North Korean artists’ colony to bring Juche ideas into the 21st century. She ends up producing hilariously stilted shorts, including a nonsensical sci-fi story and the enigmatic “Dentures of Imperialism.”
Inspired by the true story of how a South Korean director was kidnapped in the 70s to invigorate the North’s movie industry, The Juche Idea is both sardonic satire and historical excavation, an exuberant collage that reveals the absurdity at the heart of Kim-Jong-il’s regime.
Filmmaker Jim Finn is known for his “Utopian comedies” and known for creating films that provocatively and cleverly touches upon socialist ideologies within communities.  The films are low-budget but created in a mockumentary style with efficacy, literally to the point that can easily fool people in thinking his films are fictional.
Afterall, for a lot of who are in the West, we know very little about communist, their way of life or their perspective of how one should live their life.
His first feature film “Interkosmos” (2006) is a false documentary about setting up Socialist culture in space and feature two leaders from separate colonizing missions. The missions are top-secret Soviet intercosmos missions based in East Germany and the storyline and presentation caught the attention of viewers and critics.
This led to Finn’s second feature film “La Trinchera Luminosa del Presidente Gonzalo” (2007) about the day in the life of a Shining Path (a Maoist insurgent guerrilla organization in Peru) women’s prison cell block. The Shining Path are also known as the Communist Party of Peru.
And now, Finn returns with “The Juche Idea” (2008), a comedy film which is a mockumentary which brings together archived news and film footage of North Korea and their Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il and making it seem as if it is an actual fictional documentary. Also, bundled with quotes from North Korean Supreme Commander Kim Jong-il, who was a film theorist. These quotes are literally part of his Juche Idea that came from his father that demands obedience of the people for the sake of their nation and of course their leader.
Finn makes this film seem very realistic as it depicts a South Korean filmmaker who moved to Japan and then later moved to North Korea’s artist colony to bring Juche ideas into the 21st century.
“Juche” (pronounced as “choo-chay”) is a Korean word which means “main body” (mainstream) and the political thesis of Kim Il-sung, the father of Kim Jong-il who was a communist politician who led the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) from 1948 to 1994. Kim Il-sung was known as the “Cult of Personality” because he used mass media and propaganda to create a heroic public image, which his son would follow. But the Juche Idea is the identifying factor for the Korean masses of the development of North Korea.
The three fundamental principles of Juche is:
1. Political Independence
2. Economic Self-Sustenance
3. Self-Reliance in Defense
“The Juche Idea” would feature a young woman, a South Korean filmmaker named Yoon Jung (played by Jung Yoon Lee) sick of capitalistic ideals that she left South Korea and Japan for North Korea to dedicate her life to North Korea. She is interviewed by a Bulgarian filmmaker (played by Daniela Kostova) who is filming a documentary about North Korea and “The Juche Idea” and to delve deeper into the head of Yoon Jung of why would she move to North Korea.
She is part of an artist colony but yet she is seen doing farming work, planting vegetables and cleaning chicken poop but she has a sense of pride because what she is doing is beneficial for North Korea. And what she wants to do is create work showing the faults of Capitalism and the pride she has in the Juche idea. Meanwhile, the Bulgarian filmmaker obviously has something up her plate while continuing to interview Yoon Jung for the documentary.
We are then shown clips of North Korean propaganda films.  In one film, we see a woman with her friends and family feeling despondent that she did not dedicate her life to North Korea like everyone else has. She pledges her life to North Korea that no matter if she must take care of disabled soldiers, she will still show her North Korean pride and be proud of what she does.
Another North Korean propaganda film shows a woman who helps a farming pan clean up duck poop and despite the work being smelly and a bit challenging, because people take pride in their work for North Korea, she doesn’t mind her job.
The film then shows us various “Juche Idea” principles of how there is no negativity in North Korea.
Also, shown are classic films especially a large celebration held for their supreme leader and everyone excited, proud and passionate about their leader King Jong-il (the best I can describe is a fan to their favorite rock star).
But throughout the film, we get to see how Yoon Jung grows with her filmmaking experience but also seeing a bit of herself revealed through the interviews with the Bulgarian filmmaker. But showing us if this woman who came from a Capitalist background can immerse herself in a life of becoming a socialist an dedicating her life to communicate with the workers of North Korea.
It’s important to note that Finn’s “The Juche Idea” is inspired by a true story of how South Korean director Shin Sang-ok was kidnapped in the ’70s (along with his actress wife Choi Eun-hee) to invigorate North Korea’s film industry. While viewers are not entirely sure if Yoon Jung is in North Korea on her own free will, the South Korean filmmaker tries to create films that will benefit the North….or would they?
VIDEO & AUDIO:
It’s important to note that “The Juche Idea” is a film that mixes modern digital footage with footage taken from North Korean VCD’s. So, because of the archived footage show, picture quality differs. But the modern scenes are clear, while the older North Korean films and parade footage and even the classic Kim Jong-il footage are watchable and show no fading or discoloration. Footage looks very good.
As for the audio, audio is clear, I detected no hissing, pops or anything bad. It’s primarily front-channel driven soundtrack.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“The Juche Idea” comes with the following special features:
- Audio Commentary from Director Jim Finn – Jim Finn explains why he created this film, how he made everything pretty much on a low budget without spending too much and also how he tried to make this mockumentary feel authentic as if shot in North Korea despite the film really being shot in Massachusetts.
- The Short Films of Jim Finn – Featuring “Wustenspringmaus” (2002, 2:40 ), a short communist (mockumentary) film about a gerbil and how it relates to capitalism; “Decision ’80” (2003, 10:06) is a short film about Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and Ronald Reagan’s election and presidency with the sound of war and destruction in the background; and “Great Man and Cinema” (2009, 3:46) which is about Kimg Jong-il.
- Deleted Scenes – (16:24) Featuring deleted scenes from “The Juche Idea” such as more “English as a Capitalist Language” about how American’s express themselves of wanting more money and keeping people on a short lease, “A Blizzard in the Jungle” featuring North Korean comic books, How North Koreans feel about Cuba and much more.
- Theatrical Trailers – Trailer for “The Juche Idea”, “Interkosmos” and “Kimjongilia”.
“The Juche Idea” marks my first Jim Finn film and I have to admit, at first glance, I did not know this was a mockumentary in a “Borat” sense. But you have to give Director Jim Finn some credit for creating a film that actually makes sense, so much in the fact that you literally accept what you are watching as real.
Watching the film along with the North Korean archived footage and propaganda cinema and the North Koreans dedication to the Juche idea, I figured that is how people are raised over in North Korea. Granted, there were certain scenes that made me question the validity of this being a fictional film, especially when it came to hilarious English dialogue exercises (which are not meant to be hilarious but actual conversations) featuring Sung Kim and actor Oleg Mavromatti talking about how great a country North Korea is.
But at the same time, you figure that we’re not really exposed to North Korean entertainment (despite how popular South Korean entertainment is at the moment) that we don’t how their quality of their films are. If anything, what we are exposed to, are archived footage or clips that were shot possibly nearly 50 years ago or more. So, no matter how hilarious those scenes are, you just roll with it and think it’s part of Yoon Jung’s work. Especially seeing kitchsy some of her other projects are.
But “The Juche Idea” is actually an one heck of a clever, yet provocative film that manages to be quite entertaining for its entire 62 minutes….and dare I say, quite delightful. I have watched a plethora of South Korean cinema, so to see the clips of North Korean cinema, I was expecting to see the banality of women meets man, woman falls for man. But instead, the films were women not expressing their love for the man, but expressing their love for their country.  And if you thought that was rather intriguing, right next to the clips are quotations from Kim’s writings and his own personal theories that give credence to what you are watching on those film clips.
As for the DVD, you get an entertaining audio commentary with a lot of information on the making of this film. Right when you hear how the film was shot in Massachusetts and how Jim Finn approached the use of these clips and filming various scenes, you can’t help but be amused. Added with a few deleted scenes and the theatrical trailer, “The Juche Idea” is an entertaining DVD from Kino Lorber!
Needless to say, filmmaker Jim Finn has caught our attention and we can only wonder what this director is working on next.
“The Juche Idea” is definitely a clever, entertaining and yet provocative experience courtesy of filmmaker Jim Finn and a DVD worth recommending!
