Review of Under the Sun (2015) by Viet Phuong N — 09 Oct 2016
Promising premise thanks to the unprecedented access to North Korea, yet the film failed to impress under the tight control of North Korean officers. The film is way too long with too many repetitions of contexts and activities (when the "double takes" scene was repeated for the third time, I was so bored that I amost quited watching) and few "new" factors.
The manipulative shots of the kids are also unsettling, as they somehow distorted the portraiture of the kids, which have already been deformed by the propaganda and censorship machine of North Korea.
Some images are pretty powerful (the dark building without elevator of the textile plant, the performing kids with the "5th nuclear test" headbands, the learn-by-heart poems of hatred, etc), but the film in a whole is nothing new in comparison with the depiction of North Korea by Western media throughout the years.
A disappointment, given the fact that the negative outcome from this "outreach" attempt by the North Korean authority will surely narrow the chance for other filmmakers to get into this country to make (probably) better films.
This review of Under the Sun (2015) was written by Viet Phuong N on 09 Oct 2016.
Under the Sun has generally received positive reviews.
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