Huievest
Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Janae Milner
Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
Fleur
Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
Leofwine_draca
A STATE OF MIND is an engaging little British documentary that follows the path of two young North Korean girls who are training to take part in regular 'games' held in that country, games that show off spectacular choreography and colour as a way to honour the country's leaders. The documentary is interesting because it shows the other side of the story, with cameras allowed inside the country so the viewers can witness real life there without the hyberbole.The documentary works because the focus is on real people, and you spend long enough with them to get to know and understand what drives them and how they feel. The glimpses of North Korean life we witness are often enthralling, and I particularly enjoyed the training sequences which show off some incredible acrobatic skills. We'll never know whether A STATE OF MIND tells the full story or not, but I'm left feeling sad that this country remains isolated from the rest of the world and unable to integrate on an international scale. North Koreans seem far from the bogeymen portrayed in western media.
za_kannushi
I agree with what most posters say about this movie. Yes, the film does not show any of the real horrors of the country. What it shows is what the North Korean government would allow, and nothing else.But the film also gives a rare insight into the (few) people whose lives in some ways can be compared to the lives of people in other countries. But where we have film stars, pop singers, authors, intellectuals and other role models that present us with diversified views on life, they (the affluent minority) have only one philosophy, and that is Kim Jong Il. They have no alternative religions, politics, philosophies, myths, icons, legends, thoughts or anything else.What is interesting about the film is that it gives us an insight into the lives of those who are relatively well off in a totalitarian regime. And it is clear that the movie is made by people who do not live in that same regime. The filmmakers look at the human, 'weak' side of these people instead of just showing these people as role models. The North Korean government would see these people as becoming a glorious unified whole during these games. We see them as robots and slaves to a corrupt regime that doesn't care about them.It is like British people visiting and making documentaries about the Nazi-devotees in the late 30s Germany. We know what is going on behind the scene, but the devotion and naivety shown by the people on screen is almost just as frightening, since these people could be ourselves under similar circumstances.
dy158
I only began to know a bit more about North Korea thanks to my school's past social studies and history classes, where at both times the Korean War was mentioned and being discussed. It was like few years back, but at times it kept ringing in my head.Maybe because since some time back, there has been those news reports on the tearful reunions and meetings between the ordinary families of the two Koreas. And also with all that 'Korea wave' happening (in terms of its pop culture especially) and the media liberation in South Korea, she is slowly starting to present some of its darkest moments in its history onto the screen.Just like before the start of the documentary which I saw on the Discovery Channel, it stated that North Korea is the least visited, least known, and the least understood nation in the world. I have to agree with my heavy heart, it's true. Speaking from someone who was once a History student, it's very saddening to at times for me to read of stories of how life is like in North Korea through the papers. It's not that I want to condemn the western media, but then the world is just like that.Are you able to determine where you should be born? If you are born into a country which has a very different system of government which may deemed so-called 'evil' to the outside world, there is no way out. Unless you know how to do something about it.This documentary follows two girls (one belonging to the workers' class and the other - the intellectuals' class) being raised in different backgrounds in the capital of Pyongyang, and how they are preparing for their country's most spectacular and well-known event to the outside world - the Mass Games. It's kind of interesting to know that in the country itself, it has three classes - the peasants, the workers, and the intellectuals.For all those who said that this documentary is all about propaganda and stuff like that - open your eyes, please. Which is why I said earlier it's not that I don't want to condemn the western media on their portraying of the secretive state actually. I kind of know the feeling, because living here in Singapore for my entire life, I am more or less aware how those western media at times see us. Making all our democratic system of government sounding as if it's not what a democratic country should be. As it's often being said - 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do.' How can you expect everyone to follow your style of democracy? Back to the case of North Korea. It's kind of like a big opener to know how living in the capital is like and how kids like one of the girls being featured for this documentary went about in their daily school life. Maybe ordinary Americans may kind of wonder why the North Koreans as being shown in this documentary always blame them for whatever faults they have (like one of the families blaming the Americans for their constant blackout in the house), but then it's like, I don't know...the North Koreans are being brought up in a way that America is their biggest enemy and it stands everything what they disagree upon.It's all comes back to a case of ideology. History has shown us what communism can do as it does for Russia and its eastern European neighbours once. But in the case of North Korea, its citizens had been taught to think in that manner. I know propaganda is involved, given it showed how they really respect their leader.Sadly, propaganda is everywhere, though we may not want to admit it at times. I had heard the propaganda word umpteen times in my past History classes that I don't even want to think about it. We should at least count ourselves lucky we are living in a civilised world.Overall, this is one documentary which shows how life is like in one of the least visited, least known...and the least understood nations in the world.
afterapplepicking26
This documentary should have been sponsored by the pot-bellied, dog-eating dictator who runs North Korea. It sure portrays his totalitarian, atrocity-committing regime in a nice light.So we have families who are filthy rich...who get enough to eat...who live in the capital city of Pyongyang...who are entirely devoted to the pot-bellied, dog-eating dictator...And yet we hear nothing of the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, who have died of starvation and disease. We hear nothing of the fact that, in many places besides Pyongyang there are corpses which lie in the streets. We hear nothing of the fact that mass graves have been set up, and bodybags have to be used 3 times or more due to shortages. We hear nothing of the fact that there are over a quarter of a million political prisoners in concentration camps. We hear nothing of the fact that those who push for democracy are often subject to public execution in front of women and children. We hear nothing of the fact that refugee's have been flooding into China for years because North Korea is uninhabitable.We hear nothing of the fact that many North Koreans cook and eat clay and tree bark just to have something in their stomachs.This documentary filmmaker was granted unusual access into North Korea. He had the opportunity to do something spectacular and bring to light the horrors that exist in this wretched nation.And what did he do? He swallowed what the Communist party told him hook, line, and sinker.And in doing so, he has become an enabler, if not an accomplice, to the starvation and purposeful killing of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of brainwashed North Korean citizens.If you want a real idea of what life is like in North Korea, I recommend Dispatches: Undercover in the Secret State. This documentary...this aiding and abetting to the slaughter of innocents, should be burned on a pyre before being buried in the earth.
