The documentary Dear Pyongyang and Crossing the line were both filmed during the mid 2000s in North Korea and both were a reflection of what really transpired between two families who had their sons being citizens of the North Korea both willingly and unwillingly. This film takes us through the journey that these brothers had to endure in the foreign country showing us what really transpired in North Korea between the year 1960 to present times.
The documentaries Dear Pyongyang and Crossing the line can be seen to both have an aspect of the present times in relation to the documentary then bringing to knowledge of the viewer the reason of the happenings by introducing the past. The documentary Dear Pyongyang starts by narrating to one the reason of the documentary with the father regretting of his decision to send his only sons to the North Korea where they had to struggle in order to leave. This resulted in the breaking of their family as they never saw their sons for the next thirty years (Yang ,Inaba, and Inumaru 34). The documentary can be seen to use a narrative approach to explain the happening in the film as it is not mainly a movie but more of a life story of the said family. It can be seen that the documenter starts by introducing herself as the daughter of the person going to do the documentary and the sister to the brothers who were taken to North Korea by their father. She later introduces her father followed by their mother showing a lifestyle of the members of their family before she takes us to Pyongyang.
The documentary Crossing the line though a bit different from Dear Pyongyang as the later involved the victims being forced into North Korea against their will. Crossing the line involves an American Soldier James J. who deflected from the American troops he was serving in South Korea and went to seek solace with the enemy in North Korea (Bragg 23). The difference comes with the method the narrator uses to bring to the understanding of his documentary.
It can be noted that the narrator starts by introducing us to the present subjects in question who are James J. and Charles Jenkins who both deflected to the United States. He then narrates to us the reason of their defection giving room for the subjects to elaborate further by interviewing them through direct videotaped questioning giving the viewers a glimpse of what is really transpiring. Through these to documentaries it can be seen how the filmmakers have effectively used the use of narration to come up with ways by which he can directly and in a simpler manner show his or her audience what is really transpiring in the documentary and keeping the viewers interested at all times through well use of suspense.
The use of formal approaches in the documentary can be seen by how the filmmakers begin by a brief history of the North Korean past in relation to the Cold war and the reason for their differences which exist up to date. In Dear Pyongyang, the filmmaker can be seen starting the documentary by introducing the history of the country through subtitles which can be seen to run for the first one and a half minutes of the documentary. Through this the viewer is seen to be in a position to have a glimpse of what the documentary will be talking about in this case that being the Cold War between the South and the North Korea and its effects as well. After this brief introduction of the background of Korea, she introduces us to her family including herself as the filmmaker as the reason of the film is stated by the father who sent his children to North Korea thirty years back. Through this methodology, the filmmaker can be seen to keep the documentary formal as her methodology involved a well planned system as well as the flow of events as well making it easier and interesting enough for the viewers.
In the Crossing the line, the use of Formal approaches to the documentary is considered to be the same as that of dear Pyongyang. In this documentary, the filmmaker first introduces one of the brothers who successfully deflected from the American government finding themselves with nowhere to start from ending up colluding with the North Korean government in order to gain refuge and have a life.
All this is displayed systematically by the use of the formal and narrative approaches making it easier for the viewers to be able to catch a grasp of the happenings. It can be noted that this same approaches are used commonly by history documentary films in North Korea making them the well known approaches of documentaries during the mid 2000s. The approaches involve a brief summary of the history through narration, subtitles and pictures, then an introduction to the present times with a brief introduction of the characters being documented then step by step explanation of the flow of events till the present times.
The documentaries mainly focus on the political ideologies of the North Korean Republic from the period between 1960 to current. Dear Pyongyang to be specific creates and image of what it looked like in the 1960s and the 1970s as the Cold war was continuing. It could be noted that there more soldiers than ordinary civilians as the war continued taking its toll on North Korea. There being frequent assemblies of the troops to be addressed by the commander to motivate them before they went to war. North Korean is portrayed as a war nation with the high number so soldiers available in every part of the country.
The documentary through the showing and analyzing of the strip between the North and South Korea shows how the North Korea had locked itself out of the world. This being where the ideology of the ‘Juche’ state is being derived from. This country can be seen as a hereditary dictatorship with the promotion of the cult personality which mainly went round the life and praises to Kim II-sung who was the founder of North Korea and the only president of North Korea as well. this is displayed in the documentaries by the way people were afraid of him coming to the point that they bowed to his image and pictures. He was a form of a god in North Korea his word being final as he could not be challenged by anyone. This type of cult is what can be described as a personality cult in the country, with the documentary displaying it well and clearly to the viewers.
This exercise of control by the central government is still being practiced to date, implying the documentary showed the true picture of North Korea as it is right now. This is notified to date that all artistic images, music and art that were created during the period were meant to glorify their great leader who was the founder of their country. The soldiers before they went to war could be observed chanting the greatness of their leader hence the cult worship. The documentary captures most of these aspects of the country even playing one of the songs that were used to glorify Kim-II-sung in the background.
According to dear Pyongyang (56), the three brothers of the filmmaker are seen to have suffered greatly as the life in the North Korea was not as easy considering they were Japan nationals and not North Korea nationals. This can be seen in the documentary as the brothers say they had to result to using the funds which was allocated to them by their farther as their trust funds as they had no other alternative whatsoever.
This struggle of the brothers can be attributed to the division of the social classes in North Korea according to the Songbun which was a system used to divide them. The Songbun involved division of the nationals and non-nationals inform of their economic, political , social, their behavior in terms of the backgrounds of their last three generation, they used these classes to determine the rights of the individuals. These determined who will get the right to education as well as the different jobs that existed, this accounts to the reason as to why the brothers of Yang Yong suffered greatly while in North Korea.
When one views ‘Crossing the line’, one notes that James J. and his friend Charles Roberts lead a really great life after a few years in the country yet they were American citizens unlike the brothers of Yang Yong who were citizens of Japan which was an ally of North Korea. This is shown in the documentary with the life and the environment the two Americans can be seen enjoying in the documentary showing the good life that exists in North Korea and not as bad as it is portrayed in dear Pyongyang. As seen from both the two documentaries, the state can be identified as the only source of power with any signs of not aligning with the interest of the state resulted in political imprisonment. With identification of the state as the only source of power, it can be noted in the documentary ‘Crossing the lines’ that the two American friends ended up collaborating with the enemy of their own country by giving them Intel and helping them fight the American troops effectively without losing many soldiers. These resulted in these Americans joining the North Korean Army and being given military ranks with special allowances to them (Braggs 67). This makes their lives way better off than if they would be in American hence persuading them to spill more of the tactics and plans used by the South.
Dear Pyongyang and Crossing the lines can be seen to show the suffering of the citizens of the country who can be seen to be against the government and the enemies who have been captured during the Cold. This is portrayed by the visual images and the sound tracks played by the filmmakers in the documentaries of people suffering under the North Korean government. The increasing number of political prison and camps with numerous numbers of people can be seen in the documentaries portraying a good image of hoe those considered to be enemies of the state are treated.
These images reflect the true nature of the North Korean government back then with little being done to change these perspectives as well. North Korea has been rated by Amnesty international to be the country with the most reported cases of human rights violation and containing the largest number of prisons most of which are political prisons for political prisoners (Yang 94). Yet the government publicly denies this, Google satellites have been used to confirm these allegations as the country continues its modern form of dictatorship. These people put away in the ‘Total Control Zones’ as they are known are used for cheap or free labor services to the country as they are termed to be irredeemable.
This is just to mention a few of what the documentaries show of the present and the past images of North Korea. The documentaries clearly showed each of the above events in writing, narrative and through use of images hence appealing greatly to the viewers as well.
Works Cited
Bragg, Melvyn. Crossing the Lines: A Novel. New York: Arcade Pub, 2005. Print.
"Films." North Korea (DPRK): History, Literature, Film. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2013.
Hwang, Kyung M. A History of Korea: An Episodic Narrative. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Print.
Jager, Sheila M. Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea. N.p., 2013. Print.
Yang, Yonghi, Toshiya Inaba, and Masahiro Inumaru. Dear Pyongyang. Seattle, WA? N.p., n.d. Print.
Yang, Sŏng-chʻŏl. The North and South Korean Political Systems: A Comparative Analysis. Boulder, Colo: Westview Press, 2007. Print.
