7 Examples That Prove North Korea Takes Movies Way Too Seriously

5. Kim Jong-il "Wrote" Books On Cinema Theory

Since Kim Jong-il was presented as a master filmmaker because of all his contributions to North Korean film, it was only natural that he would share his expert knowledge of cinema with his people. Several of the over 1000 books and speeches that credit Kim as the author are about filmmaking, including The Cinema And Directing, Let Us Create More Revolutionary Films Based On Socialist Life, and the most famous, On The Art Of Cinema. Obviously with such a huge output Kim didn't "write" all these books. While Kim's advice on how to make films isn't completely unsound, his dictatorial biases often shine through. The Cinema And Directing contains such gems as, "Before imagining the 500 horses, the director should have pictured the gallant people who rose up against foreign aggressors and should have planned to depict their heroic struggle vividly" and "To revolutionize direction means to completely eradicate capitalist elements and the remaining dogmatism from the realm of directing." It€™s doubtful that Hollywood filmmakers will follow Kim€™s advice and €œeradicate€ the industry€™s capitalist elements.