7 Examples That Prove North Korea Takes Movies Way Too Seriously

4. A Movie That North Korea Co-Produced With A U.S. Producer Still Attacks The U.S.

Though North Korea has occasionally co-produced films with other countries (the 2012 North Korean film Comrade Kim Goes Flying was co-produced by the United Kingdom and Belgium), obviously working with an American producer is out of the question for diplomatic reasons. The lone exception is the 2012 film The Other Side Of The Mountain, which was produced by Joon Bai, a North Korean-born American businessman and philanthropist who hoped he could make a film that would bring a message of peace to all Koreans. The epic is set during the Korean War and is about a wounded South Korean soldier falling in love with a North Korean nurse. Although Bai financed the film, the script had to be approved by the North Korean government and naturally it is filled with disparaging depictions of the United States. In particular, the climax of the film features U.S. soldiers burning a tunnel full of hundreds of North Korean women and children. It also ends with a patriotic sing-a-long calling for the reunification of the Koreas. Aside from its unique production partnership, the most astounding thing about The Other Side Of The Mountain is that despite being released two years ago it appears to have been made on film equipment from the 1970s €“ a common issue with North Korean film since, for the most part, the film equipment is actually from the 1970s.