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Songs From the North

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100% Tomatometer 7 Reviews 42% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
Filmmaker Soon-Mi Yoo tries to understand the psychology and popular imagination of the North Korean people.
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Songs From the North

Critics Reviews

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Daniel M. Gold New York Times Scattering history lessons and ambiguous imagery amid Ms. Yoo's engagement with North Koreans, her film implicitly asks: What must they think of us? Sep 17, 2015 Full Review Ernest Hardy Village Voice The fact that Yoo isn't regarded as an outsider by the people she's recording allows her to capture a number of revealing, unrehearsed moments that startle in their raw emotion. Sep 15, 2015 Full Review Clayton Dillard Slant Magazine North Korean culture is lensed in part through a South Korean perspective, with the final chapter asking: "Is reunification possible?" Rated: 3/4 Sep 13, 2015 Full Review Vadim Rizov Filmmaker Magazine Yoo’s candid camera glimpses really do amount to little more than watching the state mask drop for minuscule amounts of time. For ideological inquiry, I’d prefer Finn, but as someone fascinated by North Korea I found the film inevitably fascinating... Jan 23, 2023 Full Review Michael Sicinski Cinema Scope While in no way softening the all-encompassing propaganda state of three generations of Great Leader Kims, Songs from the North also displays a rare audacity by showing certain aspects of North Korean life as perfectly normal. Nov 21, 2017 Full Review Peter Labuza The Film Stage Yoo's film is a necessary correction of how we should view or think about what life is really like in North Korea, even if the work feels somewhat limited by its own necessity. Rated: B Mar 12, 2016 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member A hodgepodge of North Korean TV and movie footage and footage this South Korean filmmaker shot while visiting. Messy and boring. I would have much preferred a history lesson in how Japan and the US did Korea wrong, since she is clearly going for a sympathetic approach. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Audience Member Interesting shots from this secluded country...comprise only about 15 minutes of this film the rest of which is haphazardly assembled interviews and dated propaganda films (which Kim himself loathed!). Only interesting to folks enamored by the topic. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 05/19/16 Full Review Audience Member Unique and intriguing images from this self-isolated country...comprise fifteen or so minutes of the film. The rest consists of awkwardly interspersed segments of the filmmaker's South Korean father and scenes from North Korean feature films - which Kim Jung Il himself described as "awful". The director's attempt at a Pyongyang inspired Koyaanisqatsi falls quite flat. Other documentaries, like those from the BBC, and RT are a better exploration of the subject. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/09/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Songs From the North

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Songs From the North

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Movie Info

Synopsis Filmmaker Soon-Mi Yoo tries to understand the psychology and popular imagination of the North Korean people.
Director
Soon-Mi Yoo
Producer
Haden Guest, Rui Alexandre Santos
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
root
Release Date (Streaming)
Dec 31, 2016
Runtime
1h 12m
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