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The Juche Idea

Play trailer Poster for The Juche Idea 2008 1h 2m Documentary Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 7 Reviews 41% Popcornmeter 50+ Ratings
A South Korean video artist in North Korea tries to revitalize Juche cinema.

Critics Reviews

View All (7) Critics Reviews
Mike Hale New York Times Meant to be a comedy, one that cuts two ways: mocking the strictures placed on moviemakers in both Communist and capitalist systems. Rated: 3.5/5 May 27, 2010 Full Review S. James Snyder Time Out In the director's hands, these societal passion plays and "documentaries" offer a terrifying, top-down perversion of art itself -- another insidious extension of politics by other means. Rated: 3/5 May 26, 2010 Full Review Lauren Wissot Slant Magazine Jim Finn has managed to spoof not just easy-target Kim, but also the very notion of artists in residence making ever more obscure, inaccessible, and pretentious work. Rated: 2.5/4 May 25, 2010 Full Review Vadim Rizov Filmmaker Magazine Finn’s droll blend of actual North Korean propaganda and appropriately low-rent video interpolations... Jan 24, 2023 Full Review Mark Keizer Boxoffice Magazine Densely constructed and pretty damn brilliant. Rated: 3.5/5 Jun 1, 2010 Full Review Avi Offer NYC Movie Guru An unconventional and wildly imaginative combination of humor, satire and faux documentary as a delightful and refreshing medium to enlighten the audience about Juche. Rated: 7.36/10 May 26, 2010 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (6) audience reviews
Audience Member This film will make you feel baffled and manipulated, just as the director intended, as it assaults you with a barrage of propaganda made both by the Kim Jong Il regime in North Korea and by Jim Finn in Upstate New York. And you will laugh. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member interesting ... maybe too arthouse for me Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member A bizarre, funny, and a bit obtuse documentary/mockumentary about the philosophies of Juche cinema Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Audience Member Will the words "Fuck", "Cunt", "Shit", "Cum" and "Goddamn" be censored? I hope to Christ not. They're good words. Oh, and this is a good film. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member another play to all the people of the world bla bla bla Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member This is a remarkable film: a sort of free form essay on cinema, North Korean philosophy, and awesomely corny jokes on socialism and socialist art. This is probably more formally ambitious than Finn's prior work, the amazing Interkosmos, and in spirit reminds me a lot of Dusan Makavejev. I can't really think of anyone else who exhibits this much intellectual ambition to understand the differences between socialism and capitalism and who has such a great since of humor about it. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Juche Idea

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis A South Korean video artist in North Korea tries to revitalize Juche cinema.
Director
Jim Finn
Producer
Jim Finn
Screenwriter
Jim Finn
Genre
Documentary, Comedy
Original Language
Korean
Runtime
1h 2m