Watch Under the Sun For Free

That was an excellent one.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Hitch has well said that the Christian Haven can be found in North Korea. The road filled with buses, but no personal car and the micro truck shouting from the loudspeakers an Ode to the leading Gods.Lately I have seen numerous documentaries filmed in North Korea by all sort of white clowns that needed to compensate the lack of skills with something catchy, something unusual. So far the best was one made by the team at Vice in which the team actually tried to go outside the marked path. Most were more than happy to engorge in the protocol food and drink, than whip out some "life is bad" text.This one is different. The director has certainly lived all this crap somewhere in the Soviet Union and he knows where to look. Sadly the frames are hard to decode. Happily this is a document and could be seen many years after the fall of North Korea. Take the school. This is no regular school. This is a school for the Nomenklatura. One sees the segregated group of girls (Christianity at its best) in school uniforms. He films the fingernails "cut this morning", yet he catches a glimpse of the bottom half. And some of the girls are not wearing regular school trousers, but denim. And that is the ultimate piece of clothing. It is hard to see, because they were specially chosen to blend it with the uniforms.Or there is the scene with the food set for all the foreigners to see that the malnourished people have everything their heart's desires. Yet the girl is playing with the food. She knows she is not allowed to eat, but she can't help herself from touching the tasty food. And later there are the State employees searching around the room, the room with the portraits of the local Gods. It is hard to notice, but through the frames the fancy food is not touched by the family. Or how the family is lightly dressed, yet the production team has the down coats they use outside.Or the bus from the beginning. A nice, regular bus. With people getting on. Only someone cries Action! It is not a regular bus. It is one of the better buses brought in from the party depots to show how good the life can be for the people. The bus makes a terrible noise. Because even the higher ups do not have the usual comfort of the West. But still, this is not what the regular people are using.In short, hard to decode, but the best documentary on North Korea so far. By far.Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

In my opinion author is overstating 1984 part of life in the North Korea. Yes, it is his point of view, but sometimes i was annoyed by it, especially at moments when by adding music author trying o enlarge sadness of what happening. The funniest thing in all of this if such movie must be shooted in Russia by Russian elder people control the plot can be similar! It also will be all the best: hospital, accommodation, food, theater. Showing us helpless veteran with someone, who told him what to say. Or children repeating scene after scene the same words. Or main character and her parents in scene with eating. But it is movie, there are always director in the movie. Also there are actors in movies, so it is nothing wrong with mismatch in jobplaces and other information. North Korea was showed in traditional way - all bad, people sad, nothing will ever come out from this. But in this movie it was performed with inappropriate resources : if you change music, add some lights to scenes - it will be another movie with other ideas.

This would be a great documentary if permitted so by North Korea. However, movies transfer emotions from the location or situation to a person watching it. As my summary says, it did it perfectly. We cant really see what is happening inside North Korea and how people live their every day lives but this certainly gives an idea how it may be in reality. It still leaves a great deal of details to our imagination but certainly gives us a hint.I will not comment or review this piece from a technical point of view as I could not focus on this part watching this. What we need to focus on, are certain aspects of life in North Korea and this staged documentary surely gives us an overview. You end up feeling upset, angry and at the same time heartbroken and in tears. Filmmakers deserve thumbs up for trying to achieve the impossible and they did the best from what they have been permitted to get and still came out of country all together and alive.

A foreign crew is somehow given permission to shoot in North Korea. The term "documentary" is a bit far-fetch here, since everything is actually staged by an escort crew that supervises, scripts, directs and rehearses every scene being filmed.If you want to see what George Orwell's NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR would look like if it became real life, watch this documentary.Watching it, I got strong vibes of movies such as EQUILIBRIUM, METROPOLIS, SLEEPER and THE PRISONER. Basically, every movie which depicts life in a state of dictatorship becomes a reality here and Orwell's book is the bible. All the elements from his book can be found here: Pictures of the leader at every corner, a constant state of war with military at every corner and as the center of every class in school, brainwashing the minds of people since an early age and basically turning them into human robots that would obey everything they are being told to do and learning how to hate the Japanese and Americans, production is always told to be getting "more efficient", TV constantly broadcasts programs about the leader, his military and war, and you hardly see anyone smiling.This is life in a constant state of fear and it's a living nightmare.The movie is far from perfect – many scenes are way too long and repetitive, tighter editing could have made wonders here – but its value lies in the achievement of showing a surreal regime that is almost impossible to believe that still exists in the 21st century and showing how "reality" can easily be fabricated.Good cinematography and excellent musical cues by Karlis Auzans.6.5/10 Highly recommended