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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

i must have seen a different film!!

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

The Propaganda Game is a welcome companion to Under the Sun, in which we have a cousin doc that explores the question mark that is North Korea. Asking more questions than it actually answers, one feels compelled to not only examine the North Koreans belief system but also our own which has had an unsteady philosophy of demonizing that which is contrary to our own. I'm not at the point of booking passage there but my mind is definitely on the fence as to what our great enemy really is bringing to the world's table.

Let's put this out of the way - everyone knows that an organised tour of the DPRK is one massive facade. For a filmmaker to gain entry and keep that much footage, the film absolutely had to showcase happy citizens, sprawling buildings and new technology. How could you expect anything else?What makes this film brilliant is what he did with the footage.Aptly named "The Propaganda Game", director Álvaro Longoria takes us with him on tour of North Korea's capital Pyongyang. What I really enjoyed about this film is its rawness - You get to see everything from Longoria's eyes and decide for yourself what is real and what is not. It felt like a very personal experience. The deception of the State and its effects on its people are nothing short of terrifying. How could they act so naturally if everything is staged? Could it be real? Are they really so brainwashed? Are these people suffering? How? I think some people who have seen it are confused, judging from some other reviews. I urge you to see this film without searching for concrete answers. Longoria presents many opposing arguments but there really is no telling the extent of North Korea's deception or on the flip side, the warping of information in Western media (I mean, The Guardian is pretty ridiculous.) I suspect Longoria himself does not know what to make of it. You simply can't find that kind of information on North Korea; experts themselves do not have the full truth nor do they all agree with each other. Such is social science. There is simply too little information, and the film captures that wonderfully. Speculating would be unwise.The film leaves you rather unsettled, but I believe that was the intended effect. How could we be comfortable when a system as oppressive as the DPRK's is still surviving to this day? Its message, if there must be one, is that the people of North Korea are suffering - and that instead of looking at them as ignorant fools living in a joke of a nation, we should be sympathising with them and condemning such cruelty.It is a film that focuses on the people, and is a much needed take on the subject amongst all the hoo-ha surrounding North Korea.

The N. Koreans aren't only held in by a physical wall that separates them from freedom, they are held in by a wall of propaganda that hearkens to the age of the 3rd Reich. This film did an amazing job of showing how creepy and false the front of this country really is, you can almost feel the dying millions clawing desperately for food or safety right behind the satirically sweet school children singing praises to their crazy, delusional dictator. This film allowed the rest of the world to see the thinly placed veneer, that somehow Kim Jong Un actually believes will fool educated and aware people outside of his regime. First tip was that the camera men are always escorted and observed by government assistants. The veneer is so impossibly thin at times you are left wondering why the hell they spent the money to construct fake museums, colleges and "public places" instead of just feeding the starving masses. Truly the scenes shot in these places are disturbing, in a "happy free" country citizens would be clamoring to visit museums, colleges and gyms but there is a deathly quiet & newness to all of these places that gives away that they are in fact just constructs to fool the western world. I felt the facade, I felt the lie, I understood that the filmmaker was politely playing along to show just how crazy the militant propaganda really was. The fear and uncertainty in the eyes of every person interviewed or even caught on a passing camera,was heartbreaking. One man being interviewed actually broke out in a cold sweat, to what seemed to be a very routine and unimportant question by Western standards. The "modern" apartment with the flat screen was the biggest joke of all. While their military is using 70's and mid 80's media technologies, some random citizen has a flat screen and access to Western free thought movies!? I got tired of the N. Korean diplomat using the word "socialist" in place of totalitarian dictatorship, who does he think he is fooling? It is not democratic when the people think that the leader is god, or can read their minds. Or builds a fence to force them to stay in for that matter. That man was a very low down, slimy slug of a human and I haven't been able to decide whether he was just a forced actor that may have been trying work off some sentence, or just a really huge sellout. He didn't speak the language which seemed really unconvincing. I just get that vibe from him that he is as fake as the scenery. Another poster called him a clown, I think his issues run much darker than they do comical. I spent a good deal of the movie wishing he would trip and fall in front of a bus. All in all it was a very enlightening film, that made me feel emotional and frustrated for the brainwashed and ignorant citizens of N. Korea- they are ignorant in the very true sense of the word- they have NO idea that the west is not evil, that even our poor have access to education, food and shelter that free thought and speech is real thing available to every class. The one thing this movie did for me that others had not was that it showed me what a dangerous man the Supreme Ruler is. Here we make fun of him, we pretend that he is an idiot, a clown, a farce, but all the while he is killing thousands of people that rely on him. He may be all those things but he is one hell of a dangerous farce and I hope within my lifetime he will be dealt with accordingly and the people of his beautiful country given freedom and hope. There is no way not to get something out of this documentary, it was skillfully done and achieved it's purpose of not telling the viewer that the Regime is bombasting the outside world with propaganda but by letting the N. Koreans do it themselves. It was a really engaging film.

In recent years, a few documentary makers have entered the otherwise closed country of North Korea--some of which covertly filmed the land and its people. All of the films like these that I've seen have been rather critical of the repressive North Korean regime and its human rights violations, but this new film is a bit different. While it features some interviews with folks who are very critical of North Korea, it also allows the North Korean propaganda machine ample time to present its well-scripted case that their land is a sort of nirvana and that they must maintain their military might and readiness to protect itself from capitalism and democratization. It's a bit of a confusing film, mostly because you see happy and well-fed North Koreans. But, it must be remembered that the Spanish film crew was led around with government officials and they simply couldn't go where they wanted. In particular, the strange ex- Spaniard and North Korean government official Alejandro Cao de Benós takes the crew about the country and there is no freedom of movement for the filmmakers. So, when they ask about concentration camps and starvation, you never really get to see much of the country other than a couple brief and scripted trip to the countryside and insistence from Benós that such places don't exist. Instead, you see almost exclusively views of the capital, Pyongyang and with loyal North Koreans who seem like model citizens. Overall, the effect is very strange. On one hand, the country looks nice and clean and BIG....but on the other, much of it also seems fake (such as the odd church service they attended). Worth seeing but I am really not that sure what the message is or what most folks will take from the film other than confusion. Because of this, I would recommend you see other films to get a more complete view of the state of the country and its people, such as "A State of Mind", "Crossing the Line" as well as "Seoul Train".