Under the Sun Review: Documentary Goes Inside
North Korea Example
On January 17th at seven o’clock, I attended Under the Sun, a documentary directed by Vial Mansky.
The documentary follows a young girl and her family. It opens with scenes in the girl’s home and a
group exercising in an open area. Later, there are rows of people walking in unison and then
multitudes bowing to large murals of North Korean leaders. The documentary then shows the
young girl in school, and the teacher is discussing North Korean history. The teacher describes the
Japanese as “aggressors.” She called another group “traitors” or “landowners.” Furthermore, she
called Americans “scoundrels” and stated that Americans threatened North Korean’s with military
drills. The teacher asked the students questions about the lessons and each child replied with the
exact phrasing she used in class. It was memorization and recitation. There was an emphasis on
learning to hate their enemies. The documentary switches scenes and shows the girl at home
eating with her family.
The film shows a man directing the girl and her family on what to do and say as the camera
continues to roll. The next scene is of the Children’s Union. The children go through a ceremony
and then have a cloth knotted around their necks. It then moves to the girl’s father working and
improving production by adding 8-millimeter and 20 millimeters. Then the mother is shown
working in a milk factory. The mother and father were both coached on how to act in their work
scenes. Then a veteran was then telling children war stories. The girl was falling asleep. There are
scenes of dancers and the young girl learning to dance. There is a scene in a hospital. A group is
around the young girl and telling her to get better for the concert. The concert is shown. The scene
was guided, and the man told the dancers to be “joyful” and “patriotic” several times. Later, there is
a scene that shows a large group of people bringing flowers and bowing to statues of the leaders of
North Korea. The documentary ends with a woman asking the young girl a few questions. The
young girl began to cry. To make the young girl stop crying, the woman asked the girl to think of
something happy. The girl replied that she could not think of anything happy, good or funny. The
woman asks her to recite a happy poem. The girl does recite a chant. She seemed confused about
the concept of happiness. Throughout the documentary, the Day of the Sun on April 15th was
mentioned.
I learned a few things, while watching this documentary. Firstly, I learned that harmony and unity
Stuck with your assignment?
PapersOwl professional writers are here to help you!
GET WRITING HELP
are incredibly important to them. This can be seen in how they approach daily tasks. When
exercising, it was in unison. When walking through the streets, they were in uniform rows. In
school, they recited history in unison and completed other tasks in unison. Secondly, I learned how
ingrained their belief that the Kim’s are the greatest is in their minds. They used positive adjectives
and descriptions to describe their leaders such “loving father,” “sacrificial,” great,” “great brilliant
commander,” “liberator,” “respected,” and “beloved leader.” Thirdly, I learned about the image that
North Korea wants to project. They are attempting to project an image of happy, intelligent, wellbehaved citizens, and a prosperous economy. Throughout the documentary, the man guided the
actors to smile, appear joyful, and be happy. However, they never smiled, when the cameras were
not rolling. Also, the young girl did not seem to understand what happiness was. They also are
trying to prove they have an intelligent and cultured society. This can be seen in the school scenes,
hospital scene, and the scene of the concert. They tried to show uniformity and productive citizens
by filming them walking in lines and working in “workshops.” Lastly, they tried to show a growing
economy by making ridiculous claims such as meeting 200% of production and stating they were
making “great breakthroughs.”
What is your plagiarism score?
Use PapersOwl free plagiarism checker to detect duplicate content in your essay. It’s the easiest
and most reliable tool that compares your work directly against the largest and fastest-growing
content database.
Stuck with your assignment?
PapersOwl professional writers are here to help you!
GET WRITING HELP