FuzzyTagz
If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
TaryBiggBall
It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.
Deanna
There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
kmj-16462
The country of North Korea has always fascinated me (based on their isolation it's like that gov building due to it's secrecy you just want to know what's in there)and so I have watched several docs on North Korea aka DPRK and this one is by far the best. Most docs it is obvious that it is scripted with minders feeding you B.S. throughout the whole documentary. This one scripted or not gives you more of an everyday life in the showcase capital. Most documentaries about this country the showcase capital home to two million people always looked barren. This wasn't the case. I don't know how this director was able to get such up close and personal access? It shows that even though they are worship their leader under a bunch of lies they all seem content and happy cause that is all they know. It is focused on everyday life there as is and not so much about how the leader is this God like figure. It's there but not as prominent. I really wonder what became of these girls and their family. All I could find is the younger girl was in school to become a chef. The other girl I could find nothing on her. So bottom line is put your bias aside and watch this you will want to watch it a few times.
MartinHafer
I don't like to politicize my reviews. I have found that in practically ever land there are amazingly good films--regardless of the political tensions between my country and theirs. For example, although things are a bit tense now with Iran, this nation has made some wonderful films--such as the films of Majid Majidi which manage to transcend nations and ideologies. So, if you are willing to be open-minded and look, you can find good everywhere in my opinion. However, this is a difficult proposition with North Korea. They don't seem to be making movies and there simply is almost no opportunity to look into their culture to see what the nation is like, as there simply is almost nothing going in or out of this isolated nation. However, back about a decade or so ago, a few small glimpses occurred and "A State of Mind" is one of them*. Like it or not, for now this is all we appear to have from which we can learn about this nation. And, because of that, I think it's well worth seeing."A State of Mind" is a film made by a British production company. They were invited to the nation to follow several girls as they prepared for the 'Mass Games'. These games are ENORMOUS pageants in which many days of mass parades and performances are done to honor their leader. Some of these HUGE spectacles required 80,000 people and millions of man- hours according to the film!! The devotion and energy of the participants is difficult to imagine in our Western cultures and I would never imagine folks I know joining in a massive celebration in which the individual is sublimated to the glory of the State. It's just so very foreign--and this is what makes the film hard to stop watching. It is almost like looking onto an alien culture--and this is NOT meant as a criticism at all. What I liked best is that the narrators didn't over-narrate or opine about the nation. Instead, they mostly just showed the people and let them talk. Now I might have liked to have heard about the restrictions placed on the filmmakers--such as where they could and couldn't visit and questions they could or could not ask. But, this is really not all that important--what IS important is that it gives you a glimpse of what is going on in North Korea. See it and learn.By the way, the reason I didn't score this one a bit higher is that I do think that perhaps TOO MUCH of the parading was shown. It became tiresome to watch the girls practicing again and again and again and again for months. However, even this was interesting in a way--imagine how this was for these thousands and thousands of kids who did this! Wow....*Another documentary filmed in North Korea by Western filmmakers was National Geographic's "Inside North Korea"--about a group of doctors who came to the country to perform free eye surgery for many blind North Koreans. It is fascinating--perhaps more so than "A State of Mind" as the now sighted folks did not thank their doctors when their bandages were removed but immediately ran to a poster of their leader, Kim Il Sung and began crying hysterically--thanking HIM for the restoration of their sight.
TxMike
Watched this as a Netflix streaming video.The nominal reason to make this documentary was to follow a couple of preteen age girl gymnasts who, along with thousands of other boys and girls, men and women, train daily for hours each day in preparation for the next Mass Games. They train with no guarantee that they will be chosen to perform. Their training even takes precedence over their classroom work.North Korea is a very insular society, the people have a god-like reverence for their leader, the General, and his dead father, the founder and former dictator who they consider lives forever. Part of the method is to foment hatred for the American Imperialism, which is taught from early childhood. This is reinforced at every chance they get. Adults sometimes spoke of the invasion of Iraq, which they are taught might be the same fate for North Korea.For those of us mostly ignorant of North Korea and its society, this film is a worthwhile viewing. What I noticed is the children are not too different from children all over the world, wanting to sleep late or watch TV instead of study, or even skip out of exercise class if they could. But the whole country, officials, parents, educators, are all so closely aligned in the mission of the country,that individualism must disappear in favor of the collective, the children end up following the destiny that is dictated for them.It made me think somewhere between that, and the excessive permissiveness in many societies, is a good balance where children grow up with appropriate freedoms but still with the right amount of discipline.
afterapplepicking26
This documentary should have been sponsored by the pot-bellied, dog-eating dictator who runs North Korea. It sure portrays his totalitarian, atrocity-committing regime in a nice light.So we have families who are filthy rich...who get enough to eat...who live in the capital city of Pyongyang...who are entirely devoted to the pot-bellied, dog-eating dictator...And yet we hear nothing of the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, who have died of starvation and disease. We hear nothing of the fact that, in many places besides Pyongyang there are corpses which lie in the streets. We hear nothing of the fact that mass graves have been set up, and bodybags have to be used 3 times or more due to shortages. We hear nothing of the fact that there are over a quarter of a million political prisoners in concentration camps. We hear nothing of the fact that those who push for democracy are often subject to public execution in front of women and children. We hear nothing of the fact that refugee's have been flooding into China for years because North Korea is uninhabitable.We hear nothing of the fact that many North Koreans cook and eat clay and tree bark just to have something in their stomachs.This documentary filmmaker was granted unusual access into North Korea. He had the opportunity to do something spectacular and bring to light the horrors that exist in this wretched nation.And what did he do? He swallowed what the Communist party told him hook, line, and sinker.And in doing so, he has become an enabler, if not an accomplice, to the starvation and purposeful killing of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of brainwashed North Korean citizens.If you want a real idea of what life is like in North Korea, I recommend Dispatches: Undercover in the Secret State. This documentary...this aiding and abetting to the slaughter of innocents, should be burned on a pyre before being buried in the earth.
