Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

IslandGuru Who payed the critics

Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

e-32821 . The book had a lot of details that the movie didn't such as how Shin ripped his leg on the fence as he tried to escape. In the movie it didn't show that he had hurt himself while trying to escape besides from the guards. How i can prove this is that i've watched the movie before i read the book. The book has much more imagery and important details that the movie simply left out.

Goloh No rational person can doubt the ferocity of life in DPRK. Nobody is safe, and I don't doubt at all the basic truths of this film. But I have one question, maybe I just missed the explanation but in a country where there is no individualism and everyone spies on everyone else--which we assume to be the case--how could a 14-year-old boy, after escaping from a labour camp like this, just turn up in a nearby village and hang out there with no money, no work, no relatives, no friends, and more importantly no contacts to shield him from local police or camp guards who knew he escaped and must have been looking for him? The film did say the frozen river made it easier then to cross into China, but he had no prior knowledge of the outside world apart from what he was told by his cellmate? It could not have been as "easy" as the film made it sound, given the circumstances of the escape and even the time of year when it would have been very cold.On other points, the interlude among the group preparing for a road trip in support of Free DPRK was jarring in that it didn't lighten the mood, it just seemed out of place. And the chain-smoking ex-guard was pure evil, far more than any fictional character.

carlvdl Camp 14: Total Control Zone documents the harrowing details of 'life' in North Korea's forced labour camps from 3 perspectives, a former inmate born within one of the camps who managed to escape, a former guard, and a former member of the secret police.I do not want to give the story away for those who have yet to see it, but what these stories reveal is a world where a level of cruelty and disregard for human life exists that struggles to be dreamt up in infamous works of fiction by Pasolini or de Sade (some details a chilling reminder of scenes from 1975's 'Salo').The police and guards, who are the purveyors of this cruelty (and there must be a lot of them given the claimed 200,000 interned) can't all statistically be psychopaths. Operating under a ruthless system, they'd doubtlessly be users of the Nuremberg Defence.We read about the actions of the psychopath serial killer, which are a conundrum in themselves, but when this sort of behaviour manifests itself across a whole society, it becomes ... well, I can't find the right word.What sort of fear and desperation would lead to a society being created based on force feeding the populace lies and leader worship, ignorance replacing civic dialogue, with forced labour, torture and death being the only solution to needing a justice system (and for that matter, unemployment)? Only through a miraculous if not morbid event does the protagonist (Shin Dong-Hyuk) manage to escape the camp, and we are thankful he does, in order to experience freedom and provide the rest of the world with a brief but revealing peek into the horror show.Some of his revelations will prompt the viewer question the nature of human instincts. Seemingly we are born with no emotional attachment to our family or fellow human beings, only the will to survive appears to be firmly ingrained in us.As Camp 14 draws to a close, we get a sense of ennui and confusion from Shin at his new surroundings. He appears far from joyful at having left the life he was born into, inexplicable to the rest of us, as inexplicable and impenetrable as the conditions in which he was born into.

John Ten I don't know where to begin. After exhaustive study of various Medieval torture and execution methods and Chinese's thousands way to die – I thought I could stomach anything. This is different. There are no gores. No screaming special effects. Shortest recounts follow by a deafening silence. And the indifference a fellow human being can be taught to be totally devoid of emotions or compassion for another and even to one's own family member. Words escape me because even in post 21st century an evil this horrifying still exists among us.I don't know how to continue.Depending on whether you are able to empathize with intense human conditions, you'll either hate it for being boring or laud it for its courage and fortitude. Shin Dong-hyuk, born 1982, is believed to be the only known person born in a North Korean prison camp that escaped to tell the tale. Due to his extraordinary circumstances, for the very first time, we're witnessing a difficult and painful recount of memories he wish he never had to revisit – in fact, on several occasions, the memories were so intense – he attempt to stop the interview. During his long pauses – I stared at him – attempting to connect to his soul; I can feel a boiling of emotions – using my own imaginations – it's harrowing. I actually felt bad he had to relive these painful memories but someone has to do it sooner or later so the world would know. Ex-prison guards who now live in South Korea are interviewed as well.One observation: after watching the film, I felt Shin has his soul torn out literally - he couldn't cry or shed tears even as a memory deeply disturbs him. He at times felt anger but that soft human side that takes years of love to nurture – that's missing. I am deeply saddened. Maybe in time, he will find peace in his own ways.I will stop here. If you should watch it, it is not for the faint of heart. There are many thoughts flying through my minds right now, how lucky we are, the innocence of a pure heart vs. a world run by money, what is it to be human, how low can a human go if they're deprived of love and how in the darkest hour a human affection can redeem a soul.This is not just a movie review – it's a call to action. Join grassroots movement, write to international bodies for human rights, and spread the word. For the day the N. Korean prison camps fall, it will be a huge triumph for humanity.