Children of the Secret State is a film made by a UK journalist Joe Layburn, and a North Korean fugitive Ahn Chol. It shows an insight into the lives of orphans. The documentary setting is modern time North Korea. The issue presented in the film is primarily the starving children living on the streets of North Korea. There are multiple other underlying issues such as which crops are being grown, who really receives western aid, and what is really going on in North Korea. We think the main purpose of the filming in North Korea is to expose the terrible actions of the dictator, Kim Jong Il, and try to remove him from power.
Major themes in the movie are suffering, corruption, lack of freedom, and fear.
Joe Layburn poses as a tourist to get into a group for an exclusive tour of North Korea. The group is assigned a tour guide who is meant to censor what they see and hear. They are told Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, is a busy city of commerce, however walking through the city they see very few people. later in their visit to North Korea they go, without their tour guide, to a smaller town outside of the capital. This is where they see the true horrors in North Korea. There are thousands of children on the streets without homes, or families. They are begging for food from the vendors but only receive the scraps that fall into the mud. In North Korea there are over 200,000 street children, and they make up the make up the majority of the starving population in North Korea. There is a lot of farmland in North Korea that should be able to produce plenty of food for their population, but why are there still hundreds of thousands starving people? The reason is the governments greed for wealth. They force the farmers to grow opium instead of food crops. This opium is turned into heroin and sold illegally for profit to the government. The illegal heroin brings in 500 million to 1 billion dollars. This is what the farmers are growing so then North Korea so the government still applies for western aid to receive food to help the starving population, but is that really what's happening? Or course not! North Korea instead gives the food to the military, or it goes to the black market and sold to the people who can afford it and not the starving children who really need it.
The purpose of the film is to educate the public about the corruption in North Korea, but that's not the only reason. With this evidence against Kim Jong Il the UN would have a motive to remove Kim Jong Il as dictator.
We would really recommend this documentary to others who are curious about what is really going on in N. Korea because it shows a censored tour of the capital, Pyongyang, which is insightful to how the North Koreans want the outside world to see them. As well as some secret footage in smaller villages showing the lives of the less fortunate and the children who live on the streets.
The purpose of the film is to educate the public about the corruption in North Korea, but that's not the only reason. With this evidence against Kim Jong Il the UN would have a motive to remove Kim Jong Il as dictator.
We would really recommend this documentary to others who are curious about what is really going on in N. Korea because it shows a censored tour of the capital, Pyongyang, which is insightful to how the North Koreans want the outside world to see them. As well as some secret footage in smaller villages showing the lives of the less fortunate and the children who live on the streets.
I think that it is really just horrible that the government over there is just turning a blind eye to what is happening. If they cared as much as they say they do, would there be as many helpless children as there are? I don't think that They actually care about any of the kids that are starving to death. There is also a huge problem in their trading system.. Why is such a large part of the country farming opium. How is that an ok thing to do?!?!?!
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with Max. It is almost impossible to rap your head around the fact that there are thousands and thousands of little children living out on the streets with no access to the resources that each of us get every day of our lives. Obviously the people of North Korea do not care about all the children starving in their country. This would not be an issue if the people of North Korea did care. This is the worst of it all because if the people of North Korea are not taking care of their own kind, then who will? Certainly not Eli, Max and I. I feel as if this documentary that was made had an ultimate goal to touch the people watching the video so someone can do something. After watching this video myself, it was very saddening to watch the children of North Korea starve, and I felt sad. But in the end, am I going to to something about it in the near future? Absolutely not. The people who made the documentary are trying to reach out and find those who will go into North Korea and make a change. The main issue with today's society is no one helps one another. Although much effort was put into shedding light on this huge issue in North Korea, people will feel sad, but not sad enough to leave their perfect lives at home and go help someone who is legitimately in need.
ReplyDeleteThose are some big numbers for the income on illegal drugs and the amount of orphan children!! The first step to solving your problem is admitting you have one, and that is where North Korea needs to start. The can't feed their population cause they are farming opium, and then they use the food sent from western aid to feed the military or sold on the black market. That really messed up! They should use this against Kim Jong Il for sure and get rid of him!!
ReplyDeleteGreat review guys!! I haven't personally seen the film, but sounds like a very insightful documentary. Also this reminds me of a book I read a while ago: The Orphan Master's Son. Its a book about the son of a guy who owns an orphanage, And it's all about North Korea. I don't remember every detail, and wouldn't want to spoil the book, but if you're looking for something else to review I would recommend it.
ReplyDeleteThe part of the movie that moved me the most was when Ahn Chol walked up to a little 10 year old boy on the street. The little boy has a very dirty bag, and is trying to scoop brown water out of a very shallow, muddy puddle. Ahn Chol walks up to him and asks him how old he is. The child replies, "10." He proceeds to say, "You cannot drink that water! It is too dirty!" But the child does not reply. He asks, "Where are your parents?" Again, no response. The child is too hungry, thirsty, tired and lonely to respond. These children are clearly not cared for because they are by themselves, alone on the streets. The only recognition that they got was by the people who were making the documentary, and this is because they wanted to show how miserable these homeless children are. This relates a large amount to the book, "The Orphan Master's Son" by Adam Johnson. The main character of the book, Jun Do, is a child who lives at the orphanage that his dad runs. Although he himself lives the life of an orphan, he is forced to also help take care of the other orphans being that his father is the orphan master. One day, a man named Officer So comes to recruit Jun Do into a small group used for kidnapping. Because Jun Do is a poor child whos father owns an orphanage, he practically has no say in whether he wants to go or not. "Jun Do held up a yellow shirt. 'What am I supposed to do with this?' He asked. 'It's your new uniform,' Officer So said" (Page 10). Jun Do may or may not want to go, but it doesn't matter in the book because people who are poor and in need have much less rights than someone who is wealthy and well off.
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