The VICE Guide to North Korea
Getting into North Korea was one of the hardest and weirdest processes VBS has ever dealt with.
From the authors: After we went back and forth with their representatives for months, they finally said they were going to allow 16 journalists into the country to cover the Arirang Mass Games in Pyongyang.
Then, ten days before we were supposed to go, they said, No, nobody can come. Then they said, OK, OK, you can come. But only as tourists. We had no idea what that was supposed to mean. They already knew we were journalists, and over there if you get caught being a journalist when you’re supposed to be a tourist you go to jail.
We don’t like jail. And we’re willing to bet we’d hate jail in North Korea. But we went for it. The first leg of the trip was a flight into northern China.
At the airport, the North Korean consulate took our passports and all of our money, then brought us to a restaurant. We were sitting there with our tour group, and suddenly all the other diners left and these women came out and started singing North Korean nationalist songs.
We were thinking, Look, we were just on a plane for 20 hours. We’re jet-lagged. Can we just go to bed? but this guy with our group who was from the LA Times told us, Everyone in here besides us is secret police. If you don’t act excited then you’re not going to get your visa.
So we got drunk and jumped up on stage and sang songs with the girls. The next day we got our visas. A lot of people we had gone with didn’t get theirs. That was our first hint at just what a freaky, freaky trip we were embarking on.
This is an incredible documentary and it was made at a time when it was even harder to get into NK.
Really dissapointing docementary. Not well made and he is not a good narrotor either.. too bad
Watching this doco on SBS right now, and it's interesting. I'm learning quite a lot about American perceptions of North Korea. Well, the presenter's American perception at least. This guy is pretty arrogant for a guest. Yeah there's a lot about the northern Korean society that seems weird from the outsider's vantage point but that's not a phenomena exclusive to NK. (Hello USA!) For a doco, it does a great job of portraying an insular American's sense of superiority and his confusion when facing exactly the same attitude from some of the Koreans. It could've been way more interesting to have a southern Korean and this northern American presenting, and exchanging views.
Please explain me if you not able to have any recording device,camera or anything than how the fu...k you made this documentary
good doc
Absolutely delightfully made ! Shane Smith is a natural at this and makes the experience worth watching. Thank you :)
sure it's a little lighthearted, but worth watching.
i think i have a little crush on the dude, shane. he's funny :)
Well after watching 'Poor in America' I was glad to watch such an interesting entertaining documentary. It was so much fun to watch! The only thing is he doesn't really explain how he was able to film while he was in the country.
Fascinating doc. but they could have done so much better by having a more neutral and perhaps deeper, style of reportage.
A great opportunity sadly trivialised.
Some of you cementing on here are so ignorant, however watching this doc reminds me of my home land of cuba both places are like time machines and its so sad how the people that live in both of these countries have to suffer and be denied the opportunities that many in the rest of the world enjoy because of crazy sadistic self absorbed dictators.
Some of you cementing on here are so ignorant, however watching this doc reminds me of my home land of cuba both places are like time machines and its so sad how the people that live in both of these countries have to suffer and be denied the opportunities that many in the rest of the world enjoy because of crazy sadistic self absorbed dictators.
One of the spiritual masters for Krishna Consciousness Devamrita Swami said in one of his audio lectures ,that North Korea had a famine so bad they turned to cannibalism and every house has to buy a television which can only receive the governments propaganda .the set can not be turned off .
Devamrita Swami smuggled and distributed books about Krishna consciousness in Russia and that brought about the fall of the wall .
If the same could be done in North Korea at very least the peoples suffering would be minimised and at best bring down the regime .
I think he is the most ignorant bastard, If you can help those people, if you cann't , just leave them alone/ for them you are the most weird ignorant man
This guy says that there is no electricity, if so how did they manage to do Karaoke, cook food or make beer/wine???? and if the security is that tight how the hell did he get out with the film without a total strip search....looks like more American propaganda to me. Although I doubt I would spend my next holidays in North Korea...
this guy´s missing the point.. the rest of the world is not angry at north korea we are angry at America.. we just cant say it because then they come and kill us.. we scared of the americans 10 times more then north korea. its sad to see a country have to convert to this for being safe from the americans.. the middleeast and africa didnt have that leadership and we all know how it went for them.. it shuld be usa thats excluded not korea..
I don't think collective paranoia is funny guys. You had the chance to get there and make a really interesting doc but you srewed it.
What a show up for the books was that Shane Smith. I felt embarrassed for him when he stepped on to the stage to give the girls the flowers. The bum of him jeans was shiny as, and his hair was dirty. He wore that old smelly looking jacket, and he sneered and mumbled into the camera most of the time, like a sniggering kid. The North Koreans came across as very agreeable, and it's strange how the guards said they were going to jail if they filmed this or that again, and ALL of what they said was off camera! The North Korean girls were so pleasant and quite happy-looking. I would say this was a propaganda film from Mr Smith to a capitalist society, saying "Look how lucky we are". Rhubarb!
What was very noticeable, was the absence of advertising, which I found very freeing and relaxing to sight and mind. We're all bombarded day and night by ads, commercials, left, right and in-your-face.
Thank you so much for that video. Well worth watching and quite an eye-opener.
A lot of the comments are bemoaning the informal nature of the film, but that's the thing I found made the video entertaining and accessible. The things going on around the host *were* bizarre, and his reactions to them where honest. The film is part of a larger series, and true to the style of that series.
The comments about "screaming anarchy in the uk" seem to be missing the point - were you watching the reactions on the faces of the Korean hosts and guards? They were completely baffled by the concept of punk rock. The hostess tried to sing along and couldn't. It was such an alien thing that they had no frame of reference for it at all. (And anyway, karaoke is kind of *for* bad singing).
And the huge show *was* weird, particularly in the context of a government that's failing to ensure its people are even fed.
The host went to North Korea with a very pretentious and closed mind.
I thought the 120,000 people show was awesome, but he kept calling it weird, which wasnt.
I know North Korea is a totalitarian military state with all the propoganda of a cummunist state and closed to foreigners, which would make it impossible for me to live there. Plus North Korea didnt seem to have electricity wide spread etc, it appears its communist russia, china in korean style with all the mass poverty etc.
I must say the Host did well to get in to North Korea and filmed some pictures of north but would have been better to have some a bit more empathetic and well atleast trying to be objective.
It's a shame that the host was not more professional. These people risked imprisonment and torture to get this amazing footage, and yet they didn't edit out cursing, beer slurping, and karaoke screaming of Anarchy in the U.K.
I'm no prude, don't get me wrong. But I just this was a very dangerous mission and deserves to be seen by the world. The sloppy and unprofessional demeanor of the host will make it unacceptable to many outlets. I suggest that you gentlemen edit it a bit.
Otherwise, awesome job and very brave!
wow, makes me wanna visit north korea
anarchy in the UK.. interesting choice of song.
"norz korear"
much as i hate that country right now... you gotta love that accent.
The part with the girl in the tea shop made me sad...And lonely
If you don't want to support Regimes like North Korea. Buy local products and stop using so much gas. Would you let your child make shirts for Walmart? NOOOO then stop buying from Walmart because if you keep buying cheap products you are supporting a sick regime. You have to do something about the situation but don't think complaining about things will get you anywhere. That is just weak. It is the act of doing that is productive. Fight the system of the rich and the corrupt and you will see the light. I would rather see my child excel with a musical instrument then have bleeding hands from sewing stuff from Walmart. OMG a empty road with no cars. That is so disgusting!!