Michael palin North Korea ch5
Discussion
Sheepshanks said:
Who knows, but another family were sharing food with him with no apparent concern.
Sharing food is one thing, the fella with the wreath was pissed.I suppose only the great exalted dear leader may be the only one worth of the wreath, after he's deflowered 80 virgins, beat tiger woods and assembled an ikea bookcase, with no instructions.
zb said:
I spotted smart phones, despite what the commentary said, more of the NK population are self-aware than some seem to think.
I don't think lopping the head off the snake, Kim, is a good idea, power vacuums seldom turn out well. I regard Trump as an imbecile, yet strangely his reach out may be the best scenario here, for the population of NK.
i posted a yt link that explains a bit more,phones included. There is a booming middleclass, whilst the 5 dollars a month workers live in total servitude to the state.I don't think lopping the head off the snake, Kim, is a good idea, power vacuums seldom turn out well. I regard Trump as an imbecile, yet strangely his reach out may be the best scenario here, for the population of NK.
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
Thesprucegoose said:
i posted a yt link that explains a bit more,phones included. There is a booming middleclass, whilst the 5 dollars a month workers live in total servitude to the state.
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
I did wonder about the train links between NK and China, as it is well know that cheap labour is farmed out, on a daily basis, this cheap labour needs supervisors, managers etc.“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
Nothing exists in a vacuum; you can fence yourself in, but you can't fence the world out.
a country with the tech to build a nuclear bomb shelter subway, empty schools,public libraries stuffed with computers,unused. Yet, coal powered stations,horse and cart agriculture,outdated vesicles, and soldier work gangs(working in fields). Interestingly they produced a merc clone.
it seems like tourism is fueling the regime nowadays.
it seems like tourism is fueling the regime nowadays.
Edited by Thesprucegoose on Sunday 23 September 14:30
Robertj21a said:
Quite the opposite of what I was thinking. You know only too well that Palin is no idiot and is well versed in the realities of life (as we in the west see them). He also mentioned at the beginning that he was being very tightly watched and 'controlled' all the time he was there. I thought he got round this very well by putting some serious things over in his usual jokey way.
Yeah, I know he's no idiot, I was being unfair there, but I was unimpressed. I don't expect probing and insightful from Palin, and anyway, you can't do probing and insightful in the DPRK without putting people at risk. As someone earlier commented, we didn't learn anything new, and so much dark subject matter was left pleasantly hanging with a witticism, which didn't sit well with me. When the schoolgirl recited the poem, in the signature dramatised DPRK style of a budding Ri Chun-hee, the comment was along the lines of "delightful", when it was anything but. Of course, he was being polite, but each piece seemed to be left like that, with no further comment, deconstruction or a minimum of a knowing raised eyebrow to camera. Perhaps it was self evident, but I was left unsure. The thought of him catching someone off guard through jocularity could also have severe consequences, and we saw a bit of that too.Balmoral said:
Robertj21a said:
Quite the opposite of what I was thinking. You know only too well that Palin is no idiot and is well versed in the realities of life (as we in the west see them). He also mentioned at the beginning that he was being very tightly watched and 'controlled' all the time he was there. I thought he got round this very well by putting some serious things over in his usual jokey way.
Yeah, I know he's no idiot, I was being unfair there, but I was unimpressed. I don't expect probing and insightful from Palin, and anyway, you can't do probing and insightful in the DPRK without putting people at risk. As someone earlier commented, we didn't learn anything new, and so much dark subject matter was left pleasantly hanging with a witticism, which didn't sit well with me. When the schoolgirl recited the poem, in the signature dramatised DPRK style of a budding Ri Chun-hee, the comment was along the lines of "delightful", when it was anything but. Of course, he was being polite, but each piece seemed to be left like that, with no further comment, deconstruction or a minimum of a knowing raised eyebrow to camera. Perhaps it was self evident, but I was left unsure. The thought of him catching someone off guard through jocularity could also have severe consequences, and we saw a bit of that too.I doubt that he would have been able to achieve much more and still have a record of events to show the world.
Lynchie999 said:
i think the people that don't like it are missing the point ...
... its not necessarily up to him to point things out on camera and how shocking they are, sometimes its up to the viewer to use their eyes and see for themselves whats going on ... if that makes sense...
not really, considering nk has a thin veneer that scratched away reveals a fallen state, Palin's raison d'etre is revealing the strangeness of his travels, the quirks, but it falls flat because NK is a totalitarian state, and things are not strange, they are sinister.... its not necessarily up to him to point things out on camera and how shocking they are, sometimes its up to the viewer to use their eyes and see for themselves whats going on ... if that makes sense...
You don't get 15 years for stealing a poster elsewhere and up leaving in a coma and dying in a strange country.
Maybe the next 2 episodes will be more probing.
Edited by Thesprucegoose on Monday 24th September 12:21
I like MP, but this program didn’t bring anything new about the place.
It seemed to be very generic in the same way all other documentaries are that film in NK.
Arrive, film the famous big squares etc, explain that minders are watching their every move and decide what they can film. Try to show some off the beaten track stuff semi stealthily, talk about the people and how they live, comment on there being no cars etc.
I’ve watched a lot of programs about the place, and they all pretty much do the above.
If anything, some of the channels on YouTube from westerners that live there and film their every day life show a lot more.
One bloke seems to go around with a camera strapped to his chest going in strange shops and doing every day stuff, and it seems far more interesting and telling
It seemed to be very generic in the same way all other documentaries are that film in NK.
Arrive, film the famous big squares etc, explain that minders are watching their every move and decide what they can film. Try to show some off the beaten track stuff semi stealthily, talk about the people and how they live, comment on there being no cars etc.
I’ve watched a lot of programs about the place, and they all pretty much do the above.
If anything, some of the channels on YouTube from westerners that live there and film their every day life show a lot more.
One bloke seems to go around with a camera strapped to his chest going in strange shops and doing every day stuff, and it seems far more interesting and telling
Biker 1 said:
How did they manage to film the train from China to Pyongyang from the outside on at least two occasions? Did the camera crew manage to drive down independently???
I imagine it wouldn't be _that_ hard to get clearance to step outside the train and film it from outside. There's nothing too incriminating there.It'll be that they just don't want you wandering off and taking photos of concentration camps and people eating rats etc!
Thesprucegoose said:
So depressing, at least a bit more in depth, very interesting, still got it at 75.
Yes, he's still very good at 75. Edited by Thesprucegoose on Friday 28th September 01:39
I'm not sure I'd say it was depressing, more illuminating. That female guide/minder was good and did well to try to explain how the people view their Great Leader etc. We might not agree at all but she appeared genuine in her beliefs - and no more brainwashed than many followers of well-known religions.
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