Why North Korea is so good at propaganda

[@jobobminer8843]

Lol, the story where a women and her ex-husband get kidnapped and forced to make movies in North Korea only to eventually escape to the US embassy in Vienna is a better story than the fiction they were forced to make.

[@emsan3684]

I'll pay good money to see that movie 😂😂😂

[@spencerdokes6056]

Lol? Ya their lives were ruined so lol

[@tiobetio9501]

It's one of the plot lines of Tropic Thunder!

[@faisaliqbal2436]

​5c cþþt5😊❤and axbccwèr

[@ivalicetifalucis]

There should be kdrama or movie for that

[@4rk]

I think it's worth noting that the fact Mt Paektu features as important in plot points etc is not just because Kim Il Sung claimed to be born there. Rather, conversely, he claimed to be born there because it is considered important or sacred in its own right. By some accounts all Koreans may claim to descend from people of that mountain. IE Dagun descended from heaven onto that mountain specifically and then went on to become the first mythological king of the earliest Korean nation.

[@pedrob3953]

Mount Paektu sits right in the middle of the Korean historical homeland. It's like Mount Ararat for Armenians. Koreans ended up migrating further south in the peninsula, but even today there's an important Korean minority in the Chinese side of Mt Paektu (Yanbian region).

[@buzzy1010]

Yup, Mount. Paektu (or Baekdu?) is the iconic mountain in Korea, north or south. It's the second word in the south korean national anthem. I grew up thinking Mt. Baekdu as a national mountain somewhere in south korea until my early teens 😂

[@ahn155]

Hating Japan is just one of the propaganda of South Korean communists, and highly educated, high-income South Koreans don't sympathize with hating Japan at all.

[@4rk]

@J-ct2wh I'm not sure there's was any mystery. A mythological King of a mythological origin ruling a mythologized proto-nation eons prior to the modern concept of nationalism currently employed to even form the concept of either Korea, or "America." So if the closest transliteration as the "king" from/of "heaven" set up a mystery for you, just bear in mind that the context of the comment was about why a particular mountain keeps showing up in North Korean media (and again, it's not just in North Korean media, and it's not due, only, to Jim Il Sung).

[@luciaedwardss]

😊

[@GuyThePerson]

Kidnapping movie stars and directors for a guy to make his dream movie is such a generic villain role that it fits right in with the entire country.

[@haven621]

would be fun if it was true

[@macafromthewired]

​@@haven621 it's not?

[@mrSattori]

@@macafromthewired Of course it's true

[@hi_lol1912]

Eeeeeeeeeeeee

[@x8makes.1teamx]

Quite literally the part in Kingsman Golden Circle when Poppy's kidnapped Elton

[@TimeBucks]

Extremely interesting

[@santoshdangi4935]

👍

[@vanminhNguyen-eh8kn]

Good

[@YourAverageMongus]

I agree

[@kapypes]

Are u a bot? Did Johnny Haris bought a bot? How

[@aseradam]

Good video

[@Cultural_Encounters]

Hi Johnny, thanks for another fascinating video as always. What's shocking is how this wasn't an isolated incident. Hundreds of young Japanese people were kidnapped off of the coast of Japan and taken to North Korea in a similar fashion. The goal in this case was to train North Korean spies to speak Japanese. While this mostly included young couples, 13 year old Megumi Yokota was among the victims, and her family didn't learn about her whereabouts until 20 years later. A few of the abductees were returned to Japan in the early 2000s, but Megumi has yet to be allowed to return. Her father has passed away and her mother, now in her late 80s, continues to appeal for her return.

[@DimaRakesah]

Not just Japanese, people from all over the world! They would kidnap people from various countries and force them to teach their language to North Korean spies and mafia members (Bureau 39) or kidnap someone with a skill they wanted and force them to teach it so they could use it in North Korea. Thousands of people have been kidnapped over the years. It's totally bonkers.

[@henrietta5969]

Damn this is heartbreaking…

[@taylorbug9]

Japan honestly should have forced them to give their people back. This makes them look incredibly weak.

[@def3ndr887]

@@taylorbug9give them back or we colonize

[@Mrwutevah]

​@@taylorbug9What a... brilliant idea. Did you come up with it yourself?

[@kristhebard]

This makes me want a video on ‘when politician hobbies turn into policy’

[@isaacmartinez6904]

I remember this story. Thank goodness both the filmmaker and his wife escaped and lived in South Korea until their deaths.

[@280SE]

Ah thanks for ruining it. You’re the first comment 👎🏼

[@CharlieBam]

Spoiler alert dude!

[@thegamingwolf5612]

Did they remarry?

[@Blex_040]

​@@280SE When you read the comments _to a video_ before watching the video itself, you have nobody else to blame but yourself.

[@280SE]

@@Blex_040 oh so you save the comments until the end do you? You’re the only one

[@Zombie_Trooper]

I watched Pulgasari a few years back and discovered this story and was shocked at what this duo went through. It makes me think of the artists during WW2 who didn't make it out and all the talented people who have become puppets to their captors.

[@mikhailshishin5701]

@Blown Gasket wdym

[@RadzHexz]

​@Blown Gasket alright but what about the artist censored for speaking out against the war? Or those paid by the government to spread propaganda? This is a two way street and you are choosing to blind yourself from the opposite side.

[@avirei98]

​​@Blown Gasket 😐(🤡)

[@someonee3186]

@Blown Gasket writing that one down

[@ayowhat998]

@Blown Gasket istg every vid Somebody is like "yeah thats cool but did you know the us-" ok then go live in north korea or any middle eastern country embroiled in civil war and terrorism OR any single sub saharan african nation "Ruined by colonialism" and totally not nepotism, Corruption, Ethnic conflict, Tribal disputes, Warlords ETC. Cause honestly id rather live in a house with electricity and water and being able to be free and say what i want and not live in a dystopian reality where warlords and corrupt politicians thrive due to the environment created by their country's OWN citizens. So honestly stfu.

[@avirei98]

I'm sitting here trying to fathom dating in North Korea. Imagine disagreeing with the supreme leader, but being afraid that your partner would find out and wondering if they would turn you in if they knew.

[@shaec3405]

And they would

[@TheFakeyCakeMaker]

You're not allowed to date unless you get permission.

[@unacuentadeyoutube13]

​@lume.music___I was just thinking the same. I think I saw somewhere that a lot of people didn't trust the government, but as it's ilegal to publicly talk about it, wether or not the other person is someone you can talk to remains always a mistery. Just what happens with Winston and O'Brien, or between any doubters of the party.

[@hi_lol1912]

Eeeeeeeeeeeee

[@Yo_Chino]

They have arranged marriages there, by class/caste

[@imsomewhatcertain1024]

The Kim family never ceases to surprise the outside world with their malicious acts and cruelty.

[@kimjong-unrocketman9443]

kaboom

[@lost_porkchop]

How dare you insult hamburgers like that

[@lllool8404]

Not just NK one, all hereditary dictatorships are cartoonishly crazy.

[@Yeppo_]

How dare you insult pigs like that?

[@agps4418]

it is human nature. not exclusive to the Kims. Putin, Russia, ISIS, Nazi, KKK, The Kims, They all think, "i am better, holier, and more important than everyone else".

[@NEXUSNEST]

Is nobody gonna ask Johnny about where the hell did he find these North Korean movies from?!

[@acetate909]

His intelligence handler.

[@Mmadingo]

CIA

[@OlTimeyChara]

Tor browser maybe, lol

[@CodingExpress]

From the CIA archives

[@andrewfranco8523]

He watched Atrocity guide's video and rehashed it for your simpleton viewing pleasure.

[@miadel5846]

What's worse than getting kidnapped by N.Korea???? Getting kidnapped by N. Korea and having to deal your ex-husband 🤣🤣🤣

[@chrisdawson9312]

There is a great “autobiography” of Kim Jong Il written by Michael Malice called “Dear Reader,” he went to North Korea, grabbed all the North Korean books he could get his hands on of KJI and basically wrote a first person biography of him through the stories that are told of him in North Korea. Quite a fascinating book

[@puttapakasaiprasad7005]

Thanks brother for mentioning the book ❤❤❤

[@ahn155]

Hating Japan is just one of the propaganda of South Korean communists, and highly educated, high-income South Koreans don't sympathize with hating Japan at all.

[@samuelbrown9665]

I just love this style of sit-down, long-form content on KZbin. Thank you so much, Johnny!

[@leeargent58]

Ye man Johnny and team totally cool

[@t00bgazer]

Just search johnny harris debunked. You are literally watching propaganda meant to brainwash you. Regardless of how you feel about north korea you are more likely to walk away more informed talking to a 5 year old about the subject rather than watching this clown.

[@samuelbrown9665]

@@kaylastarr7863 ahh I will have to check it out, I guess that is the problem with condensing for youtube and trying to make it entertaining for a large audience...

[@ahn155]

Hating Japan is just one of the propaganda of South Korean communists, and highly educated, high-income South Koreans don't sympathize with hating Japan at all.

[@robert48719]

Although my name isn't Johnny, you're welcome

[@thomashartmann5625]

In the late 90s I was at a North Korean film Festival in Berlin, and at one movie we were all sitting there waiting for the movie to start, in walks a woman in military uniform, she sits herself down in the very last row, turns on a desk lamp and dubs the movie (I think it was a film about so called shock brigades, large groups of young people who would show up at big construction sites to get shit done) right then and there, truly surreal

[@sipzc-dj]

That is what they are doing in Poland

[@megamcee]

I still have a fairly vivid memory of watching the second version of the movie with my grandma in a cinema. I never knew the history of that movie, but I'm so glad that it's so fascinating.

[@Thaidory]

There was a western adaptation of this movie. The title name is Galgameth.

[@megamcee]

@@Thaidory yep, that's the one I'm talking about.

[@leahjackiepeah4130]

Dear christians if you took the covid 19 vaccine and didn't know it was the mark please go in closet close door and tell jesus christ the truth of not wanting the mark and to forgive you and never take it again. If a woman please put on a headcoverig when praying.

[@harrykehoe5178]

@@megamcee short films like this remind us of how Europe could've been the greatest socialist society if not for the terrorist capitalists.

[@storikobane]

@@harrykehoe5178 yeah cuz socialism works right?

[@lagcom]

Fun fact: the Bulgasari and Pulgasari movies have the same names in Korea, the apparent differences are from differences in romanization between NK and SK

[@rachellee2680]

Was just about to comment this 👍

[@weomxd]

Westerners will say its a completely different dialect 😂

[@WannzKaswan]

​@@weomxdtbh north korean dialect is a bit different than the south korean one, they're completely different countries... Even if they were unified, the language will still be different, especially in pronunciation

[@weomxd]

@@WannzKaswan yeah but they can understand each other perfectly fine. Its like accents in America or UK.

[@WannzKaswan]

@@weomxd yes, that's what makes it a dialect as opposed to a language... Mutual intelligibility

[@SolracNexus]

"politics and film are now kind of the same thing" Modern hollywood: "wait, I thought it was always a thing"

[@DeadRyGuy]

I had no idea that North Korea kidnapped an actress and director; it's in that spot of recent enough it wasn't "history" as I was growing up, but also slightly before my time and awareness of world events. Great storytelling and production as usual! I really enjoy the longer pieces. Many of these topics deserve the time and discussion, not to mention this is probably the only thing I've ever seen on North Korean cinema. At least from this viewer's perspective, the longer vids are great!

[@matthew_natividad]

Even crazier the movie pogasari is supposed to be a metaphor of how communism was supposed to help NK but didn’t really

[@t00bgazer]

I dare you to search johnny harris debunked.

[@DeadRyGuy]

@@t00bgazer Thank you, but I'm well aware of the controversy. Not everything or everyone is simply a binary of good or bad. No content creator is perfect and the best we can do is take the good while being aware of potential short comings. We're all free to form our own opinions. In my opinion, I don't think Johnny is a bad person or that he has bad intentions. Quite the contrary. Though I think you're trying to be helpful, try to embrace the nuance of life and people.

[@deadheadwsp705]

You should also read into what happened with mao in China, Soviet Union and countless other totalitarian countries. Why we don’t learn more about these in school is beyond wild as these were some of the biggest travesties of the 20th century

[@calibribody6776]

They unfortunately weren't the only the people North Korea kidnapped. I believe there was also a series of kidnappings in Japan.

[@PokhrajRoy.]

I remember being shocked when I first heard about this story and happy to see this being covered.

[@dxnixble]

Jesus is coming back

[@MrGolu1991]

Bong communist

[@eaturcookiescookie7462]

@Don't Read My Profile Picture dont worry I won’t

[@simulify8726]

@@dxnixble Source: Trust me bro

[@Wesleyminaker]

@@simulify8726 facts. It’s called faith

[@AnxWhisperer]

This episode was made so well. The editing was some of the best I’ve seen, and the best of all your episodes. Who helps you with this!? The topic was interesting, but the filmmaking was so good, I was emotionally compelled to watch this episode three times.

[@andor4668]

28:50 credits

[@ahn155]

Hating Japan is just one of the propaganda of South Korean communists, and highly educated, high-income South Koreans don't sympathize with hating Japan at all.

[@generalcommentator-iu2wr]

Perhaps this comment reveals that it is the American's who are good at propaganda.

[@smileyday]

Can you imagine being the actor of Godzilla, told you're going to China for a film, and you pull up to DNK and greeted by over smiling Kim Jong Il. I would be absolutely terrified.

[@verecion]

"The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison." - Fyodor Dostoevsky

[@mr.benchwormer7723]

Wow perfectly described capitalism

[@Chip_in]

"Only three ingredient in egg fry rice...egg...fry...and rice" - Nigel Ang ⛳

[@TheRealBarryChopsticks]

For a film released in 1997, the famer movie looks like a PSA from the 60s 😂

[@schoolofA]

Don't the Top Gun fighter pilots risk their lives to destroy an underground uranium facility of a country not part of NATO? They're asked to sacrifice their lives and fly old-generation fighter jets against highly advanced ones. "It's not the plane, it's the pilot." Let's not forget that American cinema is very capable and does produce great propaganda.

[@harrietjameson]

basically, everything is propaganda. Everyone wants you to believe a certain truth Especially since a lot of that "truth" just benefits a small group of people at the top

[@parishsirius]

Interesting fact: any American movie or video game that portrays anything military has to be approved by the department of defense and they edit and change stuff if they feel it's required. So it is propaganda. This is an open information you can check to verify

[@FacelessOnes]

As a Korean, thanks for showcasing this. The West usually doesn’t know the darkest side of our histories and of course, North Korean entertainment. Also, praying for unification of both Korea’s.

[@b_em0]

❤❤❤❤❤

[@SevenEllen]

Kim must be overthrown first. If North and South Korea were to unite, what horrors do you think Kim could unleash on the South? He'd try to brainwash the WHOLE country and fashion it to suit his self-obsessed ideals.

[@RO0MBAA]

South Korea will never want to become a part of North Korea. The same goes for North Korea

[@WarFoxThunder]

​@DililahSitiwat--

[@lillymurray8408]

I’m sorry but the DVD icon bopping around the screen is just so nostalgic.

[@TheFoxClaws]

If you want to learn more about the kidnapped filmmakers, Atrocity Guide has a great video on them. There’s even recorded audio of them casually talking with Kim Jong-Il

[@WTFb0rn]

Strongly suspect that he leveraged her previous video (which is excellent and longer than this one) in creating this video. She really deserves more views, all of her videos are fantastic.

[@Velumbra]

Hora.

[@onehapaboy]

This American Life also did a great segment on this back in 2020, with interviews and recorded audio.

[@kaylastarr7863]

So many details left out of this batshit story that she covers.

[@tonipwneroni9846]

This is the amazing content I signed on for. Aside from the geopolitics, maps, and travel vlogs, this cultural stuff is gold. It's a great window into the cultural bubbles of places you don't normally get to hear much about. Great stuff, dude!

[@sanjaymishra7892]

Nice

[@ahn155]

Hating Japan is just one of the propaganda of South Korean communists, and highly educated, high-income South Koreans don't sympathize with hating Japan at all.

[@alexmarkevich1760]

North Korea never ceases to amaze me. It’s mind blowing what their leaders will go to in order to maintain their power. I would like to wish Johnny and his team patients and strength to continue their work . Guys, you are the best!

[@motro1301]

As a south korean myself, i can notice the video's korean is a bit too translated (like the korean dialogues in hollywood movies that are almost unintelligible)and mostly south korean.But that said, yeah i think it is still a decent cover of the famous north korean kaiju movie.Also it was interesting to see how you are reading kim jong il's book while you were in south korea, cause in south korea it is mostly in a very restricted section usually in a library with heavy heavy security so i wonder how you brought it to the south. Like i was very surprised when i was studyimg overseas that these bibliographies are just casualy in school libraries and can be bought so easily. Also johnny, yeah the translation for the art of the cinema might be a bit clunky because its more direct. It must be because your copy was translated by the north koreans themselves cause most of these books are translated by the foreign language house in pyongyang, possibly from those noeth korean translators passionately trying to learn english to a bbc textbook(yes they hate america but they are still ok with learning it from the british for some reason. Thae yong ho, the north korean diplomat who later defected, said he learned it from the bbc textbooks).

[@kokopuffs8318]

At my university in Canada, we have an entire library full of North Korean books and propaganda materials. They are sort of just collectors items

[@motro1301]

@@kokopuffs8318 I think it is also possible to be donations

[@Gkloman]

​@@motro1301 From who?

[@montyollie]

You missed a golden opportunity to talk about J Dresnok, one of the most famous N Korean movie stars. He was an American defector to North Korea who got cast as the nasty American in all the propaganda movies. He lived out the rest of his life in the country, as a famous movie star.

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

I guess that's one way to achieve fame.

[@Trancymind]

@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 People love self loathing people because they are ultra rare but they do exist.

[@liviusss]

OMG, to make this story even crazier, at least for me, a Romanian, this American defector married a Romanian woman who was abducted by NK along with other foreign women, with the specific purpose to get wives for the American defectors... 😱 So they were all married forcibly because the NK government did now want the defectors to marry NK women. Sadly this woman died in NK, despite questions and efforts from the family and the Romanian government. Unbelievable stories...

[@alwaysanonymous295]

I’m making a creative decision to rename this book “how to further brainwash your citizens through cinema”

[@CinematicSeriesGaming]

Johny's videos make me feel like I'm the president getting a fancy briefing 🖤

[@ArchOfWinter]

The couple remarried, that's one heck of a way to reconcile their marriage. There has been a documentary made about the couple. Wouldn't mind watching a dramatic retelling of their stories.

[@GodlikeIridium]

North Korea seeing Hollywood movies: "That's way better socialist propaganda than ours! Quick, copy this like China copies electronics or Russia copies rockets and nukes!" 😅

[@lightscorer1320]

Are u implying Hollywood is socialist? Hollywood? The mega industrial, capitalist complex who does anything to squeze out more money?

[@ELITHAKIDD]

Name one movie that’s proven to be state mandated socialist propaganda in the us

[@fob199]

“32 likes”. How the fuck is Hollywood socialist propaganda lmfaooo

[@challalla]

Pulgasari and Bulgasari represent the same name in Korean, 불가사리. Pulgasari follows the McCune-Reischauer romanization system that served as the basis for the official romanization in both North and South Korea before 2000. South Korea then adopted a new official romanization system, which spells it as Bulgasari. That's also why Busan was known as Pusan before 2000.

[@reedlheureux7466]

North Korean Godzilla is now at the top of my list for movie night

[@Trancymind]

The villain- The japanese long legged crab from Nagasaki.

[@icecreambeats101]

You mentioned you were at the border of North Korea. I have a friend who’s black, born and raised in Cuba and he’s the only black person I met that’s been to North Korea. He speaks fluent Korean and he said the guards were amazed he spoke their language. But it’s a damn shame that North Koreans are easily manipulated by their leader. Just like when I deployed to Iraq, our translator Ali was telling us that Saddam told his people that our eye pro can see through the people’s clothes and the weakness of their body on how to kill them. I was shocked to hear that.

[@gixmax]

So fucked up to think Romania had a North Korea phase in the 80's and all this movies feel really familiar and much too personal. We are still recovering from that. Can't really imagine how much it will take for those poor people...

[@liviusss]

Just read that NK kindapped a Romanian woman and forced her to marry an American defector who played the villain in a lot of NK movies... Crazy story!

[@oldfellaoldfella8535]

This channel mastered narrating stories in a way that makes you feel you uncover the mystery yourself ... Thank you Johnny 👏 By the way, may I also remind you the fact that our Native American population in our motherland, the Continent of America before the European Colonizers arrived, was around 15 millions, while the European population in their motherland, the Continent of Europe was around 25 millions. Today, Native American population is 15 million, while the European population, in the Continents of America + Europe, is a staggering TWO BILLION! A shocking sad truth. 😔 In my humble opinion, it's about time to decolonize the Colonized lands, and return it to rightful owners Native American people. Notorious global cardinal crimes the Christian West has committed, and benefited a great deals, such as Slavery & Colonialism had long been over, why on earth is notorious Colonization still lingering on, may I ask? 😔

[@JohatsuSha]

Hell yeah.

[@romystumpy1197]

Yes Jonny found his vocation ,after years in the wilderness,he's made for this type of content ,he's made it his own

[@olefella7561]

The West would commit and practice a great many cardinal sins, many of them knowingly, such as centuries-long global; - 'Colonization', - 'Genocide', - 'Slavery', - 'Colonialism', - 'Global Warming', etc which benefits them enormously for centuries worldwide; then they would initiate and take a measure to ban those practices worldwide, and take credit for it. [Note: Today's global warming is caused in large part by nearly two centuries of excessive coal burning, mainly in the West.]

[@jondoe9548]

" Native American population in our motherland, the Continent of America before the European Colonizers arrived, was around 15 millions, while the European population in their motherland, the Continent of Europe was around 25 millions. Today, Native American population is 15 million, while the European population, in the Continents of America + Europe, is a staggering TWO BILLION! A shocking sad truth." 😔

[@Somebody9666]

I like to imagine Johnny some day doing a collab with Mr.Ballen😂

[@PegasStar]

I can assure you, that movie production in the 50s and 70s in all soviet countries was exactly this 🙃 Very few movies that would be watchable in modern times. Also, communism was by no mean feministic but including women in the system was an absolute necessity for the society. Women absolutely had to work and do even occupations that they wouldn't be allowed to do in the west to cover all the industrial needs. Also, it was very much needed to keep women abord in the beginnings of communism. If you skip this part of a population you're risking your system will fail. There was no gender equality (women were still primary caretakers, cooking for husbands and all) but there was a huge stress on individual equality. People (common ones, not the government elites) must have felt equal to each other despite the conditions they lived in to be motivated to built the real communistic future society.

[@framesfc]

The visuals, the research, the structure. Mind Blowing Storytelling. I am amazed Mr. Jonny Harris And Team!

[@yuckyyy]

and with a bunch of fake news and anti-communist propaganda, but hey, he's american, the land of the free

[@joshuaaugustin5005]

You fool, he's nothing more than a mere puppet. Its the people behind the scenes who are pulling all the strings. Anyone could get up there and read a script. Not that hard at all. Things aren't always what they seem bro.

[@TejasShastri-lh2mq]

I wonder sometimes if these comments are actually bots

[@joshuaaugustin5005]

Homeless bums are recruited for five bucks and a pat on the back plus stock options to "do something really simple!" for mister harris and the shady mormon corporation he works for. Turns out these bums get human trafficked and forced to work on the set of the videos. They spend 15 hours a day doing hard labor at the "facility" as they call it. This is meant to break them down. Next the bums are sent off to school. They are forced to learn video editing software and stage production and everything that goes in to making and producing the videos. Failure is not an option. They are also involved in this huge ponzi scheme. But that's another rabbit hole I dont have time to get into

[@artuniique2]

Same

[@rockchicjaja]

This is the first time I've ever heard about kidnapped film makers. Thanks for the fascinating story, Johnny!

[@mkim4091]

For what it's worth, Kim Jong also kidnapped scientists from Japan and many other places.

[@LifeandTails]

There is a huge mafia that still controls Hollywood too. . .

[@chadUCSD]

North Korea have also kidnapped quite a lot of Japanese people and taken them back to DPRK to live as prisoners. Their reason for doing so was to be able to teach their spies how to speak fluent Japanese so they could go to Japan amd do their spy shot they ended to do. Some of the Japanese folk that had been kidnapped were subsequently released years, sometimes nay years later. But there are still some who are being held by the DPRK. One of the kidnapped Japanese people was a 13 year old girl. Her mother is now in her 80s amd still holds put hope for her release and return. It's such a sad story. Maybe look it up and read about it all for yourself. Sad but interesting at the same time. Enjoy! 😉

[@bredsheeran2897]

*"Freedom has many difficulties & democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in"* - John F. Kennedy’s *Ich Bin Ein Berliner* speech about Capitalism vs. Communism

[@fridaynighttherapy]

I love film making/ cinematography so this was fantastic! Production value was off the charts, and the editing enhanced the overall story perfectly! Thanks again.

[@RebelGorilla7384]

"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." - Noam Chomsky.

[@origami83]

Oh you mean anything related to LGBTQ nowadays?

[@galacticpotato607]

sounds like what happens when we get trapped in social media bubbles/ echo chambers

[@Clarencekswong]

Come on US have like GI Joe, Rambo, Rocky and Top Gun. Nothing special about NK movies.

[@Seth-mu3wo]

@@Clarencekswong Rambo literally fights against the state, shows how poorly many vets are treated, and tries to portray the huge difficulties many face after serving, so no they're not the same.

[@Clarencekswong]

@@Seth-mu3wo Yea, you are right about Rambo.

[@brittanywinn3955]

It's way too comical to be real. Absolutely terrifying.

[@greyhoodie1012]

i hate it when he apologizes for the video being “long and in-depth” that’s what we want make em longer and more in-depth actually thank you -Us viewers

[@steelerfaninperu]

There's a good work of fiction called The Orphan Master's Son, the story follows a person who abducts people for North Korea. And it used a lot of the details of the filmmakers' story to paint some really cool scenes of those abductions and what they were for.

[@robertdragan2333]

Almost everythig mentioned about propaganda movies is present in the american movies as well: rewriting of history, glorying the system, promoting patrioticic sentiment. Really makes you think

[@KDG702]

Extremely interesting, thanks Johnny. I’ve researched a lot about North Korea and their propaganda and the uniqueness of how they function, and videos like this are not only super cool but also super interesting because all of which you covered about has been sitting there for us to see this whole time. I’m glad I learned something new. Thanks for the video, I look forward to the next!

[@TCGTales]

Hollywood is a U.S government propaganda tool as well.

[@t00bgazer]

Search johnny harris debunked.

[@abdo19code]

now do research from non-western sources and research the western propaganda about north korea and how they function. you might be surprised how much of what we're told is completely made up bullshit

[@wolkengrenze]

"struggle is the only way to happiness" thats just the most northkorean thing ever haha

[@Munkenba]

tbf it sounds like that's just what google translate would pump out if you fed it "the dignity of hard work", which is a common phrase employed in western political speech writing. Convincing the working classes that they're happiest when they're tied to the production line is politically universal.

[@Araanor]

It's not that far from the truth. North Korea just takes it to the absurd.

[@eriksatlher1]

sounds like american working culture for me. Work hard, break your back and its your problem to pay the medical bills

[@LaGrandeRaceNoire]

Nicholas Howard🙂: We, kzbin.info/www/bejne/q5bHc6FsbrCBg7c the West and China, will not allow Africa to develop

[@middleagebrotips3454]

​@@Munkenba the American right says that a lot too

[@MrSomebodyStrange]

Holy shit the fact that "The Name Given by the Era" is so mindblowing to me. I mean, I come from the ex USSR and in the 2000s, during the period when TV stopped regularly signing off, some smaller channels will often fill the air in around 3 o'clock with some forgotten cultularly insignificant social realism films from 50s and 60s, mostly revolving around collective farm workers. This whole scenery filled with crop fields, tractor drivers in wifebeater tank tops and jackboots and all that talk about the motherland is associated in my head with that period, and not the time when I was still sour because I was disappointed in Fallout 3

[@rejectranch5486]

I love how you merge history and comedy together

[@leeaf7]

Bulgasari and Pulgasari are same. They are spelled differently because North and South did not have a defined way to spell names using Roman characters. Another example is a city of Busan. It used to be spelled Pusan back in the day.

[@anonymously-mysterious3812]

Johnny using that song @ 10:07 is so random😂, especially that part of the song lol.

[@smth.something]

what is the song name? 😅

[@anonymously-mysterious3812]

@@smth.something “song of the sea” DPRK Military Choir. In the beginning, it has a woman singing

[@violetviolet888]

*Johnny Harris:* I remember when you started this channel having been laid off by VOX. You've evolved exponentially and are now deep diving and exploring your curiosities on your own terms. GREAT JOB. Keep it up and never stop exploring with every map you can get you hands on.

[@keerthichandra376]

I dont think got laid off. He left

[@CogitoErgoSumFortis]

I wonder how this mirrors into the whole Disney and local station news dialogues, where they repeat the same key phrases over and over, and where you can make those eerie videos of all the different newscasters saying the exact same phrases.

[@mindbeast971]

Disney? I think you mean the Sinclair group

[@jbird4478]

Well, you can't do that in North Korea because they only have a handful of newscasters. That said, the media in the US is indeed embarrassingly uniform and eerily centralized.

[@CogitoErgoSumFortis]

@@mindbeast971 correct!

[@CogitoErgoSumFortis]

@@jbird4478 it's an unfortunate illusion of a multilateral free market :( it used to be that, truly, but it has grown further from that in time

[@GuruAuggie]

I've been to North Korea Kim's propaganda is playing 24/7 all over the country you will hear Kim's propagands you can't escape it especially when it's pitch black outside

[@erikaacharya948]

Your videos are truly incredible. Your final product clarifies how much dedication, deep dive, and hard work has gone into it. I am really delighted to have a journalist like you in youtube

[@matthewbeesley5850]

Imagine a different world, one where at the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, instead of U.S. military leaders insisting Soviet entry into the war against Japan, the U.S. instead tells Stalin hands off Korea. Postwar, Korea is a single nation, likely ending up like Japan.

[@theguyishere249]

I think the reason is because the north was already occupied by communists or Marxist Leninist.

[@MrCharkteeth]

"Brainwash" is one word, so "brain wash" is cleaning brain

[@kavenseth]

Whenever he mentioned unwarranted songs and chorus I wonder what will Johnny do when he discovers Bollywood movies.

[@MrZerosixZeroone]

This guy is soo good at making videos even the ads are hard to skip.

[@slylover123]

The irony that the dictator was obsessed with movies yet executes any of his citizens that watch even 1 foreign film

[@Relic-eo5cc]

Bro took KZbin journalism to another level 🎉

[@NightDocs]

Ha I’m so glad you’re covering this, this is one of the wildest North Korea stories in existence… right up there with the long held rumor that the founder Kim Il Sung wasn’t actually the real Kim

[@JamesonMusic808]

This has quickly become my favorite channel

[@MissKim--SP]

Again you managed to find something I've never heard of. I love movies and documentaries and no one seems to have covered the kidnapped actress. If they have it's not widely seen. Thanks. Great topic.

[@dhirendrakumar276]

I liked all the subtle production designs/choices (and editing choices too) in this video. Keeps your video style from being redundant Johnny. Quite liked it. Keep innovating in these terms too.

[@BoatsNhoes824]

VERY well put together my man. Just gained a new subscriber

[@Mira_Poix]

The film edits, animations, and storytelling in this video were fantastic. Bravo!

[@markvillamor7724]

They actually kidnapped a south american director for this video.

[@vivitow873]

Not historically accurate tho.

[@nasalghul]

Cinema is the greatest art form, artists will always add a secret meaning to their work. There are three different interpretations of Pulgasari (see Accented Cinema), and they all make sense. I am fascinated with the back story of this movie from the kidnapped director and his spouse, to the fact that Kim Jong Il was a movie buff, not to mention that the film itself is a masterpiece. We definitely need this insane story to be brought to the big screen. If done right will more impressive than ARGO.

[@thewalkingthinker6561]

Nice…this essay informs more about how cinema works in the USA…

[@robobrain10000]

Viewing the North Korean film industry in isolation probably doesn't mean much. This is probably beyond the scope of this video, but would have been nice to see what the Japanese or S. Korean films were doing around this same time and how the two films contrasted. Yes, these N Korean films are strange to us modern western audience, but they might not have been strange when compared to the contemporaries from the time.

[@pedrob3953]

Very typical when Westerners talk about North Korea. "It's so strange". Yes, but it's not the only country in Asia. It's not even the only Korean country.

[@electricblade5]

I'm home alone on Wednesday's and it can get pretty lonely, but for at least the length of your video I feel like I have a friend over. Thank you for uploading on Wednesday, Johnny. I am looking forward to the next one.

[@madliliivakunstnik8929]

Now THAT was really well put together! Thank you so much!

[@hyderabbasi]

Easily one of the best videos your team has produced. Love the innovation and creativity. Definitely setting the standard here on KZbin.

[@OdinBalor]

Imagine if he was born like in South Korea or the US, he would have been an amazing movie producer 😢

[@origami83]

@Veikko Then he would fit right in with current disney marvel!

[@internet_userr]

​@Veikko imagine having more replies than op's comment

[@LaGrandeRaceNoire]

Nicholas Howard🙂: We, kzbin.info/www/bejne/q5bHc6FsbrCBg7c the West and China, will not allow Africa to develop

[@plainshades]

​@@origami83Lol. You beat me to it. Was about to say the same thing. Movies are shit these days, especially there ones from Marvel.

[@origami83]

@@plainshades yeah disney has the reversed midas touch going on. Everything they touch turns to shit.

[@xMasterAssassin93]

In a better reality than ours, where Korea was unified under a peaceful democracy similar to our own South Korea, Kim Jong Il was just a successful movie maker who directed or produced movies with the help and advice and employees from around the world in the industry. Sadly we live in a more depressing reality where a madman made mad movies in isolation.

[@mOOOp42]

Johnny, another amazing video as usual. One thing you didn't mention but I can't stop thinking about, is how are the citizens of North Korea supposed to consume these movies? I would assume with the older movies that government officials would get free movie tickets to take their families out to a theater but, how would this influence remote farmers or just the average working citizen? I highly doubt even during the VHS or DVD age that many citizens owned those machines, so distributions of physical format movies were probably few and far in between. Now in today's age, I would assume that there is a free government streaming platform that most citizens can access through their state computers but what do you think? I'm very curious about this.

[@hprofile7089]

This is a appreciation comment for Johnny Harris and his team. Thank you for producing this amazing content.

[@Bolcjek]

There is something beautiful about how amazingly weird this whole story is

[@GuyDandy]

Accented Cinema has an excellent video also covering Pulgasari that I highly recommend. He covers a number of things relating to eastern cinema and more.

[@nirui.o]

5:48 "As an adult, he rewrote his back story again and again" as seen in these pictures where he was rewriting his back story in a back story rewriting office inside a back story rewriting club 😂

[@TenDropChris]

"If I'm going to have a past, I'd rather it be multiple choice". -The Joker

[@Jocelectro]

25:39 My favourite Pulgasari Scene. It's so cute. In my imagined version of the film, since I don't know any of them, Pulgasari is, after coming to life, a pure being that begins to change and becomes the dark shadow of humanity. 😢Since Pulgasari is bond by blood to this woman, who does NOT sacrifice herself, it is healed by compassion and love in the end. I believe that deep down every human being longs only for love and the bigger the ego, the sicker the mind and the more distant the person is from themselves, the more difficult it is to ever feel love and compassion. Some human beings, as crazy and twisted as it may be, will do everything for it, they will need to have everything they don't actually need, exploit everything around them and even commit murder and genocide. If you observe and look closely you can see in their faces that they already live in their own freaking hell and there is no escape from it.

[@benjammin1304]

This is a story that's always been fascinating to me. Like after WW2 China developed a pretty competent intelligence apparatus, but they just let their citizens get kidnapped like that? There's no way it's not on purpose.

[@usernameis9157]

Hong Kong🇭🇰 gained independence in 1997 from Great Britain🇬🇧. So China had nothing to do with this

[@sankhalika]

A lot of things you mentioned about north Korean films in general, also apply to Indian movies, but i believe the propaganda isn't so strong. If we look at Indian movies from 1970s-2010 (same as the movies as you mentioned in this video), there is a lot of struggle, selfless behaviour etc. I guess movies were different then that struggle and longing and patriotism is what worked. It need not be only propaganda. It's the movie culture of the generation and what works among them! Seeing your video i would agree with your perspective. However because i know the similarity with Indian movies, i somehow feel maybe that's not the whole story.

[@JacobNascar]

What's crazy is, without context like dates, it's hard to tell what decade different clips of propaganda, video, etc are filmed in. Like the film mentioned from 2006, looked like I could've been in the late 70s.

[@carrieelder7948]

Can you do a video on BRIC - worried about the American dollar… your videos are informative. Please if you could cover this topic?

[@chaosXP3RT]

Do you want to talk about this video?

[@ciro_costa]

Can't wait to see the world free of the dollar :D

[@halflifeproductionz]

you guys dont break out for a song every 10 minutes?

[@cristhianlaniadovijil4284]

There is an interesting backstory on Juche: Self-realiance and isolation are extensions of the confucian-minded traditional Korean identity: The state is the "family of all the families", and the leader is the father of the state; therefore individuals should obey what the father commands. Individual wishes or needs are inferior to the stability of the family, and that goes also to the state: The state is first, inidividuals are second.

[@aakarsh20200]

What a man! Never fails to impress. Amazing production. Kudos to you, Johnny and the whole TEAM.

[@jamie2118]

I learned about this kidnapping from my parents when I was young (I'm South Korean for context) and was furious about it. Interesting to know more details and the aftermath of the kidnapping, thanks Johnny

[@ilijazz]

Please make this a series extending it to different countries

[@ilijazz]

Spain, nazi germany, Soviet Union and the United States

[@historyandmoviemom]

As a film and history enthusiast, this video was so compelling. Well done! Bravo.

[@sarakajira]

You know, hearing about the movie about the soccer player, and his "extreme struggle" for the country, I couldn't help be reminded of American films like the Rocky franchise, where Rocky Balboa trained "extra hard" so that he could defeat his Russian Soviet opponent. I mean it's basically the same concept.

[@Speederzzz]

America has a special way of doing propaganda. Often, it's not even made by the government

[@CandidateCoach]

Speaking of propaganda and the power of film, it would be great if you did a deep dive in how 100 years of American cinema influenced where US society is today!

[@windell_king]

Johnny style of story telling is insanely good! The start of this video looks like an actual movie story, what a man! ❤