Song of Retrospection (Ryu Ho-son, 1986) (Patreon)

Okay, so I needed a little break from all the 2022 films I've been mainlining, and this film turned up on a torrent site, and it occurred to me that I'd never actually seen a film from the DPRK. And well, it's just about what you'd expect. Just barely competent as a piece of cinematic storytelling, but streamlined as a work of unabashed propaganda, Song of Retrospection focuses on an old man, Komak (Chan Yun), a Korean playing an English-speaking civilian during the Korean War. He is apparently a musician, and was embedded with South Korean / NATO troops so he could learn about the war first-hand. His intent was to compose a sonata celebrating the imminent victory of US-led forces. But he is captured by Ra Jol Su (Chon Ryong-ju), a communications officer who is also a musician. Seeing the bravery of the North Korean people, and their love for Supreme Commander Kim Il-Sung, Komak quite literally changes his tune.

The very premise is bizarre, of course. Why would any military unit bring along a composer of indeterminate origin? (Komak's nationality is never specified, but apparently he's not American, not German, and most definitely not Korean.) Then again, if there is one constant theme throughout Song of Retrospection, it is that art, properly made, is battle by other means. International arts festivals, with representatives from the Communist world declaring friendship and solidarity, are a major plot point here, and the footage appears genuine. So while director Ryu (who made three other films, it seems) may place music in the foreground (and god, what bombastic music it is), his film is both about and exemplifies Juche, Kim's secret sauce for revolutionary aesthetics. 

Historically speaking, North Korean cinema is a bit of a cul-de-sac, only occasionally intersecting with the larger world. Of course, one of those moments was in 1978, when some DPRK thugs kidnapped Shin Sang-ok and his wife Choi Eun-hee. But it's hard to imagine that South Korean directors wouldn't be at least aware of this stuff, and if there's one formal element that defines Song of Retrospection, aside from its stilted acting, strange use of file footage, and unsophisticated emotional tone, it's that in more than half of the shots, Ryu starts with a medium shot and  employs an utterly unnecessary zoom. So I suppose Song of Retrospection could be considered a Hong Sang-soo production from an actual Bizarro-universe.