A review of Our Fragrance

Tonight I saw 우리의향기 (Our Fragrance), a North Korean movie from 2003 (synopsis here). It was screened by the Canadian arm of Koryo Tours, the well-known Beijing-based travel agency that offers tours to North Korea. About 15 people showed up to a screening at a west end bar that's normally used by indie bands. I was worried that the audience might consist of that creepy group of maladjusted weirdos which actually seems to consider North Korea a desirable place to live without a hint of irony, but everyone laughed heartily enough at the bizarre dialogue that I can say it's not the case.

The movie had all the subtlety and plot of a Platonic dialogue. The movie identifies unique Korean qualities, something called "Korean build" being one, as a fragrance, which is in keeping with the melodramatic, religious quality of North Korean speech. The first half of the movie is quaint and old-fashioned in a way that makes North Korea seem benign and comically out of touch with the rest of the world. The hairstyles, fashion, a conspicuous 20-inch JVC TV and the slow motion chimes when the female protagonist's beauty is considered might as well have been accompanied by laugh tracks for Western audiences.

The story of the movie is of a female tour guide who initially refuses to marry a male kim chi researcher (sic). Incidentally, the two are separately chosen by fashion designers to model clothes for the "spring fashion show", presumably a seasonal occurrence. In person, the tour guide, Sae Byeol, takes a liking to the researcher, Pyong Ho.

The movie becomes a parable with a visit by Pyong Ho and his grandfather to Sae Byeol's house. Pyong Ho mentioned to Sae Byeol that he had lived overseas as a child, when his father had worked in the Korean language department of foreign universities and his mother had wowed foreigners with kim chi. This leads Sae Byeol's family to worry that they won't be good enough. Her mother resolves to prepare "exclusive" dishes such as spaghetti, her father procures champagne (pronounced 샴판, syam-pan), and Sae Byeol decides to borrow a rug from her uncle.

The dinner is a disaster as Sae Byeol's father offers a handshake to Pyong Ho's grandfather even though he is older and Sae Byeol wears a Western business suit instead of the hanbok that impressed the grandfather at first. Sae Byeol then offers the grandfather seuripeo (slippers), a word he doesn't understand, and coffee, even though he prefers tea. The dinner is extravagant, the food is unfamiliar to the grandfather, and he gets splashed by champagne as bottle after bottle is uncorked.

Eventually, the grandfather fakes a stroke to bring an end to the madness. Sae Byeol and his family are rebuffed, and they all engage in self-criticism before deciding to reform their ways and visit Pyong Ho's grandfather to apologize. There, all is forgiven and they appear to live happily ever after as an haunting, ear-splitting song brings the movie to a close. The credits are very brief, one of those rare areas in which North Korea is far ahead of the rest of the world, and include titles such as "people's actor" and "esteemed actress".

A recurring theme throughout the movie is kim chi. Sae Byeol initially rejects Pyong Ho as the "kim chi boy", but later warms to him. Pyong Ho is unimpressed because when she insulted kim chi, she insulted him as well. A surreal scene was one near the end, where Sae Byeol is giving some white foreigners a tour of a kim chi festival. One stall boasts 31 different kinds of kim chi. When a tourist says he likes kim chi, someone summons a kim chi expert to tell him more and Pyong Ho enters on cue.

In a scene that could have been written by a English-speaking satirist, the foreigners then proceed to have an obsequious conversation, in fluent Korean, about the magnificence of kim chi. Pyong Ho delivers a rambling monologue about the greatness of Korean culture, of which kim chi is but one aspect, being tied to its racial purity. "For thousands of years, Koreans have had black hair and black eyes," he says. "You do, and my hair is yellow," observes a female tourist. Pyong Ho then proceeds to follow the greatness of Korea to its root in Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

I have a few some questions and observations left over from the movie, answers to which would be greatly appreciated.

Are there really fashion shows in North Korea?

The end of the movie shows the two families strolling along the Taedong River in Pyongyang. There is then a closeup of a roller coaster, and of Sae Byeol and Pyong Ho riding a roller coaster in as morose a manner as possible. I was debating whether or not it was real, but there is supposedly a roller coaster in Pyongyang, at the Kaeson Youth Park in central Pyongyang. Here is a video with some information, and here are some pictures.

One of the handful of tourists in the movie spoke a few words of unaccented English. I would presume that they're Russian or maybe Pyongyang-sympathizing members of the KFA. I forgot to look at the credits for the answer, so I'm wondering if anyone reading this has any information.

This movie has an obvious propaganda role, but who exactly sees this? Would most North Koreans be as familiar with North Korean movies as South Koreans are with South Korean movies? Or, are movies really just for those living in cities?

Finally, one scene in the movie mentions "Korean schoolgirls" in Japan who wear "Korean jackets" despite harassment. How do North Koreans perceive North Koreans who live in Japan? How can any decent North Korean possibly live there?

Vienna to Pyongyang by train

Most travelogues to North Korea are the same because most trips to North Korea are the same, out of necessity. This blog writes of a train trip to North Korea made special by the fact they entered via Russia unescorted. As a result, they were able to see some interesting things both at the border, as well as traveling across the country.

Starting here is an interesting read about that strange area of the world where North Korea, China and Russia meet. In that area, bordered by the two countries that have sustained it historically, North Korea seems far less reclusive. If your interest in North Korea, like mine, comes from the fact that the country is a black hole from which little emerges save a handful of North Koreans in Russia, as well as relationships with obscure African countries, these depictions of North Korea in the ordinary will interest you. If not, the posts are mostly pictures that are worth seeing anyway.

There are obvious issues to be raised in traveling to North Korea, since the overpriced tour packages, priced in Euros, will really just help keep the government afloat. Nevertheless, the experience of traveling to North Korea might help to humanize North Koreans, who are typically portrayed as a single, creepy mass alternatively hypnotized or pulverized by what is now a dynasty of dictator-gods.

A Russia-North Korea trip is especially interesting for the way it travels through two of the least-known areas in the world: the Russian Far East and, of course, North Korea. The Russia-North Korea border, along with relations between the two countries, is a bit of a time warp, like those Japanese soldiers who emerged from the jungles thirty years after World War II.

The border is a small one, but so are the distances. From Seoul to Vladvistok is just 800 km, meaning it's a drive you could make in a day across a unified Korea. These travelers do see North Koreans in Russia for whatever reason, and there is this haunting documentary about North Koreans in Russia.