Ameriatch One of the best films i have seen

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Ersbel Oraph This film is truly a weird product. Coming from the BBC, the makers are probably not that hungry and were paid in advance for their work. So it is not really a propaganda film done by someone hoping to make money from the North Korean leadership.The images are good. Yet the off voice is doing its best to gloss things over. Making this a mild propaganda movie.What makes things really weird is two reviews tell something. Is it THE TRUTH? I don't believe there is a truth. And two pages of reviews seem to be written in reply to the two reviews. Even the likes, which IMDb calls "was this review helpful..." reflect that. The two raising quite a few issues are buried down and the let's call them answers are well liked, yet empty. Only one review says something about endangering the people still living in North Korea. The others are just "this is the best".So is this film a piece of propaganda? It doesn't seem to have started like that. But it ended up as a piece of support for the dear leader and his impotent son called general simply because it sounds manly.Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

k_arent_lee If Daniel Gordon made films that didn't take place in North Korea, we'd probably never notice them. His often tedious, straightforward style seems to fit in with North Korea's propagandistic notions of what makes a good film. Gordon's films are watchable only because he has incredible access to one of the most closed societies in the world. People are fascinated by North Korea and will watch almost anything that comes out of there if only to learn more about what makes the place tick. "A State of Mind" is a mediocre film about what it means to be loyal to Kim Jong Il and Gordon merely tells it like it is which is commendable. But Gordon's use of voice-over and his very sedentary style of filming bog the film down. His almost-exclusive access to North Koreans' daily life will give him a niche for years to come or at least until the North Korean government collapses. One also wonders, however, if Gordon might one day be accused of being the Leni Riefenstahl of North Korean film-making. Riefenstahl was the infamous filmmaker who made propaganda films for Adolf Hitler. Her most famous one is titled, "Triumph of the Will" and, after WWII until she died just a few years ago, she was forced to deal with the legacy of having propped up a leader who is about the closest thing to the devil the world has ever seen. Gordon's closeknit ties to the North Korean regime and his attempts to portray North Korea as a normal country with people who are healthy and happy could land him in hot water someday especially since rumours now swirl about death camps in the so-called Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and there is absolutely no doubt that labor camps for political prisoners already exist.

milli-mi A State of Mind (2004) has to be one of the best documentaries I've seen for a long time, in part because it is told from a viewpoint we often don't get to hear from: schoolgirls in North Korea.Though the film was essentially following two schoolgirls preparing for, and participating in, North Korea's Mass Games the aspect of the documentary that I found fascinating wasn't so much the Mass Games themselves but the daily lives of the schoolgirls and their family. Sure, there are the unnerving elements such as the harsh gymnastics routines interrupted only by the impromptu singing about the Dear Leader and the "once in a lifetime" visit to the most sacred site in North Korea - Mt Paektu-San - but the impressive side was that their lives weren't as far removed from that of any other functional family in any other part of the world as one would expect.Their lifestyle was fairly Spartan compared to most Western families (no video games, computers or DVD players in these households) but the closeness of the family and their evident appreciation and enjoyment of each other's company from their times relaxing in a park to visiting extended family on a collective farm was touching. However, there were also veiled criticisms of North Korean life but it required having to listen carefully as the comments were rather veiled. In particular, some of the comments made by the parents related to recent tough times when food was in short supply and of poor quality.In itself, such a comment means very little to an audience in a Western democracy but, in North Korea, such a comment could've had the family sent to a concentration camp for implying that North Korea was not always the land of plenty.It's true this documentary is full of propaganda but it certainly isn't a propaganda film aimed at painting North Korea in a positive light. It is as honest as a documentary made in one of the most repressive police states in the world could be. For this reason, it is a cut above virtually every other documentary made about North Korea and should be seen.

za_kannushi I agree with what most posters say about this movie. Yes, the film does not show any of the real horrors of the country. What it shows is what the North Korean government would allow, and nothing else.But the film also gives a rare insight into the (few) people whose lives in some ways can be compared to the lives of people in other countries. But where we have film stars, pop singers, authors, intellectuals and other role models that present us with diversified views on life, they (the affluent minority) have only one philosophy, and that is Kim Jong Il. They have no alternative religions, politics, philosophies, myths, icons, legends, thoughts or anything else.What is interesting about the film is that it gives us an insight into the lives of those who are relatively well off in a totalitarian regime. And it is clear that the movie is made by people who do not live in that same regime. The filmmakers look at the human, 'weak' side of these people instead of just showing these people as role models. The North Korean government would see these people as becoming a glorious unified whole during these games. We see them as robots and slaves to a corrupt regime that doesn't care about them.It is like British people visiting and making documentaries about the Nazi-devotees in the late 30s Germany. We know what is going on behind the scene, but the devotion and naivety shown by the people on screen is almost just as frightening, since these people could be ourselves under similar circumstances.