North Korea can’t seem to stay out of the news these days. The “secret state” has long been an enemy to the U.S. and most of the free world. This has sparked no small amount of interest from movie and documentary makers, all hoping to dig into the how this shadowy country works. Who is Kim Jong Un? Will North Korea start World War III? Are people in North Korea really starving? No matter the question, there are documentaries and movies on North Korea that cover these topics.
Continue on for:
- A list of the top-rated films on North Korea
- A categorical breakdown of North Korea documentaries and movies
- A short analysis of each film
- IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes ratings for films
- Best places to stream each movie or documentary online
[toc]
North Korea Documentaries
It just so happens, there are many ways to define “best” when it comes to documentaries and movies on North Korea. This list has both top-rated, and some poorly rated films. However, some of these films are almost a must-see if you’re looking to explore more about North Korea, its secretive culture and people, and it’s even more eclectic, if not somewhat scary leader, Kim Jong Un.
Inside: Undercover In North Korea (2006)
National Geographic has a long history of making award-winning documentaries. It should come as no surprise, then, that their documentary Inside North Korea is (or should be) considered required viewing.
Taking a more clinical and unbiased view of the country, Inside North Korea follows long-time newscaster Lisa Ling as she takes a guided tour through the “Hermit Kingdom”. Despite her well-known history as a journalist, Ling is somehow able to slip into the country on an official tour while posing as a medical coordinator.
The documentary follows Ling but more focuses on a humanitarian effort by Dr. Sanduk Ruit to help treat a consistent cataract problem in North Korea. The documentary utilizes this avenue to explore North Koreans’ fealty to the Kim family and the ways in which the Kims are held up as literal gods.
Inside North Korea provides a brief glance into North Korea, but one worthy of exploring. Due to their limited access and attempt to play it safe, Ling and National Geographic don’t take any risks with their reporting. That makes this documentary feel less risky and by extension, less provocative, but makes it no less important.
IMDb rating: 6.2 / 10
Rotten Tomatoes score: N/A
Streaming locations:
- Netflix (US only)
- Amazon Video
- iTunes
- Google Play
- Vudu
Children of the Secret State (2001)
R.I.P. your tear ducts. Children of the Secret State is one of the most heart-wrenching documentaries ever produced on North Korea. Most documentaries take a look at the geopolitical influences of North Korea or provide in-depth analyses of the country and its leader. Few look past all of that and dive into how North Korea treats its most vulnerable citizens, its children.
Children of the Secret State is not for the faint of heart. If you couldn’t make it through the many Christian aid commercials of starving children with extended bellies and fly-covered faces, Children of the Secret State may be a challenge for you. But, if you’re ready to explore some of the harsh realities that exist for children in North Korea (both those born into privilege and those in poverty), this is a must-watch primer.
IMDb rating: 7.6 /10
Rotten Tomatoes score: N/A
Streaming locations:
- YouTube
- Top Documentary Films
Under the Sun (2015)
Russian documentaries rarely get much recognition, but Under the Sun is considered one of the best films made on North Korea. This expose’ takes place over the course of one year, following a “perfectly normal” North Korean family.
That said, Under the Sun should also be taken with a grain of salt. The film begins with the following words: “The script of this film was assigned to us by the North Korean side. They also kindly provided us with an around-the-clock escort service, chose our filming locations and looked over all the footage we shot to make sure we did not make any mistakes in showing the life of a perfectly ordinary family in the best country in the world.”
Taken literally, Under the Sun is little more than a North Korean propaganda piece. Yet there’s still something to be gained from this documentary even from this point of view. Under the Sun provides one of the clearest pictures of what life is like in North Korea…for some of its privileged citizens, anyway.
IMDb rating: 6.2 / 10
Rotten Tomatoes score: N/A
Streaming locations:
- Netflix (US only)
- Amazon Video
- iTunes
- Google Play
- Vudu
Secret State of North Korea (2014)
Although actually an hour-long TV episode and not a full-length documentary, Secret State of North Korea is a PBS Frontline production. Nevertheless, Frontline is PBS’s award-winning mini-documentary TV series intended to help educate audiences on a variety of topics. Their Secret State of North Korea episode provides a unique look into North Korea’s underbelly utilizing a healthy mix of undercover footage and in-person interviews.
This documentary also heavily relies on never-before-seen film featuring North Korean escapees. Most of the film comprising the bulk of Secret State of North Korea has a large amount of footage smuggled out of the country that’s also never before seen. Although short, this PBS documentary presents a master-class in detailed reporting on the secretive North Korean society and its on-going social and political problems.
IMDb rating: 7.7 / 10
Rotten Tomatoes score: N/A
Streaming locations:
- Amazon Video
- YouTube
- PBS
Kimjongilia (The Flower of Kim Jong) (2009)
Both a flower (seriously) and a film, Kimjongilia actually has little to do with the enigmatic Kim family and more to do with their treachery. In this documentary, the filmmakers chose to focus their attention on the notorious North Korean prison camps.
While it’s hard to use the term “appeal” to any movie or documentary on North Korea, Kimjongilia does have a certain draw to it. By telling its story through the eyes of escapees from every walk of life, Kimjongilia presents a dramatic picture of oppressive regime’s worst ongoing human rights violation. Likewise, the escape stories offer up more meat than many action films.
IMDb rating: 6.9 / 10
Rotten Tomatoes score: 60%
Streaming locations:
- Vudu
- YouTube
The Propaganda Game (2015)
Known for its over-the-top propaganda exhibited through its state-run media, The Propaganda Game provides a perfect look at how North Korea crafts its political subterfuge. Created by documentarian and filmmaker Álvaro Longoria, Hollywood Reporter called this one a “well-mounted video diary.”
As with most official visits to North Korea, Longoria’s trip was extremely regulated by the Korean government, which also had final, official approval over the film’s content before it was released. The Propaganda Game is one of the cleanest documentaries about North Korea, avoiding the low-quality and secretive video recording often found with documentaries on the country. Longoria accomplished this by gaining official government permission, at the somewhat obvious expense of objectivity.
Longoria hoped viewers would come to their own conclusions about North Korea through this film. Still, it’s hard to look past the fact that The Propaganda Game is itself a bit of North Korean propaganda. Even still, Longoria manages to provide some deeply critical insight into the DPRK and the way it manipulates its own people through state media.
IMDb rating: 6.8 / 10
Rotten Tomatoes score: 100%
Streaming locations:
- Netflix
A State of Mind
North Korea has a long history of sportsmanship, particularly on the international stage. In a similar fashion to China and Russia, Korea’s sports is less about building character and more about presenting an image of strength to the rest of the world. The 2004 documentary pirouettes into that idea through a look at Pyongyang Mass Games, an annual sporting event and competition designed to showcase North Korean physical prowess.
The documentary follows child gymnasts over the course of 8 months as they prepare for and eventually compete in the 2003 Mass Games. Given that this documentary won an award at the 2004 Pyongyang International Film Festival, it’s safe to say that one shouldn’t expect a critical look at how North Korea treats its child athletes. Instead, A State of Mind provides an interesting look at an aspect of North Korean culture that’s often ignored, following a much lighter tone that allows for a much less stressful gaze into Korean culture and family dynamics.
IMDb rating: 7.8 / 10
Rotten Tomatoes score: 89%
Streaming locations:
- YouTube
Dennis Rodman’s Big Bang in Pyongyang (2015)
Source: Netflix
It’s rare to come across a North Korean documentary that adds a bit of humor — and even humanity — to the Korean despot. Yet Dennis Rodman’s Big Bang in Pyongyang does just that. The documentary follows Rodman in his attempts to forge ahead with his goal to mend the relationship between the U.S. and its long-time Korean enemy through a mutual love of basketball.
Big Bang in Pyongyang offers a chance to see Kim Jong Un and North Korea from a different perspective than you’ll find with every other documentary available. Don’t try to take this one too seriously, however. While it offers a fresh view, it’s all through primarily rose-colored glasses. Rodman and the Korean leader struck up a rather unlikely friendship back in 2000. Since then, Rodman has visited North Korea five times, most recently in June of 2017.
IMDb rating: 6.2 / 10
Rotten Tomatoes score: N/A
Streaming locations:
- Netflix (US only)
- Amazon Video
- iTunes
- Google Play
- Vudu
North Korea Movies (Fiction)
There are few movies that actually use North Korea as a primary actor and even fewer that do it well. In fact, we almost filled this article’s list entirely with documentaries, given they’re far better than any fictional representation you’ll find. However, two films did jump out at us worthy of a watch given our current political climate, even if their ratings are colder than a North Korean winter.
Red Dawn (2012)
Red Dawn is a 2012 remake of the original 1984 Red Dawn film. Both movies put fear into the heart of the viewer by using politically-relevant (for their time) foreign invaders who make landfall onto the U.S. No foreign invader has invaded U.S. territory since something the British burned Washington D.C. in the War of 1812. This fact alone makes attacks on U.S. soil so provocative for a movie script.
Whereas the original film focused on a belligerent Soviet Union (our Cold War enemy and primary spook at the time), the 2012 remake introduces North Korea as the primary evil perpetrator.
Although this remake was released in 2012, long before the current heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, it still feels somewhat timely. Fears of World War III may have almost always involved Russia — and China, to a degree — for the past 60 years. But with North Korea now threatening to use nuclear weapons and even electromagnetic pulse (EMP) bombs on the US (coincidentally, something that does occur in the 2012 Red Dawn remake), it only seems to make sense that the country would play a central role in an attack on the U.S.
Don’t expect too much out of this one, of course. The scores are understandably bad. Realistically, North Korea could never launch a full ground-scale attack on the U.S. in its current economic state. However, without revealing too much, the movie does find a somewhat obvious way to mitigate that little problem.
IMDb rating: 6.4 / 10
Rotten Tomatoes score: 48%
Streaming locations:
- YouTube
- Amazon Video
- iTunes
- Google Play
- Vudu
- Netflix (Germany only)
The Interview
Far more people likely heard about The Interview than watched it. When the movie was released back in 2014, it caused a bit of an international tiff between the U.S. and North Korea. Why? Because this Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg movie does the unthinkable: kills North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un.
If you’re even somewhat familiar with Seth Rogen films, you’ll note that they’re almost always crass and irreverent. To say that’s Rogen’s shtick is probably an understatement, but for the maker of films like Sausage Party and Superbad, a movie that actually kills a current foreign leader is a bit par for the course.
In The Interview, Rogen and Goldberg are talk show hosts who normally bag big-name celebrities. However, when the government discovers that Kim Jong Un is a fan of the show, it recruits the pair to take a trip to North Korea in a plot to assassinate the Dear Leader.
This film, unsurprisingly, did not go over well with North Korea. The Korean government expressed outrage and even asked then President Barack Obama to pull the film. The film’s wide release was eventually canceled for fear of North Korean retaliation and terror attacks, but after multiple avenues of outside pressure, including directly from the White House, the film was released for rental or purchase through several streaming services.
As with Red Dawn, The Interview is far from a box office success. However, the international politics meltdown this film created makes it worthy of viewing.
IMDb rating: 6.6 / 10
Rotten Tomatoes score: 51%
Streaming locations:
- YouTube
- Amazon Video
- iTunes
- Google Play
- Vudu
- Netflix (Australia only)
Further Viewing
The list above is far from exhaustive. There are dozens of documentaries covering the repressive regime in North Korea, and a small handful looking at the country from new and interesting perspectives. For example, HBO followed Dennis Rodman on his trip to create Big Bang in Pyongyang, filming their own documentary episode for Vice on HBO called The Hermit Kingdom. Many of the available films can be found on popular streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Video.
As for fictional films featuring North Korea, there’s a long list to explore. For example, where The Interview focused on Kim Jong Un, the more successful 2004 movie Team America: World Police poked fun at his father, Kim Jong Il.
For more options, we recommend this list available on Wikipedia.
Sam Cook is a full-time content strategist by day, a part-time freelance content writer since 2015. In another life, he was a high school English teacher for nearly a decade. Based in sunny New Orleans, he writes long-form educational content on technology, including Insurtech, Fintech, HRtech, and content streaming. He loves whittling down complex ideas within these areas that make decisions easier for buyers. When he’s not reading books with his son Miles and playing video games with the family, you can find him immersed in his growing collection of Euro-style board games.
