Better Late Then Never

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

I don't usually weep, but this one hits me and i haven't weeped since the other infamous Korean movie Hello Ghost.To conclude simply over my summary, movie wise, North korean struggle movie had seemed to be a cliché at the Korean movie industry. It really sounded simple, a family has struggling to live at NK, problem comes out, family separated in order to search for hope that seems impossible at North Korea, etc etcBut after execution, its way more different than what i expected, the synopsis and movie descriptions are too simple to describe it that you have to watch it yourself. You feel their pain, their sorrow, their hope, their life trip along the movie, even with the simplest details and scenes.==contain spoiler== I really expected this to be one of those movie attmepting to give u a cheap tearjerker and ends up with a happy ending. But after the movie progress, even if the boy made it to his father, a happy ending would've still give this movie a good rating and won't break themselves as a cliché ending, i would've been way more glad if the boy survived. But no, this movie reminds us the harsh cold truth, that there are a lot of people who had high hopes, they've seen the lights at the end of the tunnel , even many times. But at the end, even when things seemed to be able to get a happy ending, it ended terribly, and all those hopes were nullified to 0 at an instance. I didn't see that ending coming.

Having read Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick, Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden and The Aquariums of Pyongyang by Chol-hwan Kang & Pierre Rigoulot, I was very interested in finding a movie that dealt with the unfortunate realities of modern day North Korea as is detailed in the aforementioned books. I was not disappointed.Keurosing is a look at a grim reality that most people would rather just ignore. It's a dark, depressing journey. Anyone who has seen Grave of the Fireflies will know what I'm talking about. The movie is well directed and the acting is very good. I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in North Korea and has read any of the books I've previously mentioned.

This is a "heavy" movie.The plights of the North Korean society and homes depicted here is something you can not believe your eyes, but from many documents such as the reports from those who have escaped from there, we can imagine the movie scenes are close to reality. This is the country of complete oppression. In 1960's we saw North Korea as a poor but hopeful country. In fact, many Koreans living in Japan returned to North Korea to join the building of "paradise on earth". But since then, the country kept going downward. Nowadays they are isolated at the dead end. The reason why such country still survives is that by giving people at the power side extreme privilege, so that they want to keep the regime made of fictions.In such a country there is a family of the father, once a hero of soccer team, and his loving wife, and their son who likes soccer too. The atmosphere of the family which is poor but tied with love emphasizes how loveless the country is.In fact, looking at the officials of the camp or boarder security, I could not help wondering if it is possible for the same human being become arrogant and cruel like this. I feel some sense of impotence, because I can do nothing to the situation close to my country.This movie focuses on the fate of a family. This is beyond a propaganda movie to accuse North Korea, nor to glamorize the rescue group. This portrays the dignity of human being.

I saw this in Korea over the summer (2008) at a special preview screening with English subtitles.It is a very powerful story that aims to depict the plight of ordinary North Koreans in the face of sickness, hunger, poverty, oppression and, inevitably, fear. The production is excellent, and the storyline is very believable - well, it is based on real events! In fact, you'll find many of the topics covered in documentaries made on N. Korea over the last 10 years - particularly those that include secretly shot footage smuggled out of the country. While there are elements of sentimentalism, it isn't overdone as it is in many Korean movies.However, there were a couple of minor annoyances:1. The bible cropped up early enough in the film, and I thought: "Oh no, the director is going to spin some pro-Christian message later on", but while this thread is returned to later in the movie, it is pretty much left hanging.2. The makers of this film couldn't resist making the main character a a former footballer (soccer player) of some repute. This was totally unnecessary and distracted somewhat from the credibility of the content. This needed to be a movie with ordinary characters in what is simply an extraordinary, but common, predicament.Nevertheless, despite these small annoyances, the film gets across its main tenet, and should leave no viewer unmoved.