Five Flavours Film Festival Media Partners North Korean Films Reviews

Jung Ki-Mo ‘s “Order No.27” is North Korea’s take on Shaw Brothers’ films

The first North Korean film I have ever watched, turned out to be a surprise, for a number of reasons. Let us take things from the beginning, though.

Elite team against all odds

The film tells the story of a an elite team of North Korean soldiers, whose mission is to infiltrate and destroy the enemy’s general staff headquarters. Before they do that however, they have to meet a secret agent with the code name “Balaustine,” who will give them crucial information about their mission. Unfortunately, as they travel in disguise on a train towards the enemy territory, a major of the enemy’s army starts suspecting them, and in essence prevents them from meeting Balaustine.

All aspects servicing the action

and direct a film that, mostly, highlights the action. In that fashion, the story, and the acting are placed in the background, a trait exemplified by the fact that many of the actors are martial arts practitioners, and they hardly speak. However, Park Yeon-Bock’s cinematography takes a step further, presenting a number of beautiful shots, with the one in the dusk and another in the sunset standing apart. The fact that the film features many different locations, is another proof of the work done in the cinematography department.

Impressive action in cult fashion

The film was shot in 1986 and seems like a low-budget one, but its staff managed to present a number of well-choreographed action scenes. Since they were not able to implement wire-work or special effects, they used fast forward motion and a number of extremely edited scenes, in order to make these scenes more impressive. Add to that the fact that most of the actors are actual martial arts practitioners, and you have a number of sequences that look preposterous and extraordinary at the same time. The ones where a small building collapses and a number involving knives are the most distinct examples.

These two traits (all aspects servicing the action and Impressive action in cult fashion) are the ones that make the film look like a ‘ production, despite the difference in setting.

The inevitable propaganda

I guess, if one were to shoot a film in North Korea in the 80’s, he would be obliged to include some scenes where the President, the Party and the army are praised, and that is also the case with “.” Furthermore, the movie exemplifies the bonds among soldiers, with the higher ups in the army treating their subordinates as if they were their children, and vice versa.  These scenes, along with the epic music playing in the background, give a melodramatic tone to the production. In a way, though, they make the film even more cult.

Many will consider “Order No. 27” as a “trash film” due to its low-budget, nonsensical editing and lack of competent direction and script. However, Shaw Brothers fans will definitely find another cult gem here.

“Order No. 27” will screen on Five Flavours Film Festival that will be held in Warsaw (November 16 – 23) and Wroclaw (November 18-24).

About the author

Panos Kotzathanasis

Panagiotis (Panos) Kotzathanasis is a film critic and reviewer, specialized in Asian Cinema. He is the owner and administrator of Asian Movie Pulse, one of the biggest portals dealing with Asian cinema. He is a frequent writer in Hancinema, Taste of Cinema, and his texts can be found in a number of other publications including SIRP in Estonia, Film.sk in Slovakia, Asian Dialogue in the UK, Cinefil in Japan and Filmbuff in India.

Since 2019, he cooperates with Thessaloniki Cinematheque in Greece, curating various tributes to Asian cinema. He has participated, with video recordings and text, on a number of Asian movie releases, for Spectrum, Dekanalog and Error 4444. He has taken part as an expert on the Erasmus+ program, “Asian Cinema Education”, on the Asian Cinema Education International Journalism and Film Criticism Course.

Apart from a member of FIPRESCI and the Greek Cinema Critics Association, he is also a member of NETPAC, the Hellenic Film Academy and the Online Film Critics Association.

  • i bet the movie was made 2016, but because North Korean are lagging behind, movie looks like it was made in 70’s -___-

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