An astonishing real-life geopolitical thriller with a very run-of-the-mill historical explainer grafted to it like a remora, Madeleine Gavin’s documentary Beyond Utopia is so packed with high-stakes tension and nail-biting set-pieces that it’s fairly easy, and probably even ideal, to ignore its clunky structuring and expositional choices.
Beyond Utopia is primarily a three-pronged story about the perils of defecting from modern North Korea, as well as the nightmarish realities that make defecting such a necessity.
Seoul-based Pastor Seungeun Kim has spent decades putting his own life in jeopardy to coordinate and facilitate defections. He has a network of ethically compromised brokers in North Korea, China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand, but he’s more than just a guy moving strategic pieces from a distance. Motivated in part by personal trauma, Pastor Kim’s own participation in these escapes has left him with broken bones and a rap sheet in several countries.
Beyond Utopia is primarily a three-pronged story about the perils of defecting from modern North Korea, as well as the nightmarish realities that make defecting such a necessity.
Seoul-based Pastor Seungeun Kim has spent decades putting his own life in jeopardy to coordinate and facilitate defections. He has a network of ethically compromised brokers in North Korea, China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand, but he’s more than just a guy moving strategic pieces from a distance. Motivated in part by personal trauma, Pastor Kim’s own participation in these escapes has left him with broken bones and a rap sheet in several countries.
- 1/25/2023
- by Daniel Fienberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
If you are beloved Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong, you are having one hell of a good week.
First, your 2007 masterpiece Secret Sunshine has not only found its way into the Criterion Collection this week, but thanks to Kino International, the much adored Korean auteur’s latest effort, the 2010 (or for many 2011) stunner, Poetry, has hit Blu-ray as well. And you better have some money, because Poetry joins the aforementioned Criterion-approved film as some of the best bits of Korean cinema produced in this still young century.
Poetry follows the story of Yang Mija. A nearly 70-year old grandmother and maid, Mija uses her small earnings from her day job to not only take care of her angst-ridden grandson, but also start taking a poetry class at a local community college. Told to right down notes of things that she sees, Mija discovers not only the nature surrounding her, but also...
First, your 2007 masterpiece Secret Sunshine has not only found its way into the Criterion Collection this week, but thanks to Kino International, the much adored Korean auteur’s latest effort, the 2010 (or for many 2011) stunner, Poetry, has hit Blu-ray as well. And you better have some money, because Poetry joins the aforementioned Criterion-approved film as some of the best bits of Korean cinema produced in this still young century.
Poetry follows the story of Yang Mija. A nearly 70-year old grandmother and maid, Mija uses her small earnings from her day job to not only take care of her angst-ridden grandson, but also start taking a poetry class at a local community college. Told to right down notes of things that she sees, Mija discovers not only the nature surrounding her, but also...
- 8/26/2011
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
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