Although I am not ordinarily a sports fan, watching this documentary was an exhilarating and bittersweet experience. The success of the North Korean underdogs in the 8th World Cup was exciting to re-live through documentary footage. The working-class English burb they stayed in, Middlesborough, clearly adopted them for their cute underdog status, for they were well-behaved, polite and hardworking soccer players. And, at no taller than 5'5" on average, as one spectator put it, "it was like watching a bunch of jockeys playing."
It is comical that when they are bunked in a Roman Catholic monastery they are creeped out by the garish images of the crucifixion. Also impressive were the shots of 20,000+ N. Korean Citizens doing the most elaborate form of the "The Wave" known to man. The N. Koreans returned as heroes in N. Korea but still lived in a material way that would remind most Americans of poor people.
Team members say they were able to get as far as they did in the competition primarily through emphasis on teamwork and national pride, given their physical limitations against the Europeans. Certainly the most impressive achievements of human civilization have always been accomplished when people are united by some ideology or religion, bound together for a common purpose. It makes one think of the pros and cons of teamwork vs. individualism, free societies vs. communist ones. I was struck by how their atheistic communist ideology taught them to believe that each was responsible for their own destiny, and yet the movie is filled with numerous shots of the team making reverential references to their Great Leader, exactly in the manner in which a religious fundamentalist refers to God or Allah.
A very interesting movie, but it was obvious the team could not speak freely to the cameramen. Their words are laced with modesty and communist rhetoric. Strange how the most ideological and theologically governed societies are often the ones lacking the most in free speech. Unity vs. individualism the pros and cons of both soccer and politics.
It is comical that when they are bunked in a Roman Catholic monastery they are creeped out by the garish images of the crucifixion. Also impressive were the shots of 20,000+ N. Korean Citizens doing the most elaborate form of the "The Wave" known to man. The N. Koreans returned as heroes in N. Korea but still lived in a material way that would remind most Americans of poor people.
Team members say they were able to get as far as they did in the competition primarily through emphasis on teamwork and national pride, given their physical limitations against the Europeans. Certainly the most impressive achievements of human civilization have always been accomplished when people are united by some ideology or religion, bound together for a common purpose. It makes one think of the pros and cons of teamwork vs. individualism, free societies vs. communist ones. I was struck by how their atheistic communist ideology taught them to believe that each was responsible for their own destiny, and yet the movie is filled with numerous shots of the team making reverential references to their Great Leader, exactly in the manner in which a religious fundamentalist refers to God or Allah.
A very interesting movie, but it was obvious the team could not speak freely to the cameramen. Their words are laced with modesty and communist rhetoric. Strange how the most ideological and theologically governed societies are often the ones lacking the most in free speech. Unity vs. individualism the pros and cons of both soccer and politics.