Kim Jong Il, hereditary dictator of global wallflower North Korea, is gone now, allegedly after suffering a heart attack from overwork.
While the world at large may not miss him, Hollywood will probably shed a tear or two at his passing—not because anyone in the entertainment industry loved the man, but rather because they loved making fun of him (most notably in Team America: World Police). And, of course, when he passed on, they lost one of their best customers.
According to ABC News, Kim was a massive film buff, owning anywhere between 10,000 to 20,000 DVDs. Even if we lowball that figure, that’s more than 27 years worth of movies, assuming the Dear Leader watched one every single night. It’s flabbergasting to think that he had time to watch DVDs, given his propensity for writing books (he cranked out more than 1,500, according to official North Korean news outlets), operas (the six he wrote were, according to his official biography, “better than any in the history of music”) and playing golf (the first time he picked up a set of clubs, he allegedly played 38-under par, including 11 holes in one).
I don’t know whether he also streamed movies from, say, Netflix, but considering he was one of only a very small handful of North Koreans allowed Internet access, I wouldn’t be too surprised.
And we’re not even taking into account the fact that he watched some of his favorites more than once. He was apparently a huge fan of Godzilla flicks (something about the wanton destruction might’ve appealed to him), and he allegedly enjoyed Friday the 13th immensely. He also had an affinity, oddly enough, for Rambo. Perhaps it was only his fear of Sylvester Stallone invading North Korea that kept the dictator in check.
He loved movies so much that he went to disturbing lengths to improve North Korea’s own film industry: In 1978, he allegedly had well-known South Korean director Shin Sang-ok kidnapped. North Korea held him for four years and forced Shin to helm seven films (Kim was listed as executive producer for all of them), including the Godzilla ripoff Pulgasari.
Now, the point of this blog isn’t to say, “If you watch thousands of movies, you too can become an international pariah!” Rather, it’s to point out something that I think all of us are in danger of doing. Being hypocritical in how we deal with our own entertainment choices.
As Kim watched Rambo, most of his subjects were subjected to a steady dose of strict, perhaps unprecedented, indoctrination. The Internet, technically, is illegal in North Korea. Radio and televisions are preset to only receive government-approved broadcasts—filled, perhaps, with only Kim-written operas.
Kim was pretty rigorous in enforcing some pretty strict standards of entertainment on his people—yet he did not feel that those same standards were appropriate for him.
I think most of us are prone to make exceptions for ourselves when it comes to our own entertainment choices. I know I’m prone to some hypocrisy in this area. We acknowledge that media can impact most people. But when someone asks us whether it influences us? “Nah,” we’re liable to say, as if we’re the sole exception to human nature.
Now, I’m not arguing for North Korean-style censorship. None of us would want our entertainment diet to consist of repeated viewings of Pulgasari. But the truth is, a little censorship—otherwise known as discernment—is a good thing. We know that some stuff that’s appropriate for adult viewing isn’t suitable for children. We know that something you could watch without trouble, I might struggle with.
But it’s important to remember that we all have our blind spots too. It’s subtle and sneaky, and because we don’t “feel” influenced, we assume we’re not influenced. But the thing is, bad entertainment rarely marks you like a tattoo: “Wow, watching that one episode of South Park makes me really, really want to swear!” It’s more like old age. Day by day, year by year, it works on you. And then one day, 20 years from now, you look in the mirror and you’re quite different than the person you were.
So when we hear ourselves say that “South Park is a horrible show for most folks, but it’s OK for me to watch,” I think it’d be a good idea to take another look at our own media habits … and make sure we’re not guilty of imposing different standards for “us” and for “everybody else.”
And then, when we decide to flip off the television set, we can go write an opera or something. Hey, if Kim Jong Il can do it, how hard could it be?
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