The Country I Saw - Part 1 (North Korea)
Channel: DPRK Video Archive
Date: 2013-04-02

Korean title: 내가 본 나라 1 
Chinese title: 我所见的国家 1

Subtitles: English Hardcoded
North Korean Drama from 1988*
Part 1 out of 5
Directors: Ko Hak Rim and Jon Hong Sok
Script Writer: Choe Il Sim 최일심 (Daughter of Choe Ik-gyu)

Plot:
Takahashi Minoru a spiteful and bitter Japanese journalist from The Yomiuri Shimbun (読売新聞) decides to visit Korea, to see with his own eyes the impact of the Juche Idea. 

Theme song from the movie is called "In Search of My Mental Nest" (마음의 깃을 찾아)
Download: http://naenara.com.kp/media/mp3/FLM00407.mp3

Movie source:
http://dprkvideodatabase.wordpress.com/

HISTORIC EVENTS PRESENTED IN THE MOVIE:

The battle of Jiansanfeng 1937:
http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2009/20090...

Pyongyang before the Liberation: 
After foreign powers had concluded unequal treaties with the Korean government in the second half of the 19th century, capitalists from Japan, Europe, and the USA came to Pyongyang, as well as other Korean cities, in search of concessions and commercial gain. In 1899, Pyongyang was opened to foreign trade. In the early 20th century a number of industrial enterprises, chiefly Japanese, were established here for the processing of agricultural raw materials. By 1942, Pyongyang's population had grown to 388,000, as contrasted with 30,000 at the beginning of the century. The city became the center of the national liberation and labor movements. An armed uprising broke out in 1919 under the influence of the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia, demonstrations were held (June 1926), and strikes occurred (the 1930 strike struggle). During the Korean War Pyongyang was heavily damaged. After the termination of military operations, the city was rebuilt and modernized through the efforts of the Korean people, assisted by the socialist countries.

Repatriation of Koreans in Japan (1959-1984)
North Korean-sponsored repatriation programme with support of the Chōsen Sōren (The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan) officially began in 1959. In April 1959, Gorō Terao (寺尾　五郎 Terao Gorō), a political activist of the Japanese Communist Party, published a book "North of the 38th parallel" (38度線の北), in which he idolized North Korea for its rapid development and humanitarianism; numbers of returnees skyrocketed. The Japanese government was in favour of repatriation not only as a way to reduce the number of welfare or other public assistance recipients in a time of economic difficulty, but also as a way to rid the country of ethnic minority residents regarded as incompatible with Japanese culture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koreans_...

KCNA: "50th Anniversary of Repatriation Marked"
http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2009/20091...

Interview with the writer Choe Il Sim, who reveals that Kim Jong Il was involved in the making of this movie, and that he personally selected the crew.
http://sinbo.korea-np.co.jp/news/View...

Read about the sequels, "The Country I Saw," or "How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love North Korea's Bomb (Almost)":
http://38north.org/2012/08/jlewis083012/

South Korean Article talking about the movies:
http://blog.donga.com/nambukstory/arc...

The movie belongs to Korea Film Export and Import Corporation 조선수출입사
Buy the movie: http://www.north-korea-books.com/serv...

Wolmi Island (1982) English Subtitles: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEtGG1...

A Broad Bellflower (1987) English Subtitles:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wb3Va...

The Story of a Blooming Flower (1992) 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMuTic...

On the Green Carpet (2001) 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb9Rks...

* Some sources say it is from 1989, others from 1986