I just watched Goodbye, Lenin! on the recommendation of Shuhui, and I have to say I enjoyed it immensely. It’s about a young man going to extraordinary lengths to keep his frail mother from discovering that her beloved East Germany has dissolved while she was in a long coma. The film casts East Germany in a rather sympathetic light, and carefully pokes fun at the East Germans for their frenzied rush to embrace consumerism. No doubt some of the humour slipped past me, since I can’t say I’m familiar with German political history (or German anything, for that matter), but I found it to be a funny, witty and sad film nevertheless.
Which got me thinking.. Why don’t we “corrupt” the North Koreans — esp. the men guarding the border zone — with capitalism? (Gotta degrade that first-strike capability.) The U.S. airforce can bomb them with planeloads of Playboys, BigMacs and Ben & Jerry’s; Japan can send a full shipment of Playstation3’s and pachinko machines; and the South Koreans can blow them away with Korean flicks/soaps/porn and quality purkogi. I bet the cumulative effect will be substantial.
