HBO documentary shows Dennis Rodman`s trip to N. Korea

Two Americans are exchanging jokes at the entrance to a restaurant in North Korea. One is a basketball player with the Harlem Globetrotters and the other is a documentary movie producer. A bottle of “snake liquor” is placed in front of them. Two genuine snakes are contained in the liquor bottle. When the movie director suggests, “It is great to boost your stamina, and please take a glass of the liquor,” the basketballer says, “It is too nasty to drink.” Both look as if they found the snake liquor outlandish.

In February this year, Dennis Rodman, a star player at the National Basketball Association, and players with the Harlem Globetrotters, an acrobatic basketball club in the U.S., visited North Korea and offered a basketball lesson. A documentary production team, which accompanied them, documented their activities in North Korea and people’s living in the reclusive country. The documentary, entitled “Vice,” aired across the U.S. on the cable channel HBO on June 14, about four months since the visit to the North.

Originally, Vice is a documentary series that visits dangerous places worldwide, and gathers and airs footages. It was produced for online webcast, but it has been airing via the HBO channel from this year. HBO aired the episode North Korea in the last edition of the documentary series to make grand finale of the 12-part programming scheduled in this year. The broadcaster held a preview session on the episode North Korea for reporters late last month.

Originally, prevailing expectation was that the episode North Korea would present contents favorable to Pyongyang. This is because the production team had the privilege of getting invitation by the North Korean authority and met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il amid a rising tension on the Korean Peninsula following the North’s third nuclear test. But the 30-minute show coveys sense of stuffiness in many parts, which alludes that “North Korea is a country that is impossible to understand,’ on top of criticism of the Pyongyang regime.”

Director Ryan Duffy said as soon as his production team arrived in Pyongyang, a guide from the North Korean authority frequently ordered the team to turn on and off the camera in various situations, rudely saying “I don’t like you.” The team heard warning from the guide, effectively suggesting that if it fails to follow the instruction, team members could be put in jail.

The most interesting scene in the documentary was when Rodman visited a school in Pyongyang. All students were sitting with a computer each, but they only moved the mouse, and none of the students were actually using the computer. The Americans also visited an aquarium and Western style supermarket but found no North Koreans there. The team said such facilities seemed to have been “staged” to show off to foreigners.

People would expect Rodman would serve as the main character in the documentary, but he rarely appears. His appearance only amounts to a combined total of less than five minutes throughout the show. Rodman reportedly did not offer a special interview for the documentary. According to the production team, when Rodman faced mounting public criticism in the U.S. after his visit to Pyongyang, he reportedly requested the team to reduce footages featuring him.

Kim Jong Un hosted a dinner for Rodman and his delegation after a basketball event, but camera was not allowed. According to accounts by the production team after the visit, when Rodman sang Frank Sinatra’s famed song “My Way,” Kim enthusiastically clapped. Also, a rock band comprising North Korean women clad in miniskirts sang the main theme song of the American movie “Rocky” in a bid to elevate excitement.

The documentary ends with narration that it is difficult to understand how come the supreme leader cheerfully claps at American music and enthusiastically reacts to American sports in a country that is full of banners reading "Destroy America."

This reporter accidently found the show while changing channels at 11 p.m., watched it, and had similar thought. What on earth would Kim have thought listening to “My Way," whose lyrics say “I did it my way. Regrets, I`ve had a few.” He might have sense of self-rightness and narcissism that it is the right path to develop nuclear weapons.