Ok, I thought it was pretty funny that these two videos were released at the same time…
The two videos nicely represent two very different mindsets (production values and budgets) of two very very different warring nations. The first is a truly bizarre dream sequence (North Korean style bizarre, which is unrivaled throughout the universe) in which a sleeping man happily imagines North Korean post-space-age superiority and a burning American city (using footage lifted from a video game, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3), presumably devastated by a North Korean nuclear attack, complete with product placement for Canon cameras and inexplicably accompanied by a piano soundtrack of Michael Jackson’s ‘We are the World’ (?!). It was uploaded to Uriminzokkiri, North Korea’s official Youtube channel in early February and has been viewed around 200,000 times.
The next video was made by a bunch of operatically trained South Korean Air Force conscripts. If they are at all concerned about the constant threat of North Korean invasion and the repeated insistence that the North will turn everything into a sea of fire, it doesn’t really come across in this take-off of the recently released Les Miserables, called Les Militerables. The South Korean airmens’ greatest struggle is the never-ending winter chore of clearing snow, and the inevitable relationship breakups that happen during their compulsory two-years of military service. All cast members, (except the young woman) are currently serving South Korean airmen (the 22nd Fighting Wing), and this video, the production qualities of which are about a zillion times better than the crazy North Korean video, was reported to have been filmed within its budget of $900!
Ever since the planet suddenly went K-mad last year after a little fat guy rode an invisible horse from Seoul to the White House, and pretty much everywhere else, its good to see more things like this getting out into the world. Les Militarables has been viewed around 4,400,000 times since being uploaded to Youtube in early February.
