This book looks at North Korean cinema as a unique opportunity for film studies. Because the society has been so closely controlled by an ideological dictatorship, the development of the nation's film industry has been entirely determined by propaganda concerns. Within this framework, filmmakers pursue their craft and audiences seek meaning, escape, and entertainment. The author, independent travel and film writer Johannes Schonherr, points out that North Korean cinema is therefore a major window into an otherwise closed country. In spite of international interest in North Korea's actions, however, North Korean cinema has not been widely studied in the West. This book is offered as a remedy. Schonherr writes in an entertaining style. He offers first-hand reports from the Pyongyang Film Festival, which reveal not only North Korean films, but the responses of North Korean audiences to international films, and how those responses are reported. He also relies on a network of South Korean experts who were able to provide him with films for screening and information based on communications across the border. The book is organized chronologically, and follows the interaction of historical events in North Korea with major film figures and film plots of the time. Schonherr takes a light tone, reminding us that the power of the movies comes from their popularity as entertainment. Along the way, readers are introduced to such phenomena as Pulgasari, the ideologically-correct North Korean Godzilla. Of interest to film fans and historians, readers interested in North Korea, and any reader with a taste for the strange twists and turns of history and popular culture. Annotation ⓒ2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)