Selma and The Interview

If you think Selma is a film about your mother’s best friend, then perhaps you believe that The Interview is a comedy about Kim Jong-un’s psychoanalysis (that is if you are too scared to go see it, purchase the streamed version or even read the reviews). If you believe that Selma is about your mother’s best friend you will also be able to picture the North Korean dictator on the couch in the Pyongyang office of Dr. Carl Jung-il. One of the things doctor and patient are working through is Kim Jong-un’s feeling of entitlement. This is the real reason for the hacking and the threats against the major theater chains who were scheduled to exhibit the film. You will imagine a film based on secret transcripts of Kim Jong-un’s psychoanalytic sessions, which have been bugged by Sony. This is not to justify the fury of the response, but it should be noted that few patients in analysis or any other form of therapy like to have their dirty laundry aired and there's no doubt that the issue of entitlement is a profound one for a figure who has taken on the title of Supreme Leader. Analysis is a very expensive form of therapy and outside of Kim Jong-un, there are few other North Koreans who could afford Carl Jung-il’s fees— comparable, as they are, to those of New York analysts who charge upwards of $400 per hour. In your imagination of what the film is about, you envision the actor playing Kim Jong-un (Randall Park) getting very upset when the encrypted recordings of his sessions with Dr Carl Jung-il are deciphered by a character who is described as the Alan Turing of South Korean intelligence. You see Kim Jong-un terminating his analysis with Dr. Carl Jung-il, by placing his once beloved analyst before a firing squad.

Jong-un Should Employ Dale Peck to Review Anti-DPRK Blockbuster

Kim Jong-un is apparently upset about an a forthcoming Hollywood blockbuster which attempts to make an assassination attempt on him the stuff of comedy. The Times recently reported on the uproar in Pyongyang surrounding the film, The Interview, starring James Franco and Seth Rogen (“North Korea Warns U.S. Over Film Mocking Its Leader,” 6/25/14). The Times reported on the fact that this isn’t the first time the North Korean royal family have been the subject of parody. Team America: World Police took a shot at Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un’s father. And if the North Koreans really want to stay at the top of their game of huffing and puffing they’d best be advised that the genesis of this kind of comedy actually emanates from two sources: There's The Great Dictator, with the famous scene where a Hitler look-a-like played by Charlie Chaplin bounces his globe around like a ball and the character of Oddjob (Harold Sakata) from Goldfinger, who actually bears a striking resemblance to Mr. Jong-un. But when talking about retaliation one wonders  if the North Koreans wouldn’t do well to drag some of America’s most acerbic critics out of the woodwork. Dale Peck, for instance, is more known for his literary than film criticism, but he's capable of eviscerating writers in the way that a good butcher can extract the innards from a cow or pig. Peck is like a pit bull.  He’d be a great attack dog to set on a pair of rowdy filmmakers. The North Koreans should start by setting him on Franco and Rogen, who also directed. When he is done with them he can go after Columbia Pictures which is releasing the film, Sony who own Columbia and American audiences who devour this kind of comedy.