While some of the North Korean movies I've watched have turned out greater than the sum of their parts, THE SCHOOLGIRL'S DIARY turns out to be nothing more than a thinly-veiled propaganda piece in which the whole story is an allegory providing a moral lesson for the masses. The essential essence of the plot involves an unhappy schoolgirl, made sad by the continuing absence of her professor father whose lack of presence leads to many problems in the family home.
You can guess from the outset that there's going to be a happy ending with this one and indeed the story plays out as completely predictably as you'd expect. The calibre of the film-making is very ordinary and hardly on par with genuinely beautiful North Korean movies like A BROAD BELLFLOWER, although the leading performances from the teenage actresses are pretty decent. There's some comedy in here, alongside some songs to lift the spirits, and as usual the film as a whole provides a valuable insight into life in North Korea.
You can guess from the outset that there's going to be a happy ending with this one and indeed the story plays out as completely predictably as you'd expect. The calibre of the film-making is very ordinary and hardly on par with genuinely beautiful North Korean movies like A BROAD BELLFLOWER, although the leading performances from the teenage actresses are pretty decent. There's some comedy in here, alongside some songs to lift the spirits, and as usual the film as a whole provides a valuable insight into life in North Korea.