Movies Like Kimjongilia (2009)

Kimjongilia is a 2009 documentary film from N.C. Heikin with a MovieMagicScore of 6.2/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with Propaganda and A State of Mind.

Documentary

Propaganda

2013

An anti-western propaganda film about the influences of American visual and consumption culture on the rest of the world, as told from a North Korean perspective.

8.1

MagicScore

A State of Mind

2005

Two young North Korean gymnasts prepare for an unprecedented competition in this documentary that offers a rare look into the communist society and the daily lives of North Korean families. For more than eight months, film crews follow 13-year-old Pak Hyon Sun and 11-year-old Kim Song Yun and their families as the girls train for the Mass Games, a spectacular nationalist celebration.

7.7

MagicScore

Beyond Utopia

2023

A courageous pastor uses his underground network to rescue and aid North Korean families as they risk their lives to embrace freedom.

7.6

MagicScore

Crossing the Line

2006

In 1962, a U.S. soldier sent to guard the peace in South Korea deserted his unit, walked across the most heavily fortified area on earth and defected to the Cold War enemy, the communist state of North Korea. He became a star of the North Korean propaganda machine, but then disappeared from the face of the earth. Now, after 45 years, the story of James Dresnok, the last American defector in North Korea, is being told for the first time. Crossing the Line follows Dresnok as he recalls his childhood, desertion, and life in the DPRK.

7.2

MagicScore

Under the Sun

2015

Over the course of one year, this film follows the life of an ordinary Pyongyang family whose daughter was chosen to take part in Day of the Shining Star (Kim Jong-il's birthday) celebration. While North Korean government wanted a propaganda film, the director kept on filming between the scripted scenes. The ritualized explosions of color and joy contrast sharply with pale everyday reality, which is not particularly terrible, but rather quite surreal.

7.2

MagicScore

The Mole: Undercover in North Korea

2020

A real-life undercover thriller about two ordinary men who embark on an outrageously dangerous ten-year mission to penetrate the world's most secretive and brutal dictatorship: North Korea.

7.1

MagicScore

The Propaganda Game

2015

North Korea. The last communist country in the world. Unknown, hermetic and fascinating. Formerly known as “The Hermit Kingdom” for its attempts to remain isolated, North Korea is one of the largest sources of instability as regards world peace. It also has the most militarized border in the world, and the flow of impartial information, both going in and out, is practically non-existent. As the recent Sony-leaks has shown, it is the perfect setting for a propaganda war.

7.0

MagicScore

The Lovers and the Despot

2016

Hong Kong, 1978. South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee is kidnapped by North Korean operatives following orders from dictator Kim Jong-il.

6.9

MagicScore

Assassins

2021

True crime meets global spy thriller in this gripping account of the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of the North Korean leader. The film follows the trial of the two female assassins, probing the question: were the women trained killers or innocent pawns of North Korea?

6.8

MagicScore

#10

Camp 14: Total Control Zone

2012

Shin Dong-Huyk was born on November 19, 1983 as a political prisoner in a North Korean re-education camp. He was a child of two prisoners who had been married by order of the wardens. He spent his entire childhood and youth in Camp 14, in fact a death camp. He was forced to labor since he was six years old and suffered from hunger, beatings and torture, always at the mercy of the wardens. He knew nothing about the world outside the barbed-wire fences. At the age of 23, with the help of an older prisoner, he managed to escape. For months he traveled through North Korea and China and finally to South Korea, where he encountered a world completely strange to him.

6.7

MagicScore

#11

Dennis Rodman's Big Bang in PyongYang

2015

Dennis Rodman is on a mission. After forging an unlikely friendship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, he wants to improve relations between North Korea and the US by staging a historic basketball game between the two countries. But the North Korean team isn't the only opposition he'll face... Condemned by the NBA and The Whitehouse, and hounded every step of the way by the press, can Dennis keep it together and make the game happen? Or will it go up in a mushroom cloud of smoke? For the first time, discover the true story of what happened when Dennis Rodman took a team of former-NBA players to North Korea and staged the most controversial game of basketball the world has never seen.

6.4

MagicScore

#12

As One

2012

A unified team representing the two Koreas competed at the 1991 Chiba International Table Tennis Championships. It was the first such sport team since the division of the Korean peninsula. The unified team won the group competition event, beating the front runner, China.

7.7

MagicScore

#13

Humint

2026

A South Korean agent hunts a drug ring in Russia and goes head-to-head with a North Korean operative — pulling both into peril and tangled secrets.

7.4

MagicScore

#14

GO

2001

Sugihara, a Japanese-born, third-generation Korean teenager struggles to find a place in a society that will not accept him.

7.4

MagicScore

#15

The Net

2016

A poor North Korean fisherman finds himself an accidental defector, and is groomed to be a spy by an ambitious South Korean military officer.

7.3

MagicScore

#16

My Name Is Loh Kiwan

2024

After defecting from North Korea, Loh Kiwan struggles to obtain refugee status in Belgium, where he encounters a dejected woman who has lost all hope.

7.3

MagicScore

#17

The Front Line

2011

In 1951 ceasefire is declared, but two remaining armies fought their final battle on the front line Towards the end of the Korean War, a South Korean battalion is fiercely battling over a hill on the front line border against the North in order to capture a strategic point that would determine the new border between two nations. The ownership of this small patch of land would swap multiple times each day. Kang is dispatched to the front line in order to investigate the tacit case that’s been happening there.

7.2

MagicScore

#18

Salt

2010

As a CIA officer, Evelyn Salt swore an oath to duty, honor and country. Her loyalty will be tested when a Russian defector accuses her of being a Russian sleeper spy. She goes on the run, using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative to elude capture, protect her husband, and stay one step ahead of her colleagues at the CIA. Her efforts to prove her innocence only serve to cast doubt on her motives, as the hunt to uncover the truth behind her identity continues and the question remains: "Who is Salt?"

6.4

MagicScore

#19

Olympus Has Fallen

2013

When the White House (Secret Service Code: "Olympus") is captured by a terrorist mastermind and the President is kidnapped, disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped within the building. As the national security team scrambles to respond, they are forced to rely on Banning's inside knowledge to help retake the White House, save the President and avert an even bigger disaster.

6.4

MagicScore

#20

Poongsan

2011

Poongsan has the unenviable - and death-defying - job of delivering messages across the North and South Korean border to separated families. When South Korean government agents ask him to smuggle in In-ok, the lover of a high-ranking North Korean defector, into the South, the damsel and rescuer fall in love instead.

6.2

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like Kimjongilia?

The top films similar to Kimjongilia by MovieMagicScore are Propaganda (8.1), A State of Mind (7.7), Beyond Utopia (7.6). Each shares documentary themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is Kimjongilia worth watching?

Kimjongilia holds a MovieMagicScore of 6.2/10 from 20 viewer ratings.

What kind of movie is Kimjongilia?

Kimjongilia (2009) is a documentary film directed by N.C. Heikin, starring Young Hun Choi, Chol-Hwan Kang, Lee Shin.

Where can I find more recommendations like Kimjongilia?

Browse the full ranked list above, or explore more documentary recommendations on MovieMagicScore, where every list is ordered by genuine viewer ratings.

Keep exploring

Movies like Propaganda Movies like A State of Mind Movies like Beyond Utopia Movies like Crossing the Line Movies like Under the Sun Movies like The Mole: Undercover in North Korea

About movies like Kimjongilia

This ranked list pairs Kimjongilia (2009), a documentary film from N.C. Heikin, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Young Hun Choi take note). Unlike critic-driven sites, every position here is ordered by MovieMagicScore — a rating built only from real viewers, with no studio marketing or paid placement. Scores update as more people rate, so the list stays current.

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