One of these days, somebody should (and probably will) make a documentary about Kim Jong-un, the Supreme Leader of North Korea. An essential chapter of it would, of course, be about how when he cam…
. Like a number of docs I’ve seen at Sundance, notably “The Dissident” , “Assassins” takes a relatively recent news scandal and reassembles into an illuminating big picture. The events may be familiar to news junkies, yet after being shocked by the murder of King Jong-nam back in 2017, I admit that I followed the story for a while and then lost track of it.
The film wastes no time showing us airport surveillance footage of the attack. As Kim Jong-nam strolls with his suitcase, each of the women — with Đoàn clad in a white T-shirt that says “LOL” — comes up and does her thing , then walks away as smoothly as Jason Bourne, each holding her hands away from her sides.
In Malaysia, where both of them were living, Đoàn was an aspiring actress, and Siti needed money , and we see how they were plucked and groomed to be the stunt ringleaders of videos that look like mild versions of “Jackass” stunts, all designed to be shown on YouTube. There really is an industry of this stuff, and the way it works is: You get your assignment , the whole thing is caught on cell-phone video, and you get paid.
But “Assassins” also sketches in what happened from the top. It shows us how Kim Jong-un was elevated over his half-brother in the first place , and how much he still feared him; according to the movie, the Chinese had provided sanctuary to Kim Jong-nam based on then idea that, if necessary, Kim Jong-un could be removed and replaced.
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