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.
{This was originally posted to The Screaming Pope, Francis Levy's blog of rants and reactions to contemporary politics, art and culture}