The controversial VICE documentary on the DPRK, The Hermit Kingdom, features everyone from Dennis Rodman to Kim Jong-un himself. If ever the phrase about truth being stranger than fiction needed proof of its validity, it has found it in this documentary. What might escape the untrained eye, however, and proves to be of great interest to North Korea watchers such as ourselves are the many small changes that Kim Jong-un has introduced to the country since assuming power after his father’s death.

From neon lights on Pyongyang buildings to high heels, the world’s most stringently autocratic regime is opening itself in some areas while remaining absolutely rooted in the past in others. This is one of the best documentaries we have ever watched on North Korea, not only for its information, but also because of its few scenes showing the Harlem Globetrotters interacting with North Korean children in a park. This is unheard of as far as we are aware because everything in the DPRK, and we mean EVERYTHING, is scripted to insure that one’s experience in North Korea goes strictly according to the regime’s goals.