LOL: The Assassination of Kim Jong-nam

!!SPOILER ALERTS!! LOL: The Assassination of Kim Jong-nam is a stylized non-linear re-interpretation of the events on and leading up to February 13th, 2017 when Kim Jong-nam, the one-time heir to the Supreme Leadership of North Korea was assassinated in broad daylight in the middle of a busy airport by a pair of women who, upon arrest, claimed they thought they were performing a harmless prank for an online show. The screenplay is embedded with a great deal of humour while also exploring current pressing issues such as post-truth, the fleeting nature of fame, power inequality and the exploitation of women and lower classes; and how to buy a knife on Etsy. Our story begins back in 1963, when the US government was testing a newly developed chemical known as VX on some farm fields in Anselmo, Nebraska. It would end up killing all of the livestock within miles of the test area and was from that point forward classified as one of the most lethal chemical weapons ever invented. It would also prove to be the substance that killed Kim Jong-nam 54 years later. From there, we are introduced to Kim Jong-nam as a post-mortem omnipotent narrator, providing the back story of his childhood, his mother’s secret affair with Kim Jong Il; his Western education in Geneva; his return to North Korea and grooming for the throne; his resistance to his father’s wishes; his attempt to flee the country; and his ultimate fate that day at the airport. We are introduced to the two women who killed him. We meet Doan Thi just as she is about to utterly bomb onstage on Vietnam Idol. We are led along about her obsession with fame and her careless efforts to get it. We meet Siti Aisyah, a single mom and sex-worker in Kuala Lumpur, who will do anything to get herself and her son out from under the weight of poverty. Each of their desperations is exploited by the men who are actually behind the plot: intelligence agents for the North Korean government. We meet these men at a brainstorm session in a luxury penthouse, tasked by the Supreme Leader himself to find a creative way to dispose of his half-brother. They come up with the prank show idea. They hold auditions and choose Doan and Siti as the new stars of Prank You Very Much. They train them on how to come up to either side of a random man and place a damp cloth over his face. They practice this until they’ve got it down cold. Finally, we see the events go down. The killing. The court case that follows. The long and harrowing path both women are forced to take through the Malaysian justice system. The carefree nature of the agents as they board a private jet back home. And the loud maniacal laughter of Kim Jong Un as he watches it all play out from the comforts of his palace.