Abduction by North Korea
The abduction of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee occurred in North Korea between 1978 and 1986. Shin Sang-ok was a famous South Korean filmmaker who had been married to actress Choi Eun-hee. Together, they established Shin Film and made many films through the 1960s which garnered recognition for South Korea at various film festivals. In January 1978, Choi was abducted in Hong Kong and taken to North Korea to the country's future supreme leader Kim Jong Il. The abduction of Shin followed six months later.
After three years in prison, Shin was united with Choi, and the two were instructed by Kim Jong Il to make films for him to gain global recognition for North Korea's film industry. Shin directed seven films for Kim from 1984 until 1985: "An Emissary of No Return", "Love, Love, My Love", "Runaway", "Breakwater", "Salt", "The Tale of Shim Chong", and most famously, "Pulgasari." In 1986, Choi and Shin escaped from North Korean supervision to a US embassy while in Vienna. Under Kim's orders, Shin's films were banned in North Korea thereupon.
Kim Jong Il and film.
Kim Jong Il joined the Propaganda and Agitation Department in 1966 and soon became director of the Motion Picture and Arts Division. He was a big fan of films, with a library of 15,000 at his disposal. As director, he reached the public with films and operas homogeneous in theme: pride in the nation and specifically in Kim Il Sung. Charles K. Armstrong writes in his book, "Tyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World 1950–1992", that "Kim took North Korean arts in a direction that seemed specifically designed to ensure his father's favor: under his guidance, new films and operas focused as never before on the anti-Japanese struggle of Kim Il Sung and his comrades in Manchuria during the 1930s".
Kim Jong Il was frustrated with his films in the early 1970s. He could tell that in contrast to the other films being released globally, his were stiff and lifeless. His diagnosis was a lack of enthusiasm from his actors and crew. Bradley K. Martin, author of "Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty", explains this while quoting a 1983 tape recording of Kim: "The difference, he suggested, was that North Korean film industry people knew that the state would feed them even if they performed only minimally, so they didn’t try hard... 'Because they have to earn money,' Kim said, Southern movie industry people expended blood, sweat, and tears to get results."
He needed fresh and passionate voices that would advance North Korean cinema. In the grand scale of Kim Jong Il's plan, further excerpts from the recording went as follows: "If we continually show Western films on television, show them without restraint, then only nihilistic thoughts can come about... all those things, patriotism, patriotism – we have to increase this, but we only make them idolize Western things... So we must advance the technology before opening... thus, because of this, I want to give rights to a limited degree."
Capture.
On January 11, 1978, actress Choi Eun-hee traveled to Hong Kong having being propositioned to direct a film, with the possibility of running a performing academy in a Hong Kong school. According to an April 1984 report by South Korea's Agency for National Security Planning (ANSP), Choi was abducted by North Korean agents in Hong Kong on January 14, 1978. She was taken from Repulse Bay and arrived in Nampo Harbor, North Korea, on January 22, 1978. She was housed in a luxury villa called Building Number 1. Choi toured the city and was shown both Pyongyang and Kim Il Sung's birthplace, among other landmarks and museums. She was later given a private tutor, who instructed her on the life and achievements of Kim Il Sung. Kim Jong Il took her to movies, operas, musicals, and parties. He asked her opinion on various films and respected her perspective. She was not informed that she had been kidnapped as bait for Shin until five years after her capture.
After Choi disappeared, Shin Sang-ok began searching for her. They had been divorced and Shin had another family at that time. Shin had also been struggling with the South Korean government because his film license for Shin Studios had been revoked. He had been traveling the world hoping for one of his films to be greenlit. Six months after Choi's capture, Shin was kidnapped by North Korean operatives while he was staying in Hong Kong. ANSP stated that Shin's abduction began on July 19. Though he was also given lavish accommodations, he initially was not told about the capture of Choi. After two failed escape attempts, he was sent to prison for disobedience. On February 23, 1983, Shin received a letter saying he was to be released from jail. On March 7, 1983, Shin and Choi were reunited at a party hosted by Kim Jong Il.
Films.
Shin and Choi were shown Kim Jong Il's vast personal film library, which reportedly consisted of over 15,000 films from around the world. The couple was instructed to watch and critique four films per day. The majority of films were from the communist bloc, though there were also the occasional Hollywood films. Shin and Choi displayed respect for Kim's film knowledge and perspective. Eventually, Kim shared how he wanted Shin to direct a film and enter it into an international contest. Shin would have an office at Choson Film Studios in Pyongyang. Kim was aware that the internal propaganda slant of his films might not appeal to an international audience and garner spots in international contests, so he allowed Shin to broaden the subject material and select themes that would be more acceptable abroad. Shin began work on 20 October 1983. Shin and Choi won an award for one of their films at a festival in Czechoslovakia. The final and most expensive film that they made under Kim Jong Il was called "Pulgasari", which was heavily influenced by the recently popular "Godzilla" films. All of the films Shin and Choi worked on North Korea were banned upon their escape.
Their films included the following:
Escape.
To defend themselves should they ever escape North Korea, Choi and Shin decided to sneak in a tape recorder to their conversations with Kim Jong Il so they would have proof that they did not willingly leave the South. In one conversation recorded on October 19, 1983, Kim spoke openly about his plot to kidnap Shin and Choi to upgrade North Korea's film industry. He told Shin and Choi that it would be best if they spoke to the press saying that they came to North Korea voluntarily. Shin and Choi attended a press conference on April 12, 1984, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia where they said they were in North Korea by their own choosing.
After finishing "Pulgasari", the two were in talks with Kim about another film when they took a trip to Vienna in 1986. Kim had requested Choi and Shin travel to the Austrian city to find someone that would finance a biographical film about Genghis Khan. On March 12, 1986, the couple checked into the InterContinental Vienna to meet a journalist named Akira Enoki under the pretense of an interview, and convinced their North Korean bodyguards to leave the room. Choi and Shin managed to get into a taxi and, after being chased by the North Koreans into traffic congestion, the pair got out of the taxi and sprinted into the United States embassy. "The New York Times" posted an article on March 22, 1986, announcing that the couple got away from their North Korean caretakers and sought political asylum in the US embassy.
Following their escape, Shin lived in the United States for many years working in the film industry before returning home to South Korea. North Korea issued a statement denying the claims that Shin and Choi had been kidnapped and instead maintained that Shin and Choi had voluntarily defected to North Korea and claimed they embezzled a large amount of North Korean money intended to finance the Genghis Khan film.
Recent accounts.
After the release of Paul Fischer's book, "A Kim Jong-Il Production", in 2015, the abduction of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee piqued the interest of those outside Korea. "Vanity Fair" documented a screening of "Pulgasari" in Brooklyn, New York, in April 2015. "The Washington Post" suspects a film will be made retelling the story. BBC Radio Four broadcast a 90-minute dramatisation in September 2017.
In January 2016, at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, in the World Cinema Documentary Competition, a documentary about the North Korean ordeal, entitled "The Lovers and the Despot" and directed by Robert Cannan and Ross Adam, was presented.
The French TV mini-series, "Kim Kong", produced by Arte, written by Simon Jablonka and Alexis Le Sec, directed by Stephen Cafiero and starring Jonathan Lambert, is based upon these events.
References.
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