Abduction of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee

356:, 1985): A story set in Gando in the 1930s. In the film, Choi Eun-hee plays Song-ryul's wife. The family hides a wealthy Korean-Chinese merchant, and the father is killed in a fight between the Japanese police and the Chinese bandits. She believes that her husband died because of the communists. Then Choi, in poverty, asks for the Korean-Chinese merchant's help, but he rapes her. After a series of tragedies, a neighbor tells her about a lucrative illegal business: smuggling salt. While she is smuggling salt, the group she is with is attacked by the Japanese, and a communist group saves her. She discovers that the communists were actually the ones fighting for the common people and sets out to join them. Choi won best actress at the 241:

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

372:, 1985): Shin directed a musical version of this classic tale of filial piety. Shim Chong lives with her blind father. She sacrifices herself so that his blindness can be cured, so she is taken by merchant sailors. They toss her overboard and she goes down to the palace of the God of the Sea. She is put back on land inside of a giant floating orchid. She is found by the king, and they fall in love and are married. In the end, Shim Chong is reunited with her father, and he is healed of his blindness. 1363: 1871: 232:

after Choi's capture, Shin was kidnapped by North Korean operatives while staying in Hong Kong. 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.

511: 182:, 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." 446:

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

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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

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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

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and featured a first in North Korean cinema, a slightly veiled kiss between the two leading actors. Chunhyang falls in love with Mongnyong, a wealthy aristocrat, but he must leave to the capital to train to be a government official. While he is gone, a new governor takes over the province and falls

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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

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films at the time. It is about a farmers' uprising in medieval Korea. A little girl pricks her finger while sewing, and the blood falls on a little dragon toy made out of rice, causing it to come to life as a monster. It fights for the farmers and smashes the emperor's palace. Nevertheless, his

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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

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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

174:, 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". 161:

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

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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

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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

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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."

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appetite is so big that he starts eating the farmers' tools, so the girl who spawned it decides to sacrifice herself by disguising herself as Pulgasari's food. When the monster accidentally eats the girl, he explodes and dies.

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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

330:, 1984): A story set in the 1920s in the Japanese colonial period. Protagonist Song-ryul and his wife (played by Choi Eun-hee) live in poverty. The family moves to the Gando area of 334:

looking for a better life, but their suffering persists. Song-ryul joins the ranks of the Kim Il Sung group and once he is with the guerrillas, he blows up a Japanese army train.

127:. Together, they established Shin Film and made many films through the 1960s which garnered recognition for South Korea at various film festivals. In 1978, Choi was abducted in 29: 1770: 138:

After three years in prison, Shin was united with Choi, and the two were instructed by Kim Jong Il to make films for him in order to gain global recognition for

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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.

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in front of the diplomats. Shin shot sections of the film in Czechoslovakia and used European actors, something never done before in North Korean cinema.

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A Kim Jong-Il production : the extraordinary true story of a kidnapped filmmaker, his star actress, and a young dictator's rise to power

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after being propositioned to direct a film, with the possibility of running a performing academy in a Hong Kong school. She was taken from

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