Abducted and Enslaved: The Kidnapped Filmmakers Behind North Korean Cinema

I recommend you practice pronouncing these two names before starting, as you’ll be saying them a lot: Choi Eun-Hee: chwe oon-hee (“Choi” rhymes with “meh”) Shin Sang-Ok: shin sung-oak

The Kidnapped Filmmakers Behind North Korean Cinema

By Robert Bevill

On January 14th, 1978, South Korean actress Choi Eun-Hee was abducted in Hong Kong. The 51-year old film star and acting school director had arrived in the city a couple of days earlier to meet with a man calling himself Wang Dong-Il, who had sent her a script and asked her if she would like to direct it. Prior to Choi’s arrival, she had called her ex-husband Shin Sang-ok, a film director himself, to tell him of the news.

Shin had seemed uncertain about the offer, wondering why someone from Hong Kong would go out of their way to seek out Choi as a director when she was more well-known as an actress. Choi brushed off his concerns as jealousy, as Shin’s filmmaking career peaked a long time ago.

For two days, Choi explored the city with Wang, though while she enjoyed staying at the city’s best restaurants with him, she was frustrated by the lack of business talk. Of more concern were two men following her and taking pictures of her, though this was not entirely unexpected, due to her fame as an actress. Wang introduced Choi to a woman named Lee Sang-Hee, and the two quickly became friends.

On the 14th, Lee offered to introduce Choi to a colleague who could manage Choi’s film school while she directed. Lee convinced the actress to come with her and her daughter to a house near Repulse Bay, on the south side of Hong Kong. The three of them took a taxi to the bay, but as their ride drove past a long empty stretch of beach, Lee asked the driver to stop and let them out.

After the car drove off, Choi asked Lee for an answer for why they had gotten out, but Lee remained silent. Soon, a small white motor skiff appeared on the shore, carrying a group of long-haired men. Lee assured Choi that these men were there to take Choi across the bay to her friend’s villa, but Choi hesitated.

Before she could deny Lee’s request, the men grabbed her and threw her into the boat, driving off into the sea.

Two weeks later, Choi’s ex-husband Shin Sang-ok became increasingly worried about her, having not heard from her since her trip. His Chinese representative in the city, Lee Young-Seng, encouraged Shin to fly to Hong Kong. Once there, however, Shin was unable to gather any hard evidence as to her whereabouts. Shin spent the next few weeks in the United States working on business deals.

The news about Choi’s disappearance hit the Korean newspapers while he was in California. A reporter managed to flood Shin with questions, even telling him people accused him of being behind his ex-wife’s disappearance. When Shin arrived back in Hong Kong on February 28th, reporters and police detectives were waiting for him at the gate.

So what exactly had happened that night? After Choi was kidnapped, she asked one of her abductors where they were going. When he gave an answer, she was in such shock that she needed him to repeat himself.

“I said, we are going to the bosom of the Great Leader, Comrade General Kim Il-Sung.” Upon hearing the name of the leader of North Korea, Choi screamed, jumping to her feet. She was quickly restrained and pinned down.

She was drugged and quickly drifted off to sleep. After six days on the boat, they arrived in Nampo Harbor in North Korea. The men led her onto a pier.

Choi’s legs wobbled, barely able to walk. A short man in his mid thirties approached, wearing a thick, fashionable wool coat over his uniform. A shiny Mercedes was on the road behind him, and a photographer stood at the man’s side, his camera ready.

The man extended his hand out to her. “Thank you for coming, Madame Choi. You must be exhausted from the journey.

Welcome. I am Kim Jong-Il.”

When Shin Met Choi

Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee were both born in Korea in the fall of 1926. When the two had met, Choi had already lived a life full of hardship. After running away from home at age seventeen, she met an actress she liked during, of all places, an air raid drill. The two became friends, and within a month, the actress had gotten her a part in a play.

At age 21, Choi was cast in her first film. Shortly thereafter, she married the film’s cameraman, who was twenty years her senior. She quickly regretted her decision, as her new husband turned out to be abusive. He simultaneously expected her to fulfill her duties as a housewife while also expecting her to provide for them, as her career as an actress was picking up steam.

When the Korean War broke out in 1950, Choi and her husband were not able to escape Seoul before it was captured by the north, where she was assigned as an entertainer for the northern troops. A year later, she escaped, and was taken in by the south, where she resumed working as an entertainer for the other side. Unfortunately, the south was not much better, and one day she was raped by a military officer. After the war, Choi returned home with her husband, who had suffered crippling injuries during the war.

Rumors had spread that Choi had been a sex worker during those years, angering her husband, even though there was no evidence to support them. Her husband’s abuse, both physical and sexual, continued.

A few months after the war ended, Choi met Shin Sang-Ok. Shin had not suffered as Choi had, growing up affluent, and worked a job painting posters during World War II, both propaganda posters for troops, as well as film posters for the few cinemas still open. During the Korean War, Shin made a name for himself making documentary films. Choi and Shin began an affair, and before long, word got back to her husband, as well as the press.

Word spread of the actress abandoning her crippled husband to have an affair with a young film director, but to the young couple it didn’t matter. She divorced her husband, and had an informal wedding with Shin the same day.

The first three years of their marriage, Shin and Choi made four films together. Their fourth movie, A Flower in Hell, starred Choi as a yangbuin girl, a sex worker who catered to American soldiers. The film was a massive success, launching their careers to greater heights. In 1959, he directed six films, each starring Choi, and each one becoming a box office hit. In 1960 Shin directed The Tale of Chunhyang, an adaptation of a Korean folk tale. A separate adaptation was also being made by another director, and the two films would release just ten days apart, with Shin’s coming second. It would be his highest-budget movie yet, and a flop could bankrupt the company. The stakes were so high that Shin’s office was broken into and one of his staff members kidnapped, in what some speculate to be an attempt by his rival to delay the release of his movie. As it turned out, Shin’s bet paid off. Not only did it vastly outperform his competition at the box office, but the movie was so popular that it was seen by 15 percent of Seoul’s entire population.

Before long, his company was producing hit after hit, with his film The Houseguest and My Mother winning the award for Best Picture at 1962’s Asia-Pacific Film Festival. South Korea’s new president, General Park Chung-Hee, attended the festival to congratulate them. As for Choi, the rumors about her being a sex worker during the Korean War were all but forgotten. Shin’s company, Shin Film, continued to grow, making 30 films a year at its peak. Choi even directed three films of her own, all of which were critical and commercial successes. She also started a film school, educating future actors. At the height of her popularity, she was even photographed with American actress Marilyn Monroe.

Unfortunately, when it came time to start a family, Choi found that she was unable to conceive, though it is unclear whether this was genetic or due to her prior sexual abuse. In 1971, the two of them adopted a baby girl, followed by a boy three years later. Shin Film continued to grow, and with it, Shin’s ego. The company would fluctuate between having tons of cash on hand and being on the brink of bankruptcy as Shin bet on new projects.

His influence extended beyond the film industry into politics, as he could get a project past the censors with a simple phone call. Multiple times, Shin was arrested and found guilty of tax evasion, though he was still allowed to release his films despite being found guilty of fraud.

In 1974, Choi read a magazine headline that filled her heart with dread. “It Turned Out To be Shin’s Son!” Her husband had been having an affair with Oh Su-Mi, a twenty-five year-old actress who had starred in his new movie, Farewell. Ironically, the movie was about a man torn between his wife and another young woman, played by Oh. Now, the actress had given birth to his son. Choi fell into a deep depression, kicking Shin out of the house and confronting Oh herself, stopping short when she saw the woman’s newborn baby. To make matters worse, Shin decided to remake Chun-Hie, a film Choi had starred in 16 years earlier, but with Oh Su-Mi in the starring role. If you weren’t convinced of Shin’s hubris before, you are probably convinced now.

The public grew tired of Shin, both for his cheating and for his frequent tax evasion schemes. His funding dried up, his political allies refused to bend the rules for him, and finally, the Office of Public Ethics stripped Shin Film of its production license after he had failed to remove a topless scene prior to a film screening. In 1976, Oh Su-Mi had a second child with Shin, a girl. Whatever hope Choi had of repairing their marriage was gone.

After twenty-two years, she asked for a divorce. For the next two years, Choi fell into despair, even attempting suicide. She did not act in another film, and what strength she had was spent trying to save her film school from going bankrupt. With Choi in emotional peril and Shin stripped of his production license, their lives as they knew them were over.

That is, until they would be reunited under the strangest of circumstances…

The Disaster Artist

On February 16, 1941, a boy named Yurei Ilsenovitch Kim was born in a Soviet army camp near Khabarovsk, a town in eastern Russia. Growing up, the boy, known as Yura throughout his childhood, became a huge fan of movies. At age 7, he attended a preview of a movie titled My Home Village, and made a point to tell the filmmakers ways in which he thought the movie could be improved, showing he had a critic’s eye at a young age. A few months after viewing the final version of the movie, Yura’s mother passed away. Yura was much closer to his mother than his father, who was absent for a large portion of his childhood, and his mother’s death affected him greatly.

When Nikita Khrushchev took over as leader of Russia, Yura’s father pressured him to change his name, feeling his Russian name would be an embarrassment. Taking part of his name from his mother, Kim Jong-Suk, and his father, Kim Il-Sung, the young man became known as Kim Jong-Il. While Kim Il-Sung made an effort to engage his son in politics, Jong-Il showed little interest, preferring to immerse himself in film. He quickly exhausted the catalog of movies available in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (also known as North Korea), and as the leader’s son, was able to smuggle in bootleg movies that the country’s average citizen would not have access to.

Eventually, his interest in filmmaking became a positive for his father. At age 25, he was assigned the role of Cultural Arts Director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department, where he would be in charge of making films for his country. He worked on a movie called Sea of Blood, based on an opera allegedly written by Kim Il-Sung, about a 1930s Manchurian family standing up to Japanese oppression. The movie was directed by Choe Ik-Gyu, the only other person in the country who shared Kim’s knowledge of film. The movie was a huge success in North Korea, and turned Kim from the secretive son of the country’s leader, to a household name.

During this time, Kim fell in love with one of his actresses, and before long, had a boy they named Kim Jong-Nam. Jong-Nam was, according to his aunt, “the biggest secret in North Korea.” In fact, even Kim Jong-Il’s father was kept in the dark as long as possible. At least, due to Kim’s secretive lifestyle, he was able to spend a lot of time with his son, though it was hardly an ideal arrangement.

He spoiled his child, buying him a Cadillac and imported guns. When the boy wanted to see a South Korean comedian perform live, Jong-Il tried to have him abducted. When that failed, he hired a lookalike to perform instead, but his son recognized that it was an impostor and threw a tantrum. The fate of the impostor is unknown.

It was an unusual arrangement for everyone involved, as Jong-Nam and his mother, as well as her two older children from a former marriage, were essentially locked in a “luxury prison” for two decades. A dancer who had performed for Kim Il-Sung had once publicly spoken of Jong-Il’s secret family. As punishment, the dancer and her family were thrown in a prison camp. After ten years, she was the only survivor.

The people around Kim Jong-Il saw multiple sides of him. On one hand, he was very intelligent and cultured, very witty, even willing to make jokes at his own expense. However, he was prone to becoming very angry and violent when he didn’t get his way. In 1972, Kim released The Flower Girl, the tale of a young woman who sold flowers during Japanese occupation. After suffering through most of the film, she is rescued by Kim Il-Sung’s army. The film may have been blatant propaganda, but it was a success not just in North Korea, but internationally, even winning an award at a film festival in Czechoslovakia, the first international prize for any North Korean film.

Kim’s success as a filmmaker and propagandist caught the attention of his father, Kim Il-Sung, who began preparing his son to succeed him. But it wasn’t just recognition in North Korea that Kim Jong-Il craved; he wanted to be known throughout the world, and felt his films would be the best way to accomplish that. So, he hatched a plan to bring who he considered to be the best filmmakers in the world to his doorstep. In winter 1978, he did just that, kidnapping Choi Eun-Hee, and greeting her upon her arrival in North Korea.

Choi was only vaguely aware of who Kim Jong-Il was, reluctantly reaching her hand out to shake his as a photographer took photos. Instinctively, she yelled at the photographer, not wanting a record of the moment, as well as not being used to have pictures taken when she wasn’t made up. They got in the car and drove off.

On the way to Pyongyang, the capital, Kim tried to make small talk with Choi, as if the two of them were having a pleasant conversation. Choi would later recall that “There were no signs of people and the scenery had the desolation of a war zone.” She was driven to a grand villa, whose decorated interior sharply contrasted with the world outside.

She was made to give over her South Korean passport and ID cards to Kim Jong-Il. After dinner, in which she was only feeling well enough to have soup, she was shown her bedroom, which she discovered did not have a lock. This villa was to be her new home.

Over the next several months, Choi became accustomed to her new life. She was regularly sent gifts by Kim Jong-Il, attended numerous dinner parties, and was taught North Korean etiquette. She observed Kim as someone who made great effort to make sure his parties ran smoothly, yet also noted that whatever he said quickly became law, no matter whether it was said sober or while drunk at 3 in the morning.

His parties presented a contradiction to some citizens, as they were meant to be kept private from his father. The details of one of his parties reached a concerned citizen. Feeling they were counter to North Korean values, she wrote a letter to Kim Il-Sung detailing the events in question.

When Jong-Il heard of the letter, he had the woman arrested and brought to one of his parties, where he demanded the woman be shot. The woman’s husband begged Jong-Il to let him do the shooting. Jong-Il granted his request.

However, Choi witnessed none of these events. Rather, she experienced comparatively lighthearted affairs, such as a game where Kim would randomly shout “Army uniforms!”, prompting all the men to put on a uniform under their seat and run around their table in circles until he told them to stop. Nearly every week he would ask Choi to sing a song, which she would do, knowing she didn’t have a choice.

Evidently, Kim liked Choi so much that he had her attend his birthday party with his son, Kim Jong-Nam, and the boy’s mother. Naturally, Choi couldn’t help but feel resentful that she had been taken from her own family. Kim made sure to have Choi educated on North Korean culture, showing her parts of Pyongyang, the nation’s films, and lessons on the country’s history.

She was forced to read a three-volume biography of Kim Il-Sung aloud, with her assigned instructor forcing her to memorize passages word-for-word. In particular, Choi had a great deal of trouble with understanding the country’s communist philosophy. When they explained why their way of life was better than the south’s, she argued with the instructors, as she had grown up in the south, knowing for a fact that their arguments were lies.

When called out, her instructors would become angry with her, failing to give her an adequate explanation. At the very least, Kim Jong-Il himself seemed to hold her opinion in a high regard. When she made suggestions about the North Korean films she had been shown, he took her advice to heart.

When she suggested that some of the films could be improved with a love interest, he thought about it for a moment before shrugging. “When Director Shin gets here, we can figure it out.”

Taken

After Choi’s disappearance, Shin Sang-Ok was thoroughly interrogated by Hong Kong police officers. His family was in chaos, as his and Choi’s children had no idea where their mother was. During the investigation, the script for one of Shin’s films was found in the apartment of Lee Sang-Hee, the woman who was with Choi the night she had been kidnapped.

When Kim Kyu-Hwa, Shin’s manager, was questioned about the script, he confessed that Lee had paid him to invite Choi to Hong Kong on behalf of a small company nobody in the room had heard of. Kyu-Hwa was promptly arrested and sent back to Seoul, where he would eventually be given a fifteen-year prison sentence for conspiring with North Koreans.

As for Shin, his financial problems were coming to a head. With his wife’s disappearance and his South Korean film license revoked, he had trouble getting a passport so he could work overseas. The director of his Hong Kong office, Lee Young-Seng, told Shin he could get him a Central American passport. Desperate and low on funds, Shin agreed.

The two of them took a ferry to Hong Kong Island, where they met with Lee’s contact. They were driven to a remote location on the island, where four men stood in the road. They walked over to Shin’s door and dragged him out. One man held a knife to his throat while another slipped a nylon bag over his head before drugging him.

When he woke up, he was on a boat. The man that Shin had worked with for years had been a North Korean all along.

Like Choi, Shin was taken to a villa in Pyongyang, though he did not meet with Kim Jong-Il like she had. For the next two months, he was given a tour of the city, and educated on North Korean culture and ethics. On September 9th, 1978, he was shown the Mass Games, an event celebrating the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Shin was able to see Kim Il-Sung and the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in the VIP section. Little did he know, Choi was also in the audience that day.

Choi was able to make friends in her new environment. Some of them were born and raised under Kim Il-Sung, worshiping him as a god, but she was still able to maintain a level of respect with them. Others were kidnapped as she was, and they would exchange stories of their abductions in the few moments they had out of earshot of others. While Choi had mostly accepted her new life, Shin was intent on getting out.

He patiently observed his surroundings and potential escape routes. He had noticed a Mercedes-Benz often parked outside of his villa, which was never locked and rarely checked on. After all, few people in the country owned cars, let alone knew how to drive one, and there was nobody to sell the car to. He managed to convince a Deputy Director to loan him a map, under the guise that he was having trouble memorizing the names of the battlefields where Kim Il-Sung fought.

Finally, on a freezing cold night in late December, he made a break for it. When the coast was clear, he stole the car and hit the gas, hoping to make it to the American embassy in China. Halfway through on the route, he swerved to avoid a farmer on the road, accidentally crashing his car into a ditch.

It took him half an hour to get the car out, but he was determined to escape. When he arrived at a military guard post, he realized that he couldn’t bluff his way past the guards with his car in the condition it was in, and blew straight through it. The car was also not built for the gravel roads outside the city, and one of its tires blew out.

When he made it to railroad tracks, he ditched the car and ran, ignoring the cries of nearby soldiers. He managed to board an empty freight car, then finally relaxed as the train took off. Little did he know, he had been spotted when he got on the train.

He was caught less than ten miles from the Chinese border.

When he was detained, he was interrogated by captors who seemed astounded that he had wanted to leave the country, considering he had been treated as well as the country’s elite class. They would frequently leave the room, leaving Shin to believe they were relaying their messages to Kim Jong-Il himself. Eventually, Shin was hauled off to a North Korean prison camp.

In prison, Shin was given strict rules to follow. He was not allowed to sleep unless instructed. He must sit up, not allowed to move his head or hands unless given permission.

The food he was given was unsanitary and full of stones. During his prison sentence, one of his toes became infected, as it had been frostbitten during his escape attempt. And yet, the guards treated him well compared to the other prisoners there.

They were curious about his time in South Korea, not believing him when he said anyone in the country could buy chocolate. He was told the soap he had used while at the villa made him smell like a capitalist. Shin believed he would die in the cell, even scratching his name in the wall with the spoon they gave him for his meals.

After two weeks, he was given a kind of parole hearing, where he repented for his sins and praised his “beloved Leader Comrade Kim Jong-Il.” Over the next few months, he had more hearings, and his treatment steadily improved, being given eggs to eat and multivitamins for his health, a rare treatment for prisoners. Finally, he was taken to an office and given a military crew cut, where the Deputy Director explained that he was being released from prison.

He was taken to a new house, where he resumed his life of watching North Korean movies and memorizing propaganda, but Shin was still determined to escape. He noticed a hidden panel in the wall of one of the rooms behind a radiator. Months after his return to the house, he made his second escape attempt.

This time, he planned to hide within the panel, hoping the guards would desert the property once they discovered he was missing. To his dismay, they hung around, and after three days, an attendant discovered Shin’s hiding place while cleaning the room. Barbed wire was installed outside the windows of the house, and weeks later, Shin was taken to Prison Number 6, where he thought he would be killed.

Similar to the previous prison he had been to, he was forced to sit still for hours on end, only being allowed to move for ten minutes a day. Prisoners’ legs were often swollen from sitting in the same position for so long. As the official explanation went, a prisoner would not be continually able to ponder his guilt if he was allowed to sleep.

This was called the torture position, and it would be Shin’s daily regimen for the next two years.

During this time, South Korean President Park Chung-Hee was assassinated by his own security chief. While Choi had not been close to him, she was still shocked to hear that the man who had stood with her and her husband when their movie was given an award had been killed. During her time in the north, she had little knowledge of what was going on back home, but Park’s death was too large to be kept secret from her.

During Shin’s time in prison, he kept his sanity by going over his prior movies in his head, mentally rewriting and reshooting them. Back home, he had been proud of his films, partly due to the wealth they had brought him, but on reflection he found them shallow and embarrassing. On occasion he was asked to write a letter to Kim Jong-Il, in which he would repent for his sins against the country.

Shin realized that he likely would have been killed for his repeated escape attempts, and decided to write about ways he could improve the North Korean movies he had seen, and how they could be used to educate the country. While in prison, Shin was surprised to find that another prisoner recognized him. In the fleeting moments that they were able to talk, Shin was told that Choi had been kidnapped as well.

After a five-day hunger strike in which he passed out, Shin’s treatment by prison guards improved. Sometimes he would be interviewed and questioned about the movies he had made, questions so specific that they must have come from Kim Jong-Il directly.

Finally, on February 23, 1983, after years in prison, Shin was released. He was given new clothes, a haircut, and a medical checkup. Ten days later, he was taken to one of Kim Jong-Il’s parties. When he arrived, he met the beloved leader for the first time.

He also saw Choi Eun-hee for the first time in five years. Choi and Shin stared at each other in shock, until they were finally reintroduced to each other by a jubilant Kim Jong-Il. “Well, go ahead and hug each other!” he said.

They awkwardly went along with his suggestion, and he placed the two of him at his sides, making them pose for a picture. “Relax, this won’t end up in the South Korean papers.” It was an odd moment of self-awareness for the leader of a dictatorship.

Once Upon a Time in Pyongyang

That night, Shin and Choi were taken back to the villa Choi stayed in when she first arrived. When they were finally left alone, they weren’t sure what to make of each other. Both of them were worried the other had been brainwashed, but as it turned out, Choi’s acting abilities had come in handy after her kidnapping. Shin had broken her heart years earlier, but at this moment, there was nobody else in the world he wanted to be with.

They were given a degree of freedom to explore the country, though they were still watching four movies a day, including films from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. They only met with Kim Jong-Il on occasion, either attending one of his parties or a film event.

After being shown their new offices, Kim held a private meeting with them on October 19th, 1983. Little did Kim know, Choi had snuck a tape recorder in her purse, and had practiced how to discreetly turn it on and off. Like preparing for a film, Shin and Choi practiced their lines before meeting with Kim. They wound up recording 45 minutes of audio of the meeting, in which Kim Jong-Il laid out his reasons for kidnapping them, and his plans for them for the future.

Kim complained about how “We don’t have any films that get into film festivals,” hoping the two of them would be able to fix the problem for him. He apologized to Shin for how he had been treated, claiming there had “been a lot of misunderstandings.” While the entire conversation could not be recorded, the CIA and KCIA have since been able to verify the recording’s authenticity.

Kim wanted North Korean’s films to be known on a world stage. To do that, however, he would need to present Shin and Choi to the world. They needed to tell the world that they came to North Korea willingly. Kim wanted to be known as the man who restored Shin Sang-Ok’s reputation after his license had been revoked in the south.

The couple would be granted two million dollars a year to use however they wanted, though they would be under strict supervision anytime they left the country. They were given new passports, and set out to the task of filming their first movie in years. At the very least, Shin’s wish to make films again was finally granted.

They decided not to rock the boat for their first movie An Emissary of No Return. The movie was based on the 1907 Hague peace conference, itself a precursor to the Geneva Protocol meetings in 1925. While based on a true event, Shin decided to portray the conference the way North Korea taught it, in which a Korean emissary forced his way into the hall, gave an impassioned speech, and committed hara-kiri (a ritual suicide) when he failed to sway imperial powers. In real life, the man had simply died of an illness. When Shin and Choi traveled to East Berlin for location scouting, they were shadowed every step by their North Korean guards, who were with them every waking hour. Their passports were only to be used when crossing the border, and confiscated the rest of the time. Shin did manage to contact one of his old friends, a Japanese film critic, by letting his handler listen to the call. Shin hoped his old friend would be able to read between the lines.

A few days later, filming began on the movie at the Barrandov Studios lot in Prague, Czechoslovakia. It was a bizarre affair, as Shin was under close scrutiny by his North Korean handlers, yet was simultaneously giving orders himself. Korean and Czech staff members used broken English to communicate, as neither were fluent in the other’s language. Choi would not be acting in this movie, merely working as co-director.

Shin clashed with Choe Ik-Gyu, the former director of North Korea’s film studios, who was frustrated his job was handed over to a capitalist. When Choe criticized Shin’s choice of camera angles, Shin angrily called him out, saying that if he wanted to take over production, then he could, but that it would be going against Kim Jong-Il’s orders. Choe backed off.

When filming in Prague concluded, they returned back to North Korea. Kim Jong-Il was thrilled when the watchdogs reported that the couple had behaved while out of the country, and began making plans to open a film studio in Eastern Europe. He sent Shin and Choi to Budapest in Hungary to scout a suitable location. In Budapest, Shin had quietly managed to arrange a meeting with his Japanese friend, to whom he handed over the tape recording, letters to their family, and the photo taken of Choi when she first met Kim Jong-Il.

If Shin and Choi were not seen again, his colleague was to make everything public. They wouldn’t be able to escape, but they could at least covertly contact the outside world.

They managed to finish An Emissary of No Return ahead of schedule, and Kim Jong-Il was so proud of the final product that he hosted a special preview at Party headquarters. The movie was a hit, and a first for North Korean cinema, as it used foreign footage and, more importantly, had a credit roll at the end. As they prepared the movie for a wide release, Shin’s Japanese colleague had decided to go to the news with the media he had been given. News stations reported their kidnapping and their forced film for North Korea, infuriating Shin and Choi’s handlers. Kim Jong-Il seemed surprisingly calm about the ordeal, asking them to hold a press conference and tell the world they had defected willingly. Knowing that the only way they would ever be able to escape was to convince the outside world of their defection, they agreed.

The next morning, Shin flew to Belgrade in Serbia to hold a press conference. He gave a prepared statement, telling the press he and his ex-wife had been in West Germany, where one of Kim Jong-Il’s envoys had approached them with a funding proposal. When asked about the interviews he gave years ago where he openly wondered if Choi had been kidnapped, he failed to give a concrete answer. He knew he was telling the reporters nonsense.

When An Emissary of No Return was released to the general public in North Korea, it was a gigantic hit. For those born after the country’s division in 1945, it showed them their first glimpse of what the world outside of their country looked like. The film was propaganda and screenings were compulsory, but the main character’s suicide in the film’s climax moved audiences to tears. Kim Jong-Il submitted the film to the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in Czechoslovakia, where it won the award for best director. Confusingly, it was given to Choi, given that the credits read, “Director Choi Eun-Hee, under the general direction of Shin Sang-Ok.” An award was an award, nonetheless. More importantly, it seemed that the excitement over the film had made Kim Jong-Il forget about the reports of their kidnapping. Shin and Choi were finally beginning to earn his trust.

The film was then accepted at the London Film Festival. Shin and Choi attended, but their “bodyguards” kept an even closer eye on them than ever before. In Communist countries they had been allowed a degree of freedom, but not here. The trip was brief, and seemed more like a North Korean publicity stunt than anything else.

At the very least, the trip went well, and Kim allowed Shin to set up a bank account in Vienna, the capital of Austria, as well as scout an office location there for Shin Film. They got to work on their next movies.

Their second film, Runaway, was another nationalist drama, but Shin greatly enjoyed the final product, particularly because he was granted a level of freedom with it that he didn’t have back in the south. When they needed a large fan to simulate wind, Kim sent them a helicopter. When they needed fake snow while shooting during the spring, Kim opted to fly the crew out to Mount Paekdu, where it was still snowing. The country’s military was on hand when a scene needed thousands of extras. Best of all, when Shin wanted to have an exciting climax to top off the film, Kim sent him a functioning train packed with explosives.

After Runaway came a romantic movie, Love Love, My Love, which featured musical scores and the country’s first on-screen kiss. While fairly tame by today’s standards, to the sexually repressed North Koreans, it may as well have been Fifty Shades of Grey. Their fourth movie, Salt, was another international sensation. In the movie, Choi played a mother who disapproved of her son’s decision to join a guerrilla force, ultimately coming over to his side when she realized he was fighting a just cause. It was an emotionally intense movie that even included a graphic rape scene, but in this case, Kim Il-Sung commended Shin for his commitment to realism. Choi’s performance was so powerful that she was awarded Best Actress at the Moscow Film Festival.

Following Salt was a fantasy movie, The Tale of Shim Chong, as well as Hong Kil-Dong, a martial arts film. Every movie they put out was a smash hit, with Shin and Choi becoming just as well-known throughout the country as Kim Il-Sung himself. Movie theaters were packed, citizens would sing the songs made famous from the films, and the lead actor of Love, Love, My Love was a heartthrob, popular with teenage girls. Each success allowed them more and more freedom, to where they even met and shook hands with Kim Il-Sung himself.

Finally, Shin directed what would ultimately be the most famous movie ever made by North Korea. The Godzilla franchise had been hugely successful in Japan, and after The Return of Godzilla was translated into Korean, Kim Jong-Il decided that he wanted a monster movie of his own. The result was Pulgasari, and it was by far the worst movie Shin made in those years. The movie, set in medieval times, revolves around farmers oppressed by a dictatorial regime. When a young woman pricks her finger, a drop of blood falls on a dragon figurine her father had made, causing the dragon to spring to life. The dragon begins eating metal, growing in both size and strength, eventually becoming strong enough to defeat the oppressive regime. However, Pulgasari continues to hunger, eventually turning on the woman’s village. In the end, he is defeated through some magic that I’m not even going to attempt to explain here.

Now, I have actually seen Pulgasari, and if I may turn this into The Casual Movie Critic for a moment, it’s actually not as terrible as you might expect! While by no means a good movie, it was competently shot, and the set designs look good for the time period they were portraying. The main issues are the incoherent story and lousy effects, made worse by the fact that Kim Jong-Il flew in some of the Japanese crew who had worked on the Godzilla movies, who were told they would be working on a film in China. When they arrived in Pyongyang, their passports were taken away for “safety.” The most baffling element of Pulgasari is that the monster was supposed to be a metaphor for Capitalism. In the film’s climax, the protagonist cries, “That you, our savior, would become our enemy! When this country’s iron is gone, the people will have to take you and invade other countries!” The implication being that Capitalism is unsustainable. Of course, another interpretation of the film is that Pulgasari represents Kim Il-Sung himself, as he united the country against their southern neighbors, only for him to turn on and exploit his own countrymen after the war’s conclusion. I rate the film two stars out of five. Not a bad pick for a bad movie night with friends!

Despite Pulgasari being a mess of a movie, it wound up being Shin’s biggest hit in the country. Defectors would even say they witnessed crowds crushing people to death as they went to the cinema. Kim Jong-Il was thrilled with the result, giving a gigantic amount of gifts to the studio, who then threw a big party for themselves. Not only was he planning on distributing the movie worldwide, but he also hoped its success would save North Korea from bankruptcy. He hoped the film would draw the attention of studios in Vienna, as his next project was to be based on the famous conqueror Genghis Khan. The country’s movie industry showed no signs of slowing down.

Shin and Choi were to attend the Berlin Film Festival before traveling to Vienna to set up a studio branch. They continued to work, negotiating with producers and investors, sending Kim Jong-Il a birthday letter, before finally arriving in Berlin. While in Berlin, their watchdogs kept a close eye on them, even sharing hotel rooms with them.

When the couple and their handlers crossed the border to Vienna, it was decided that only three bodyguards would accompany them, as they felt that a larger group would draw too much attention. Once in the hotel in Vienna, Shin and Choi were required to give their passports over to the staff to be held overnight, as required by Austrian law. Not only that, but North Korea had not booked a suite in advance, so their bodyguards would not be staying in the rooms with them.

Shin and Choi saw their chance. They slipped a note to the receptionist asking for assistance getting to the U.S. Embassy.

Not only that, but they managed to convince their bodyguards that if they were shadowed too closely, it really would look like they had been kidnapped. The bodyguards agreed to keep a safe distance.

The next morning, Shin picked up some blank checks to make use of the estimated $2.2 million Kim had deposited in the bank account they had previously set up. Afterwards, Shin and Choi met with a contact back at the hotel. With their handlers at a distance, they quickly got in a taxi and drove off. Their bodyguards quickly realized what was going on, and flagged down a taxi to follow them.

After a tense drive through the city streets, Shin and Choi’s taxi managed to elude the North Koreans. When they arrived at the U.S. Embassy, they practically shoved each other out of the way to get inside. They showed the staff their documents and explained the situation with what English they knew.

Their long nightmare was finally over.

Wrap-Up

While we will never truly know what Kim Jong Il’s reaction was to Shin and Choi’s escape, it’s safe to assume he was not happy about it. Their names were scrubbed from the credits of Pulgasari, and the other films he directed were removed from circulation. North Korean media tried to spin their actions as those of liars and traitors, especially considering Shin stole $2 million from Kim on his way out. Of course, if I was locked up in a North Korean prison for two years, maybe I wouldn’t feel bad about taking some money for myself, either.

Shin and Choi moved to Virginia, in the United States, where they lived under CIA protection. They were interviewed extensively about their time in North Korea, and the agency verified the tape they had secretly used to record Kim Jong-Il. They were reunited with their children, and even the kids Shin had with his mistress Oh Su-Mi came to live with them. Shin and Choi got remarried, and remained together for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately for Shin, the Austrian government seized the money he had stolen, as Kim owed money to the country. But Shin still longed to make movies, so he and his family moved to California for a fresh start. However, he was unknown in the west, and had difficulty getting financing for his films. He still managed to direct a few movies, with his most notable work being the 3 Ninjas series of Disney films.

Finally, in 1999, twenty-one years after they were abducted, Shin and Choi returned to South Korea. At home, they found it difficult to make friends. After all, they had publicly told the world they had defected to North Korea, and some segments of the population did not believe their story upon their escape.

In some cases, they may be correct – after all, we only have the couple’s word about what happened during their time there. At the very least, they could take solace in the fact that the country, which had been under the rule of a military dictatorship in 1978, had become wealthy, democratic, and peaceful while they were gone.

Shin Sang-Ok passed away on April 11th, 2006, while Choi Eun-Yun died a decade later on April 16, 2018. For a more detailed account of their story, I highly recommend the book A Kim Jong-Il Production by Paul Fischer, as well as the documentary The Lovers and the Despot, which also contains audio of their secret tape of Kim Jong-Il. It is a sad irony that for two people so devoted to making movies, the pictures they will be most remembered for are those they made against their will.

As for Kim, he continued to work on movies, though he had less and less time to devote to his passions as he took control of the country from his father. In the year 2000, North Korea released Souls Protest, a historical disaster movie about a sunken ship, clearly inspired by Titanic. As you might expect, the movie was poorly reviewed. Kim Jong-Il died on December 17th, 2011, leaving the country in the hands of his son, Kim Jong-Un, who was not yet born when the kidnapping happened. Jong-Un himself made movie history when North Korea hacked Sony Pictures in 2014 over their satirical movie The Interview, set in the country and starring a fictionalized version of him. Kim Jong-Un understood the influence movies have over the world, just like his father.

Key Takeaways

• Choi Eun-Hee and Shin Sang-Ok were kidnapped by North Korea in 1978 to boost the country’s film industry.
• Kim Jong-Il, the North Korean leader, was a film enthusiast who sought to elevate North Korean cinema.
• The couple was forced to make films for North Korea, gaining international recognition despite their captivity.
• Shin and Choi managed to escape North Korea in 1986 after years of captivity and filmmaking.
• After their escape, they returned to South Korea in 1999, facing skepticism but finding a changed, democratic nation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who were Choi Eun-Hee and Shin Sang-Ok?

Choi Eun-Hee was a South Korean actress and acting school director, while Shin Sang-Ok was a film director. Both were prominent figures in South Korean cinema.

When and where was Choi Eun-Hee abducted?

Choi Eun-Hee was abducted in Hong Kong on January 14th, 1978.

What was the initial reason given to Choi Eun-Hee for her trip to Hong Kong?

Choi Eun-Hee was lured to Hong Kong under the pretense of directing a film for a man named Wang Dong-Il.

How did Shin Sang-Ok end up in North Korea?

Shin Sang-Ok was abducted in Hong Kong by North Korean agents after his ex-wife Choi Eun-Hee’s disappearance. He was drugged and taken to North Korea.

What was Kim Jong-Il’s role in the abductions?

Kim Jong-Il, the son of North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung, orchestrated the abductions of Choi Eun-Hee and Shin Sang-Ok to boost North Korea’s film industry.

What was the initial reaction of Choi Eun-Hee and Shin Sang-Ok when they were reunited in North Korea?

When Choi Eun-Hee and Shin Sang-Ok were reunited in North Korea, they were both shocked and unsure of each other, worried that the other might have been brainwashed.

What was the first film Choi Eun-Hee and Shin Sang-Ok directed in North Korea?

The first film Choi Eun-Hee and Shin Sang-Ok directed in North Korea was ‘An Emissary of No Return,’ based on the 1907 Hague peace conference.

How did Choi Eun-Hee and Shin Sang-Ok eventually escape North Korea?

Choi Eun-Hee and Shin Sang-Ok escaped North Korea during a trip to Vienna. They managed to slip away from their handlers and seek refuge at the U.S. Embassy.

What was the reaction of North Korea after Choi Eun-Hee and Shin Sang-Ok escaped?

After Choi Eun-Hee and Shin Sang-Ok escaped, North Korea scrubbed their names from the credits of ‘Pulgasari’ and removed their other films from circulation. They were portrayed as liars and traitors in North Korean media.

What happened to Choi Eun-Hee and Shin Sang-Ok after their escape?

After their escape, Choi Eun-Hee and Shin Sang-Ok moved to the United States, where they lived under CIA protection. They were reunited with their children and eventually returned to South Korea in 1999.

Sources

• Original Casual Criminalist video: Abducted and Enslaved: The Kidnapped Filmmakers Behind North Korean Cinema
• Hero image source by R0bertg0ber / openverse, by-sa.