I used to be scrolling by way of YouTube the opposite day and came across one of many craziest tales, perhaps ever.
Think about being on the peak of your profession, a celebrated movie director and a well-known actress, solely to be kidnapped by a future dictator and compelled to make motion pictures for his propaganda machine.
Any by the best way, this actually occurred. It is the real-life story of South Korean director Shin Sang-ok and actress Choi Eun-hee.
At present, I wish to unpack this unimaginable story.
Let’s dive in.
How This Director and Actress Had been Kidnapped by North Korea to Films
Within the late Seventies, Shin Sang-ok was a family title in South Korean cinema, identified for his large field workplace hits and pumping out plenty of tasks that individuals beloved.
Nonetheless, his thriving profession got here to an abrupt halt in 1978 when his studio was shut down by the federal government, due to censorship.
That was a disgrace, as a result of a lot of his motion pictures had a cultural affect, some past even what he thought they might.
Throughout nation traces, in North Korea, a younger Kim Jong-il, not but the supreme chief, however a passionate movie nerd. And he was plotting to revolutionize his nation’s movie trade from the bottom up.
In fact, though his nation wasn’t allowed to look at motion pictures from the surface…he was.
Kim Jong-il needed to make his personal Hollywood in North Korea.
However they only wanted some gifted administrators and actors to construct the inspiration for his beloved trade.
Kim Jong-il’s audacious plan started with the kidnapping of Choi Eun-hee, Shin’s ex-wife, and a well-known actress in South Korea.
Jong-il lured her to Hong Kong with the promise of starring in a brand new undertaking with a faux businessman, after which she was kidnapped and brought to an opulent however closely guarded villa in Pyongyang.
Choi Eun-hee was not allowed to depart, however they left her within the villa, guarded always, to stay whereas they rounded up some administrators for her.
Six months later, Shin, trying to find his ex-wife, was additionally kidnapped in Hong Kong and dropped at North Korea to make motion pictures along with her.
They initially handled him like a VIP, however after a number of escape makes an attempt, they really imprisoned him.
He stayed in jail after which was compelled to look at North Korean propaganda time and again.
After 4 years, in 1983, Shin was launched and reunited with Choi at a cocktail party hosted by none apart from Kim Jong-il himself.
Neither of them even knew the opposite one was there!
It was then that the dictator revealed his grand plan: they have been to create movies for him, with Shin because the director and Choi because the star.
At Kim Jong-il’s suggestion, they even remarried.
Once more, this really occurred.
Underneath Kim Jong-il’s patronage, their new movie studio flourished. The 2 of them began working exhausting on these motion pictures. They employed over 700 folks and produced a number of movies, together with the now-infamous monster film, Pulgasari.
It is a loopy scenario with Kim Jong-il being the manager producer of the entire motion pictures they made.
However regardless of their success, the couple needed to be free.
It seems, eight years in captivity is fairly terrible.
So, collectively they plot their escape. In 1986, throughout a enterprise journey to Vienna, they noticed their likelihood.
In a daring escape, they evaded their North Korean guards, hailed a taxi, and, after a dramatic chase, sought political asylum on the U.S. embassy.
However the taxi hit site visitors, and the 2 of them needed to get out and run to the U.S. embassy, the place America took them in, they usually have been free.
Enraged by their escape, Kim Jong-il banned their movies and falsely accused them of theft. And he banned their motion pictures in North Korea.
Shin and Choi ultimately settled in the USA, the place Shin, in a stunning flip of occasions, went on to direct among the wonderful Three Ninjas motion pictures within the Nineteen Nineties.
And Shin and Choi additionally stayed collectively as a pair by way of all this…which is form of romantic.
Their unimaginable story serves as a testomony to the resilience of the human spirit within the face of unimaginable circumstances.
I’m additionally shocked we do not have a film about this in any respect!
This was one of many craziest tales I’ve ever learn, and I am nonetheless reeling from unpacking all of it.
Let me know what you assume within the feedback.
