May 1, 2025 • 67 mins
When two of the most influential figures in film become the personal hostages of Kim Jong Il, they have two objectives: to elevate North Korean cinema on the world stage, and to plot their daring escape.
SOURCES + FURTHER READING/LISTENING/VIEWING
A Kim Jong-Il Production, by Paul Fisher
The Observant, by Ravi Mangla
Michelle Cho, assistant professor, University of Toronto
"Are You There Godzilla? It's Me, Kim Jong Il" [Ridiculous Crime podcast]
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, U.S. State Department
Big Brother: North Korea's Forgotten Prince [An iHeart Original Podcast]
"Kim Jong Il, the Director he Kidnapped, and the Awful Godzilla Film They Made Together" [Mental Floss Magazine]
The Korean War [PBS]
*
Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English
Written by Adrien Behn and edited by Carmen Borca-Carrillo at Wonder Media Network
Produced by Josh Fisher
Editing and Sound Design by Chris Childs
Mixing and Mastering by Chris Childs
Additional Editing by Mary Dooe
Fact-Checking by Austin Thompson
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is an iHeart original.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
On March thirteenth, nineteen eighty six, a couple burst out
of a taxi in Vienna. In front of them the
US Embassy. Only a few dozen feet stand between them
and their freedom. When they hastily push open the car door,
they don't bother to close it behind them every second counts.
(00:42):
A white taxi had been tailing them the whole ride.
Inside the taxi are their bodyguards. Bodyguards they have just
escaped from. The couple sprints across the pavement and hops
up the few stairs to the embassy. If a bystander
were to hit pause, freeze frames and zoom in on
(01:04):
the couple their arms outstretched ready to open the heavy doors,
sweat clinging to their foreheads and upper lips, they might
recognize them. This is Shin sang Ak, a famous South
Korean film director, and his wife, the award winning actress
(01:24):
Choi Yunhi. Here on the steps of the United States Embassy.
They are moments away from catching their biggest break yet.
For the last several years, the couple has been in
the claws of the North Korean government. Today they're making
a break for it. Their life has been so bizarre
(01:47):
it could be mistaken for an action movie plot a
little too on the nose for the likes of Shin
and Choi. Their story involves kidnapping, love affairs, and friendships
with unstable dictators. But before we press play and see
if they pass through the embassy doors, we need to
(02:09):
rewind and watch the strange series of events that led
two of the most influential figures in cinema to become
personal hostages of Kim Jong Il. Welcome back to Very
Special Episodes and I heeart original podcast. I'm your host,
(02:33):
Danish Schwartz and this is North by North Korea.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Thank you for joining us. I'm joined by Janishwartz. Hey,
Zarah Burnette. I'm Jason English. I kept thinking as we're
reading drafts of this one that if we were writing
depraved Kim Jong Ill fan fiction like this is the
kind of crazy stuff that we could only hope to approach.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Oh my god, he is such a mercurial, strange character
as a dictator's son, but also as like just a
Hollywood and American lover. You don't see it coming.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It's such amazing character.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
This, I will say, is the one very special episode
the most where as I was reading it, I was like,
this is a movie. Oh, this is incredible. I can't
believe this story was real. I had to like fact
check this episode. As I was going where, I was like,
is Jason doing an April Fool's Day on me?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Is this too good?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah? How can this be real? This is the best
love story I've never heard.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, a couple a love story?
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
All right, I don't want to give too much away.
Let's get back into it. We'll discuss on the other side.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
The first time Shin sang Ak laid eyes on Choi,
and he he saw her for who she truly was,
an ambitious creative force. It was nineteen fifty, three months
after the Korean Wars armistice. Both countries were still smoldering
from bombings and napalm. North Korea was run by socialist dictatorship.
(04:09):
Our story starts in South Korea. Shin was an aspiring
director looking for a leading lady for his upcoming film.
He'd heard of the talented and popular Madame Choi, so
he bought a ticket to see her in a play
in a city south of Seoul. In that theater, on
that unassuming evening, Shin couldn't take his eyes.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Off of her.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
Chin grew up in an affluent household. His talents were
encouraged by his family. He was seen as gifted child.
He went to some of the best schools and he
was able to study painting and art in Tokyo during
the war.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
This is Ravi Mangla, a writer and novelist. His most
recent book, The Observer, is a fictionalized version of Shin
and Choi's story.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
And then on the other side you have Choi, who
is a very shy and reserved child, her talents not
encouraged in the same way. Thing was a place where
she found solace and where she really came alive. And
when she told her parents that that she wanted to
be an actress, that was not something that they accepted readily.
So when she was seventeen, she actually ran away to
(05:20):
join up with a theater troop and during the war
she was an entertainer for troops. So both she and
Shin ended up in the entertainment industry, but through two
very different channels.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
As the play unfolded, Shin watched Choi give everything she
had on stage until she had nothing left.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Choi, who was suffering from exhaustion at the time, fainted
on stage, and as a story goes, Shin rushed up
to the stage, picked her up, threw her over her shoulder,
and then took her to the nearest hospital.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Shin stayed with Choi throughout her hospital visit. When she
was released, Choi told Shin about her struggles, how her
husband couldn't work, and how poor they were. Shin, having
only watched her perform in half a play, felt in
his gut that it was his destiny to meet her,
so he offered her the role in his upcoming film.
(06:20):
He'd pay her as much as he could. According to
Paul Fisher's excellent book A Kim Jong Ill Production, which
we'll link to in the show notes, Shin started loitering
around the theater's back door, waiting for Choi to be
done with her play. Shin always called her Madame Choi
a sign of respect. They'd wander the streets so wrapped
(06:44):
up in conversation they'd miss the mandatory curfew. They snuck
around like teenagers, although they were both well into their
late twenties. Shin told Madame Choi, any film I make,
I want you to be in it. Choi filed for
divorce and swiftly married Chin on March seventh, nineteen fifty four.
(07:06):
They'd known each other therefore less than a year. Once
they joined forces, they were unstoppable. Shin began to build
up his studio and cast Joy in nearly every film,
right when the South Korean public wanted nothing more than
to escape to other worlds.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
They're so powerful, I think as a couple because Chit
is the on screen figure, right and again, she is
so unmistakable, and then Shin is able to take her
through all of these really iconic roles that really span
across the kind of feminine archetypes that you can think
(07:49):
of or you could come up with, right, And so
I think that that partnership is so fruitful because you
have a screen presence and then a behind the camera presence,
and they're kind of in synergy.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
That's Michelle Cho, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto.
Her focus is on in film and culture.
Speaker 6 (08:09):
South Green filmmaking of the early post war is described
as a golden age because there were some really iconic
films that were produced during the time that are really
sophisticated in terms of the way that they're trying to
process the changes that are happening in society.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Shin and Choi worked across genres and grew exponentially.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
Shin was also an innovator. He entered films and competitions
all around the world. So this was the first time
that South Korean film was really getting out onto the
international stage, and people were seeing what was being created
in South Korea, and they were hearing stories that they
had never heard before.
Speaker 6 (08:51):
There are some parts of his body of work that,
you know, people will compare directly to Hollywood films that
he likely adapted a lot of things from. So you know,
he dabbled in the Western, He made a bunch of
the these family melodramas. He made period pieces, he made
war films. He was really kind of a sponge, I think,
(09:17):
in terms of picking up influences esthetically and emotionally from
this kind of world cinema culture that was around him.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
It's up for debate whether Shin was intentional about creating
more political and progressive stories.
Speaker 6 (09:33):
A lot of Shin's films, especially during the Golden Age,
were Enlightenment films quote unquote.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
One obvious example is Shin and Choi's nineteen sixty one
film The Evergreen Tree about an educated couple who tries
to instill modern schooling in a small rural town. They
become local heroes as they also fight against the colonialist
Japanese government trying to undo their teachings.
Speaker 6 (10:04):
And so that has a very specific meaning in postcolonial Korea,
where it's kind of a storytelling mode that talks about
the modernization of a person, whether that's through a transformative
encounter with like an inspiring teacher or a learning experience
(10:26):
of a youth that then kind of forces them to
look at the world in a new way. This enlightenment
mode is really intended to teach the public how to
think of themselves as new national subjects and as new
like modern subjects. So what are modern ways of thinking, rationality,
you know, pursuit of learning, a kind of desire to
(10:49):
remake yourself as like a civilized human being. In this
very like progressive mode.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
These stories helped Korean audiences process not only their violent
past but a hopeful future, and the films were a hit.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
It received quite a lot of acclaim at the time,
but they were extremely prolific during that period, producing over
two hundred films and Shin himself directed over seventy films.
Speaker 6 (11:19):
Shin films is really responsible for the popularization of cinema
as like a core aspect of popular culture in South Korea.
It was such a strong and dominant source of films
and it defined the film culture.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
But Shin's films wouldn't have been nearly half as good
without his better half. Choi was more than a muse.
She was Shin's creative equal.
Speaker 6 (11:47):
She is an unmistakably iconic screen presence. Shin casts her
in a couple of his most iconic films of the fifties.
I have thought quite a lot about how it's the
case that Chin he was so respected despite the fact
that she played characters who are representative of the most
(12:12):
kind of denigrated groups of people in South Korea.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Choi took on every kind of role imaginable, from a
confident sex worker to a chaste and dutiful widow.
Speaker 6 (12:23):
So it's this constant struggle to try and reshape attitudes
around gender which is part of what makes Chi such
a remarkable figure. I have to think that the fact
of her marriage to Shin was part of what protected her.
I think because even if she played characters on screen
who lacked legitimacy. She in real life had the legitimacy
(12:48):
of this very powerful figure in the film industry.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
According to Paul Fisher's book, Choi was paid the highest
fees of any other actress, and even more than Shin,
making Choi the bread winner in their house. Their whole
life revolved around their films. They even optimized their home
for work. They had a room where they set up
an editing bed and a large projector to sit side
(13:14):
by side and edit each movie together. At the height
of Shin Studios, they employed over three hundred people and
produced thirty films a year. Choi also started an acting
school and mentored younger actors. Part of their success came
from Shin's refusal to let anything get in the way
(13:38):
of his vision. A contemporary said Shin would have jumped
down to hell to make a film. By the early sixties,
Shin Studios was at its height. They had it all
well almost.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
There is a story that Choi said that you wanted
to have children, and Shin said, why do we need children?
Our films are our children, which gives you a look
into how single minded he often was about filmmaking.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
But Choi wanted more. When she had a hard time
getting pregnant, they decided to adopt. Now they really had
it all, stratospheric careers, fame, prestige, and a family. Their
names were always mentioned in the same breath. Every day.
Shin got to peer through the camera lens and look
(14:28):
at his two loves at once, Choi and movies. Life
was picture perfect until someone of great importance took notice
of them. Over the border, North Korean film was going
(14:50):
through its own revolution, though under a very different regime.
When the thirty eighth Parallel was tattooed into maps, North
Korea isolated itself for most of the world. The exception
was those countries who were bankrolled them to stay afloat,
like China and the USSR. North Korea became an authoritarian,
(15:14):
socialist regime. There was no freedom of speech, movement, or expression.
Organized religion was restricted. Kim ilsung was the first great leader,
and everything and everyone served his vision. Neighbors were encouraged
to spy on one another, and history was rewritten in
(15:36):
the regime's favor. No one was allowed to question their leader.
Small infractions could be interpreted as an act against the state.
Resulting in relocation to the countryside. Image was everything, and
Kim Il sung knew that.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
So North Korean culture at the time embraced an extreme
level of conformity. People had a strong sense of duty
to Kim's father and figures of authority, and they valued
the cove over the individual, and that was really reflected
in all of the art and cinema and materials.
Speaker 7 (16:14):
Being created at the time.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
Propaganda was being created to enhance the reputation of the
government and earn.
Speaker 7 (16:21):
Loyalty from the populace.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
So North Korean citizens of the time were restricted from
consuming Western media, and the latest films at the time
were not accessible to North Korean residents.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
All films were under state control, and film is the
ideal medium for propaganda. It's easy to tell a message
on a mass scale where everyone watches together and can
watch each other.
Speaker 6 (16:51):
From the beginning, the leadership in North Korea understands the
power of this medium and so wants to be able
to harness it for the sake of educating the public,
of instilling in the public a better understanding of what
the guiding ideology of the North Korean state is and
(17:13):
what it should be. That's the distinctive feature of mass
culture in a socialist country. And so it's entertainment. Yes,
it's showing ways for the populace to be kind of
modern and to think of themselves as new national subjects
after liberation or after the Korean War. But fundamentally it's
(17:35):
there to serve as an ideological vehicle.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
All films are structured around the North Korean philosophy of.
Speaker 6 (17:42):
Jewshe So the North Korean state ideology is called cheu
Che ideology, and it is translated as self reliance. I
think of it as a kind of paradox or tension
at the core of cheu Che ideology in the sense
that it is placing responsibility for maintaining a kind of
(18:07):
collective vision in the individual hands of each member of society.
And so it does this really interesting thing of balancing
out the individual and collective.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Do you say bristles at the thought of asking for help?
It states that every individual should hold their own and
every action they take is for the collective good of
North Korea alone. If the collective relies on each other,
they don't need outsiders and can avoid being dependent on
countries like they had been in the past.
Speaker 6 (18:42):
But it was also a way for North Korea to
also keep itself independent or distinguishable from the Maoist communist
China and the Soviets and not get overshadowed by larger
nation states that seek to incorporate the North into whatever
(19:04):
their agenda might be. And I think that come directly
out of the experience of colonial occupation under Japan, and
that also shapes the way that North Korea sees what
South Korea is, which is as a puppet colony of
the United States.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Because all films were created through the lens of Jeuchet,
all of the films had nearly identical plots.
Speaker 6 (19:29):
The dominant structure of North Korean films is this kind
of trajectory of some individual person going through hardship, either
because of class struggle, you know, or because of some
kind of injustice that they experience, and then coming to
(19:51):
realize through that suffering that the principles of Juche and
the stewardship of the deer leader are what offer some
kind of hope.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
So a de factor of North Korea had sad that
you even have to stay for the second half of
a North Korean.
Speaker 7 (20:09):
Film because he knew what was going to happen. There
was no surprise.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Although these movies objectively were boring and poorly made, there
was one person who was obsessed with film, Kim Ilsong's
eldest son, Kim Jong il.
Speaker 6 (20:25):
He is widely known to be a film buff, with
a huge collection of films in a private collection that
he gets to access because most North Koreans do not
get to see films from the West.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Although Kim Jong Eel was raised in extreme wealth and power,
his childhood wasn't a happy one, so Kim Jong.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
Yel had a lonely upbringing. By all accounts, the people
he played with or was allowed to socialize with was
extremely limited, and he found solace in film. Film was
something he fell in love with.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
So he submerged himself in films. He started a bootlegging
and smug ring to bring international films into the country.
He had American prisoners of war translate and voice American films.
He created his own massive secret cinema layer, air conditioned
and fully staffed with two hundred and fifty people all
(21:25):
for an audience of one, and.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
As he got older, he amassed the collection of more
than twenty thousand films. He was known as a huge
fan of Elizabeth Taylor. He loved the James Bond franchise.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Kim Jong eel would rather watch movies all day than
partake in mandatory military service. He also had a bad
temperament and lashed out at people. Kim Jong il wasn't
qualified to inherit the country. Kim Ilsong couldn't place his
artsy antagonistic son until a perfect situation fell into his lap.
(22:03):
One film was made. Some sources say it was a
play that risked challenging Kim ilsung's personality cult. It was
interpreted as treason. The creators were sent to the mountains,
and Kim il sung stormed into the studio office to
lecture the remaining studio executives. After his tirade, Kim il
(22:26):
sung asked the room if anyone had the courage to
lead the propaganda and Agitation department in accordance with the
party's ideologies and rules. Standing behind nearly everyone in the back,
Kim Jong ill raised his hand.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
In this informal role of propaganda minister, he was allowed
to lean into his love of film craft at the
same time he was being carefully trained to take on
a leadership role at a time that his father stepped aside,
so in a way, it was a win win for
both Kim and for his father.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Once Kim jung il took the reins of the film industry,
he thrived by North Korean standards.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
He even wrote a book of film criticism in nineteen
seventy three called on the Art of Cinema. And this
was not just a thin fifty page book. We are
talking about a four hundred page tome. And in that
book he talked about how all films should be imbued
with an ideology. It advocated for film as propaganda.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Kim il sung loved the films his son oversaw, but
Kim Jung Ill knew something his father didn't. These films
were bad. Although citizens were told that North Korean film
was the best in the world and leading the film industry,
Kim Jung ill had watched enough foreign films to know
(23:57):
that his movies were not up to snuff. Kim Ill's
song also wanted North Korean film to be internationally recognized
so the world could one day know that North Korea
is superior to every other country. But even South Korean
cinema was outpacing them, and he had to do something.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Kim Jong Yale felt that the only way that he
could fix the North Korean film industry was with better talent,
and he saw Shin sang Ok and Choi and he
in South Korea, and he wanted that for his country.
He wanted it in such a literal way he was
willing to go to extreme lengths to get it.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Despite the meteoric success of Shin Studios, Shin and Choi
made movies during a time of increased censorship and authoritarian
rule by the South Korean government, but Shin did what
he had to do not to let anything get in
the way of his films.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
Shin and Choi were able to rub shoulders with the
country's cultural and political elite. They had a good relationship
at the time with General Park.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
The current leader of South Korea was General Park, who
had seized power via coup in nineteen sixty one. Park
wanted to show the world that South Koreans embraced modernism
and were culturally sophisticated, not like those tyrant socialists in
the North. General Park and his wife also had a
(25:46):
close personal relationship with Shin and Choi.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
And for that reason he allowed Shin and Choi with
a great deal of artistic license, at least in the
early going, because he wanted South Korea to be recognized
on the international stage. He wanted that cultural recognition from
the Western world.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
In the nineteen seventies, tensions rose between North and South Korea.
General Park became more authoritarian, he started limiting the rights
and freedoms of South Koreans.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
So from nineteen seventy two onwards kind of shows this
censorship regime growing and kind of being much more involved
in trying to well first take out anything that could
potentially be perceived as political viewpoints. The guiding principle to
all of his initiatives and the way that he's able
(26:45):
to convince the Korean public to go along with it
is this anti communist stance that everything that he's doing
to restrict the liberties and freedoms of South Koreans is
absolutely necessary in order to fend off the threat of
North Korea. But my sense is that Shin made some
of his best films in South Korea and kind of
(27:09):
experienced a lot of growth and really reached the peak
of his career when he had a pretty friendly relationship
with the government. There's a sense that you know, Shin
films and Shin Studios was getting along really well with
the Pukjangi administration until it didn't.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Now, South Korea was becoming as tight lipped as an
estranged brother to the North, especially in the arts.
Speaker 7 (27:39):
Parks.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Regime became much stricter around ideas in film and music
and art, and there were extremely rigid censorship boards that
would review films over and over again to make sure
that the content was nothing that could be seen as
controversial or out of step with South Korea and the
South Korean government at the time.
Speaker 6 (28:01):
So anything that could be even in the slightest way
interpreted as criticism of the government is a no go. Clearly,
he is really interested in policing what people see in
film and television.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Regardless of politics. Shin always managed to use his political
connections to get his movies made. No matter the content,
Shin began to believe that he was above the rules.
He continued to follow his artistic inclinations even if they
went against the censorship laws. Every other time he'd broken
(28:45):
the rules, he would just go and chat with his
government friends. But times were changing.
Speaker 6 (28:53):
In a screening of a film, a new film, Shin
had refused to take out a romantic scene, so a
scene where characters kiss, and that so angered the censorship
office that Shin Film's like finally lose his favor with
the Pakshani administration.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
This time, Shin's justifications fell on deaf ears at the
censorship bureau. He was also stripped of his film license.
That wasn't all he lost during this time.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
About this time, the time that Chin Studios was beginning
to decline and running into struggles with the censorship boards,
was also the time that Shin and Choy's relationship was
facing a lot of difficulties in friction. So in the
early nineteen seventies, Shin struck up an affair with a
(29:50):
younger actress and this became a public scandal.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Up until now, Choi had always looked the other way
when Shin had dalliances with other women. They were usually flings,
nothing serious, But this time was different. One morning home alone,
Choi picked up a film magazine and saw her husband's
(30:14):
name in a headline. Ice ran through her veins as
she scanned through the article. According to the news, Shin
had just become a father. He had had an affair
with a much younger actress, and she gave birth to
Shin's son. Affairs were one thing but a love child.
(30:37):
When Shin knew, Choi was crestfallen that she couldn't give
birth on her own. They tried to make it work,
but then the actress gave birth to a second child.
This was unforgivable, and Choi separated from Shin. Now Shin
had no wife, no career, no studio, no art to make.
(31:01):
The whole life he'd built began to unspool like a
film a reel tumbling to the ground. Due to the
decline of shin studios, Choi's acting studio and career took
a hit two life faded from technicolor to black and
white for both of them. Time went by, it looked
(31:24):
like there was no way for this former powerhouse to
regain their relationship or creative status. Until one unsuspecting day
in nineteen seventy seven, Choi received a curious visitor, a
Hong Kong businessman asked if she would be interested in
(31:46):
directing a film in China. It was a strange request,
but Choi needed a break from South Korea. Choi packed
a bag and flew to Hong Kong, where the Chinese
businessmen whined and dined her. When she tried to mention
the film, the men changed the subject. This unnerved her.
(32:10):
On her penultimate morning, men with sloppy long hair put
a bag over her head and threw her into a boat.
Speaker 5 (32:20):
She described being held in the hall of a cargo
ship and feeling incredible fear. She had no idea what
was going on, but had been coerced onto this boat
and now does not know what the future holds, what
is in front of her, what is happening.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
For six days, Choi felt unmoored as the waves undulated
beneath her. She barely ate. When the boat anchored, she
was transferred to a smaller vessel. Toi was brought up
on deck and then brought on shore a little ways
away from the main port, still wearing the same outfit
(32:56):
she was kidnapped in. A man in a large coat
approached her with a huge smile.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Thank you for coming, Madam Chroi. You must be.
Speaker 7 (33:08):
Welcome. I am Kim Jong il.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Choi musters the strength to not faint. The North Korean
dictator's son is standing before her, talking to her by
her name. People in North Korea hadn't even heard Kim
Jong Il's voice. Yet someone whipped out a camera and
took a photo. Choi tried to hide, the camera clicked,
(33:37):
and the photo is the large, smiling silhouette of Kim
Jong Il. Madame Choi, after a life of having her
picture taken, buried her chin and nose into her scarf.
The rest of her face is hidden under large sunglasses.
Speaker 7 (33:57):
So it's a bit of a whirlwind for Choi.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
Once she arrives in North Korea, she is brought to
luxury accommodations.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Choi is taken to to a villa, which is really
a tacky yet glamorous house. Arrest, her handlers walked her
under gaudy chandeliers to her new rooms. Her passports and
South Korean identity card are taken. Her new bedroom is
filled with clothing tailor to her body, along with makeup
(34:28):
she used to use. They had been expecting her. When
she went to shut the door, she noticed the doors
didn't lock. She will soon find that none of them do.
Inside this prison palace, her days are no longer her
own and are structured around her quote re education.
Speaker 5 (34:50):
She's introduced to a private tutor who immediately begins talking
to her about the life and achievements of Kim Ilsong.
She's isolated on board and being held in these luxury
accommodations for.
Speaker 7 (35:01):
Reasons that she doesn't understand. She doesn't know.
Speaker 5 (35:04):
Why she has been brought to this country, what they
want of her. But she's almost like a you know,
an animal in a cage, just being paraded around and
has no autonomy of her own.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
During her re education, Choi learns fast not to question
what she's taught about North Korea, no matter how fanciful
and highly unlikely. Now in the belly of the beast,
Choi must do her best acting. Yet there's a phone
in her room where Kim jong il has a private
(35:41):
phone line for just Choi. He frequently calls her up,
asking if she's doing anything like it's a genuine question.
Speaker 5 (35:50):
Kim jong il is very excited by the arrival of Choi.
He has been isolated his whole life in his love
of cinema, and in Choi he has somebody who he respects.
He respects her opinion. He wants to know her thoughts
and perspective on art and entertainment. This seems a very
one sided relationship that Kim has almost forced somebody to
(36:15):
be his friend. He has the friend that he always wanted.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
At times, Kim Jung il calls her teacher Choi, given
that she was well into her fifties by now.
Speaker 5 (36:26):
So Choi's behavior at the time is heavily watched over,
and she has people instructing her on how to behave
and act. She does not have a lot of freedom
to do the thing she wants to say the things
she wants. She has been taught to be totally obedient
(36:46):
at this time.
Speaker 7 (36:48):
So while Kim admires her.
Speaker 5 (36:51):
Opinions and wants her perspectives on things in a larger sense,
she's extremely limited in what she can say into.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
As Choi spent more time with Kim, she saw that
he had all the trappings of a dictator's son. He
had lavish parties surrounded by yes men and women. Choi
was invited to the parties, often as if she had
an option to decline.
Speaker 5 (37:18):
So he loved parading Choi around as arm candy, as
a prize or a trophy that he had acquired.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Choi's disappearance didn't go unnoticed in South Korea. Shin had
known she was going to Hong Kong and was growing
concerned he hadn't heard from her, so he called a
friend and was told to go there himself. When he
arrived in Hong Kong, he learned about her disappearance and
(37:48):
that all of her luggage was left in her hotel room,
which gave the impression she would return.
Speaker 5 (37:55):
This was not somebody who had escaped, so Shin believed
that she had been kidnapped or something awful had happened.
And keep in mind they had children. They had children
who were wondering where their mother was.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Hin had to go to the United States for a spell,
but returned to Hong Kong to investigate, and unfortunately he
met a similar fate.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
Chin came to Hong Kong and he ended up being
betrayed by a friend who is an agent for the
North Korean government.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
His kidnapping was a repeat of his wife's. His days
were broken up into hours of ideological training, lunch, and
a nap. The latter half of his day was spent
watching North Korean films that Kim Jong Il specifically requested
he watch. For some reason, the films were so bad.
(38:48):
Shin preferred the ideological training, unlike Choi, who used her
acting chops to survive. Shin only knew action. He was
not used to someone else directing his life. He tried
to escape twice. When he was recaptured the second time,
I'm the North Korean to throw him in a packed
(39:10):
detention center.
Speaker 5 (39:11):
He was kept in that detention center for over three years,
where he was in a cell so small he could
barely lie down. He was forced to undergo extreme re education,
and he lost a great deal of weight. His health
suffered quite a bit during that time.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
With nothing to do, all Shin could do was think.
He relived and rewatched every mistake he had ever made
in his life, his affairs, his children, his career, and
hurting choy and mixed in this stew of regret, he
began to mentally re edit all of his films as
(39:50):
he stared at the same spot in his cell every day,
he redirected his movies in his head, played them on repeat, reshoot, retrimmed,
and reorganized each one to have a stronger impact. If
only he could get one more chance. Then, one day,
after years of living in a deplorable detention center, Shin
(40:15):
was released and told to get ready to meet the
dictator's son. Over the same three years, only the seasons
changed for Choi. When she asked to be reunited with
her family, she was told she would see them once
the two Koreas reunite. As the world continued to spin
(40:35):
around the sun, she quietly celebrated each of her children's
birthdays to herself. She often went into her bathroom and
turned down the faucet so no one could hear her weeping.
Her days were spent writing long congratulatory letters to both
Kim Jong il and his father, thanking them for showing
(40:56):
her the light and superior ways of North Korea. In
the moments when she put down her pen, she continued
to rack her brain as to why she was here.
One unsuspecting night, She's invited to another one of Kim's
lavish parties. When she arrives, she notices that there's something
(41:19):
extra about this party. There are more people, more food,
louder music, and everyone is congratulating her for reasons she
doesn't understand. In all of the merriment, the guest of
honor walks in the music stopped. A woman grabbed Choi
(41:39):
by the arm and began to bring her over to
the guest of honor. A thin and frail man Choi's
heart drops to her stomach. It takes her a moment
to recognize him, but she knew this man, she knew
him very well.
Speaker 5 (41:56):
That's the first time that they are seeing each other
in about five years, so it's hard to imagine just
the shock of seeing a ghost, someone that you weren't
sure was a lie, that you had no idea where
they were, and somebody who you had built a life with.
They are suddenly appearing in this foreign land at a
(42:17):
party by Kim Jong Il, and I think there was
a sense of relief to know that one another was
all right.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Choi was left standing in front of Shin. The room
went quiet. Kim Jong Il looks from one to the other.
He tells them to hug each other. For heaven's sake,
Why are they both just standing there? Then Choi rests
her head on Shin's shoulder the way she used to,
(42:46):
and feels the familiar groove of his collarbone, the safety
of his chest. Despite the bankruptcy and the affairs and
the love children and now kidnapping, the world falls away
and they hold on to each other for dear life.
The room irrupts in applause when Johng Ill announces that
(43:08):
mister Shin will be his film advisor. The party continued
for hours. When the party was over, they were driven
back to another prison palace. They would be living together
again with their handlers.
Speaker 7 (43:25):
Of course.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
When they arrived, they entered their private bathroom. Choi turned
on the faucets, and they tentatively began to recap the
last five years. At first, Shin was apprehensive of Choi,
she seemed to have good relations with the North Koreans
while at the party. Then Choi equipped why the movie
(43:48):
director can't even recognize acting when he sees it and laughed.
Regardless of their past, at least they weren't alone anymore.
The last thing they discussed while the water was still
running was outlining not a movie but an escape. The
next morning, Kim Jong Il put them to work.
Speaker 7 (44:12):
For six months.
Speaker 5 (44:13):
He had them watch four five films a day and
critique them. He gave them access to his entire film library,
and he engaged them in deep conversations about film and art.
So now he has two friends and he is absolutely
over the moon.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
And Choi and Shin finally learned the real reason they
were kidnapped. First, Kim believed making movies would help fund
the economy. Despite these opulent parties, the regime was actually
in decline. The North Korean economy hadn't bounced back enough
to repay the loans they had received from China and
(44:55):
the USSR. Kim Jong Il wanted to maintain his lavish lifestyle.
Amongst many of his devious plans to boost the economy,
Kim Jong Il bill believed that film revenue from international
distribution could be one way.
Speaker 5 (45:13):
And Kim Jong Il's goal is to have North Korean
cinema recognized on an international scale, and he knows a
propaganda film is not going to be what creates that
fame and recognition from you know, from both the East
and the West.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
Kim Jong Il wanted to be on par with Hollywood
and Western films. Choi and Shin were left to square
with a leader of a hermit country who wanted international attention. Now,
Shin and Choi began the balancing act of outlining scripts
and planning their escape. The couple researched and prepared for
(45:58):
their films around the country. They had bodyguards with them
everywhere they went, and in these tours around the country,
Shin and Choi vi did a rare department store that
sold Western items and managed to purchase a tape recorder.
Shin realized he could use it to his advantage. They
could record Kim and get him to admit that he
(46:20):
had planned to kidnap them, and that's just what they
do secretly at a meeting with him. This was obviously
incredibly risky behavior. Recording the North Korean party leaders is
a death sentence, but the couple can't have the outside world,
especially South Korean leaders, thinking they came here willingly. Choi
(46:45):
kept the recorder in her bag. She reached down and
as quietly as she could, pressed record. As Kim Jong
ale began monologing, He discussed the problems with North Korean
films and his knowledge of international films. He also admitted
that he plotted to kidnap them without prompting. He thought
(47:09):
he could only get to Shin if he captured Choi first.
They kept up their appearances, laughing and smiling at Kim's
jokes as they recorded. When the meeting finished, Shin and
Choi played back the tapes with the faucet running in
their bathroom. With this tape, they could prove they didn't
(47:30):
defect to North Korea, but in the immediate term, Shin
and Choi's first task was to make a movie for
Kim Il Sung's birthday April fifteenth. It was late October.
They had six months to go.
Speaker 5 (47:47):
What was so fascinating for me is that any act
of creation, any book you write or film you make,
it is such a deeply personal act. It's an act
that requires safe mental, physical, and psychological space. So the
idea of creating something under duress, having your life being
(48:08):
almost dangled over you while you were making a film
is such a strange and foreign concept that very few
people have ever experienced.
Speaker 7 (48:17):
What is that like? How do you make art that
is being coerced.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
Under duress or not? Shin couldn't help but feel like
himself again when he got behind the camera.
Speaker 5 (48:29):
Kim respected Shin enjoy so much that he allowed them
a level of creative control that he had never allowed
for any North Korean director. He was not micromanaging in
the same way, and he trusted their vision. He had
seen the way that they had catapulted the South Korean
film industry, and he wanted the same thing for North Korea.
(48:49):
And he knew that he was not able to helicopter
over them in the same way if those were the
aspirations that he had in North Korea. He's given a
great deal of license to create what he wants and
given all the resources to create.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
It even leaving the country.
Speaker 5 (49:08):
Kim's desire for cultural superiority and international recognition is so
great that he begins breaking his own rules. So Shin
and Choi were allowed to travel internationally, and they were
allowed to travel on the communist side of the Iron Curtain.
All of this is happening in the climate of the
Cold War at the time.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
Under Kim Jong Il's request, they set up shop in
eastern Europe and started rolling. Shin had officially jumped down
to Hell in order to make a film. Six months later,
their first film, Emissary of No Return, delighted Kim Jong
Ill and global audiences, even winning an international award. Kim
(49:53):
Jong Il showered Toy and Shin with gifts and gave
them full control over future films.
Speaker 5 (50:01):
And that means money is no object. If he wants
a thousand extras, Kim Jong yiel will deliver them. He
routinely would send members conscripted in the army to serve
as extras in Shin's films. He wanted a train to
explode in one of his films, so Kim Jong yeale
delivered a train filled with dynamite. So whatever Shin wanted,
(50:24):
whatever Choi wanted, Kim delivered for them.
Speaker 6 (50:28):
It's like that scale of production was possible in the
North Korean context because he had all of the resources
of the government behind him.
Speaker 2 (50:38):
Over the next three years, Shin and Choi pumped out
six more films, and in the strangeness of this time,
Choi and Shin fell back into a similar rhythm that
mirrored their previous life. They began to fall back in love.
Their days were filled with writing, editing, coaching, acting, and directing.
(51:03):
Like in their early days, the North Korean public loved
all of their films. With each success, Chin asked for
a bigger staff and imported goods from East Germany. The
couple could travel as much as they wanted within the
walls of the Iron Block.
Speaker 5 (51:23):
So they were able to travel to places like Moscow
and Czechoslovakia and enter their films in competitions. Like Kim,
Shin and Choi had a lot of cognitive dissonance at
this time, they are being granted the freedom that they
were yearning for. In South Korea, they have the ability
to make the films of their dreams.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
When Choi and Shin were in Eastern Europe and the USSR,
they demonstrated pride in their work, which made the Western
world question their whole story about them being kidnapped.
Speaker 5 (51:57):
This is also the first time that South Korea is
seeing Choi and Shin. They did not know what happened
to them or where they went, and this creates a
ton of speculation.
Speaker 7 (52:08):
And rumor in South Korea at the time, and.
Speaker 5 (52:10):
What most people believe was that they defected, that they defected.
Speaker 7 (52:14):
To North Korea.
Speaker 5 (52:15):
So now Shin and Joy, formerly leading lights, formerly stars
of South Korean cinema, are now persona on Grada. They
are now widely despised by the South Korean public.
Speaker 2 (52:29):
The Western world started doubting their loyalties.
Speaker 6 (52:33):
And I think that, yeah, Shin, there are a lot
of questions about what his political ideologies actually were and
how he really felt about one regime or another, and
I think we'll never be able to know that for sure. Yes,
it's a kidnapping, was it a defection. There's not a
lot of clarity. So Shin gets to make his big
(52:54):
you know, spectacles, and Kim gets his kind of tool mouthpiece.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
Shin and Troy maintained that escape was always in the
back of their minds, no matter how gratifying the art
process was.
Speaker 5 (53:10):
So in one hand they're very satisfied. On the other hand,
they are still captive. They can't see their children, they
can't travel to many parts of the world, and they
knew that this was not a long term or sustainable situation.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
The height of their fame in North Korea was their
monster movie Paul Gasari, a North Korean ripoff of Godzilla.
Speaker 5 (53:35):
This was the most expensive film that North Korea had
ever produced. It included thousands of extras and was a
huge hit. Kim Jong Yel loved it, and due to
the success of that, they were able to make a
pitch for an even larger film. They wanted to make
an epic about Genghis Khan, and they knew that they
would need more financing for this, so Kim allowed them
(53:59):
to go to Vienna to meet with financiers for this
speculative project, and that's where they hatch theirs.
Speaker 2 (54:18):
In nineteen eighty six, Shin and Choi cashed in all
of their chips. They convinced Kim Jong Ill to let
them set up their European studio in Vienna. At the time,
Austria was explicitly neutral in the contest between East and West,
so being in Vienna could give them enough wiggle room
(54:40):
to slip under the Iron curtain altogether. Shin and Choi
arrive at their hotel in the city center with their bodyguards.
When their bodyguards aren't looking, Shin slips a piece of
paper to a hotel employee. It says who they are,
that they're kidnapped by the North Koreans, and to please
(55:01):
send help from the US embassy.
Speaker 5 (55:05):
Normally, whenever Shin and Choi left the country, they would
have guards and minders and people making sure that they
didn't escape. But over time it became a little bit
more lax, and they created the pretense or lie of
a journalistic interview. So Shin and Choi made up a
(55:27):
story about an interview with a journalist so they were
able to gain some privacy from their bodyguards.
Speaker 2 (55:34):
Shin then calls an old friend, a Japanese reporter Inoki,
living in Vienna, and tells him to be ready the
next day with a car waiting outside their hotel. Shin
then tells their bodyguards that they had an interview with
a journalist which could help convince the Western world that
(55:54):
they were in North Korea by choice. Wink wink, nuge nudge.
The next morning, Shin and Choi have the bodyguards over
for breakfast in their hotel room to make appearances. Then
at twelve thirty, Shin and Choi go outside to meet Aenoki.
They notice their bodyguards idling outside. Shin spots Anoki standing
(56:20):
by a taxi. Shin and Choi, as casually as they can,
muster walk down the street at a seemingly normal pace.
Then once they get close to the car, Shin shoves
both the reporter and his wife into the taxi, slams
the door, and they book it. In the car, Shin
(56:41):
tells Anoki they have been kidnapped by the North Koreans
and need to make it to the American embassy. As
Shin tries to spit out the situation, Choi notices in
the rear view mirror that a white taxi is making
every turn. As they do it, they tell their driver
to go around in circles to try to lose the
(57:02):
taxi the taxi's radio speakers come on. The white taxi
is calling to ask where they went. Inoki handed their
taxi driver wads of cash and told their driver to
lie to the other taxi tell them they went the
other way. They were only a few minutes away from
(57:23):
the embassy. Finally they arrived at the bottom of a hill.
There's too much traffic for the taxi to go through,
so Choi and Shin jump out of the car and
sprint towards the embassy and burst through the doors. The
couple pants and sweats and tries to explain who they are.
American diplomats escort them outside and bring them to a
(57:46):
safe house. When they enter the safe house, Choi cries
and falls into her husband's arms. International papers blew up
when the news broke about Shin and Choi. In public accounts,
the North Korean claimed that Chin and Choi had come
(58:10):
to North Korea voluntarily and were now kidnapped by the
South Korean government. Who knows what Kim Jong ill thought
after they escaped.
Speaker 5 (58:21):
So this is the first time that Chin and Choi
can tell their own story, and they are brought to
the United States and they are held in protective housing
in Virginia for several years.
Speaker 2 (58:34):
Now, after decades of making fiction stories and propaganda, all
they cared about was telling the truth.
Speaker 5 (58:42):
This is a time that they began writing their memoirs
and telling the true story behind their kidnapping. And fortunately
for Chin and Choi, they had been recording a lot
of their conversations with Kim. There were many people who
believe that they had voluntarily defected, and because of this
recordings that in many cases Choi had captured holding the
(59:03):
recorder in her purse. They were able to set the
record straight.
Speaker 2 (59:07):
They eventually moved to Los Angeles, a filmmaker's dream. This
was the third time Shin tried to rebuild Shin Studios
from scratch, but they couldn't catch a break. Hollywood operated
much differently than the film industry in Korea.
Speaker 5 (59:27):
They found it much more difficult than they expected, and
Shin did have a little bit of success. He directed
three films. People may know them as a Three Ninjas franchise.
He directed them under the alias of Simon Sheen, so
when you look at the credits, it's not Shin sang
ok on there. But these were small hits. They were
low budget films that had a fair amount of success,
(59:50):
but it wasn't what Shin wanted to do. He wanted
to make epics, He wanted to make artistic masterpieces, and
he was forced to make sequels for children's films, so
it was not his ideal situation.
Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
When Shin and Choi talked to Hollywoo with producers about
turning their own lives into a movie, the producers were
hesitant to have three Asian leads. In nineteen ninety nine,
Shin and Choi returned to South Korea and lived out
the rest of their lives together. Looking back, there seemed
(01:00:25):
to be conflicting feelings about their time in North Korea.
Although they insisted that they were kidnapped, was it really
all that bad?
Speaker 5 (01:00:36):
Shin regarded his time in North Korea as a real
artistic flourishing so the film run Away, for instance, he
considers his masterpiece. He considers a film that he made
while in captivity the.
Speaker 7 (01:00:48):
Best film that he had ever made. So he left
with a.
Speaker 5 (01:00:53):
Certain measure of reluctance if he could somehow take that
artistic freedom, that amount of resources that he had been
given in North Korea and bring that to a place
where he could live his life freely. I think that
would have been the ideal situation for him.
Speaker 2 (01:01:10):
When they returned to South Korea, they did go through
questioning by the government and in the media. People wanted
to make sure they hadn't willingly defected. Shin died in
two thousand and six and Choi passed twelve years later.
Obituaries written by American and South Korean papers referenced the kidnapping,
(01:01:32):
solidifying the story that they had been abducted. Although they
didn't exactly go out with a bang, their wider impacts
are still felt in South Korean cinema.
Speaker 6 (01:01:43):
I think that Shin's work, and then you know his
partnership with Chin, the way that they again ranged across
so many different genres and showed that they could adapt
story forms and settings like in dementia in Western to
the Korean context and make really compelling films. It's basically
(01:02:06):
exactly what the South Korean film industry has become famous
worldwide for doing. They were ahead of their time, and
so I think that his influence it can't be overstated.
It's recognizable everywhere in the South crane industry, and then
across the region too. I think Asian cinema is part
(01:02:28):
of that as well.
Speaker 3 (01:02:32):
What a story.
Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
Oh my goodness, Paul Gasari, come on now, Oh my.
Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
God, this love story.
Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
I can't believe they came together. And the daring escape.
Were you kidding me? The foot chase? Oh you're so
right down up top? This is a movie.
Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
It's like you could see it.
Speaker 3 (01:02:48):
Yeah, so, Zaren, I know you knew this story because
you and Elizabeth covered this on Ridiculous Crime. Is there
any other color that we had to leave out of
this version?
Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
I would just the only thing that we've fixated on
in the story that we kind of didn't cover in
this version was the abductors themselves were a funny group,
and that nobody could ever get the number right, so
always like it was like three to four guys. We
just kept laughing about how humans have a hard time
counting past three. You get to like four, I know
it's three or four, maybe five, I don't know. So
the idea that these abductors, who we pointed out, they
(01:03:20):
both get abducted, but they get abducted in such strange ways,
and all of a sudden you show up in North Korea,
Like how bizarre is that? Is a life moment like,
so I would say that was the part that we
fixated on. But other than that, it's the exact same
story and it's so beautiful that I loved this rendition
because we spent more time on the love story. I
love this love story. This made me so happy totally.
And by the way, the love story I'm talking about
(01:03:41):
is Kim jong Ill and Paul Gasari the monster. That's
what I meant.
Speaker 4 (01:03:46):
Yeah, yeah, that's the real romance of this episode.
Speaker 1 (01:03:49):
Also, by the way, Paul Gasari I kept noticing, but
this time I didn't notice it before. Sounds all like
Paul Gasol the form of basketball players. I kept picturing
a Paul Gasol inside the Godzilla style monster suit. So
that was just fun for me.
Speaker 3 (01:04:00):
I knew this story because going way back and the
Mental Floss magazine print. Oh yeah, someone had written this
as a feature about Kim Jong Ill and the filmmakers
he kidnapped and the Godzilla movie. He always wanted to
make something like that, And I remember the night that
Kim jong Ill died, we had a meeting, like frantic
(01:04:22):
phone meeting about like, wow, we should put something up
about Kim Jong Ill. What do we got and then like, well,
I guess this is as good as story as any.
Not sure how to talk about a brutal dictator on
his death, but this felt like, well, people should know
this story. So I'm glad we continue to get this
story out to more people in more elaborate ways.
Speaker 1 (01:04:43):
And that is a proper perspective for a dictator is
to kind of poke fun at them.
Speaker 3 (01:04:46):
Any very special characters on either of your radars.
Speaker 4 (01:04:50):
I will do the Godzilla monster. Oh yeah, good, call
the monster itself yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:04:54):
And following in that, I picked the filmmaker, but not
when he was in either South or North Korea, but
when he was in America and known as Simon Sheen
and he directed the Three Ninjas franchise. I had no
idea that the director of the Three ninjasranchise had once
been kidnap by Kim Jong Il. I was like, oh man,
this changes the whole movie.
Speaker 3 (01:05:11):
How about their friend and Nooki, the Japanese journalist, She's
just like, helps bribe the cab driver, I mean that guy.
Speaker 4 (01:05:18):
Got them out.
Speaker 3 (01:05:20):
Yeah, and the cab driver, because cab driver is going
about his day and this jumps into your cab.
Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
That was and you're an international intrigue. This one was
interesting on casting, by the way, because I had a
prizing number of Korean actors that I wanted to cast
in this. I thought it was gonna be a challenge,
but I was like, oh, man, for Kim il sung,
you gotta go with Choi Min sick from Old Boy
from the Chi Parkers Old Boy, right, he can nail it.
And then for Kim Jong il the Son, I thought,
have a little more fun with this. You go Bobby
(01:05:46):
Lee from Mad TV or the co host of podcast
Bad Friends. I thought Bobby Lee would be great. And
then for the South Korean director Shin Song Oh, I
was thinking John cho He was in Cowboy Bebop and
so I thought he's kind of the cool version of
what you want for that and Elsie he could play
a lover. And then for his wife, the South Korean
actress Choi yun yi Kim yun jin who played son
(01:06:07):
on the TV show Lost If you remember that at all,
so I thought she would be great. She has the
right vibe that I could not really cast Paul Gasari
other than the Paul Gasol inside the suit. So that's
all I got.
Speaker 4 (01:06:18):
You know, I love that you pulled John Choe because
I'm like, team put John Choe in more romantic comedies.
John cho it was in a very short lived TV
show called Selfie that no one watched but me, but
it was sort of like a rom com TV show,
and I'm like, this man needs to be a romantic lead.
And now that he is like a little older, like
making the director, let's see that relationship.
Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
I'm so into that call also for a very special character.
I also like the US Prisoners of War having to
do voiceover work and translating the plots of Elizabeth Taylor films.
I thought that was just.
Speaker 3 (01:06:51):
Great, some good roles for the film version, which definitely
now has to happen.
Speaker 8 (01:06:58):
Very special episodes is made by some very special people.
Today's episode was written by Adrian Bain and edited by
Carmen Borka Korea.
Speaker 1 (01:07:07):
At Wondermedia Network.
Speaker 8 (01:07:09):
The show is hosted by Danis Schwartz, Zaren Burnett, and
Jason English. Our producer is Josh Fisher. Editing and sound
design by Chris Childs. Additional editing by Mary Doo, mixing
and mastering by Chris Childs. Original music by Elise McCoy.
Back checking by Austin Thompson Show logo by Lucy Quintonia.
(01:07:33):
The executive producer is Jason English. If you want to
email the show, can reach us at Very Special Episodes
at gmail dot com. Very Special Episodes is a production
of iHeart.
Speaker 2 (01:07:44):
Podcasts and thanks for listening. Could you do us a
quick favor? If you are enjoying Very Special Episodes, go
subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform and
give us a rating on Apple or Spotify. It all helps.
We'll see you next time.
This is an iHeart original.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
On March thirteenth, nineteen eighty six, a couple burst out
of a taxi in Vienna. In front of them the
US Embassy. Only a few dozen feet stand between them
and their freedom. When they hastily push open the car door,
they don't bother to close it behind them every second counts.
(00:42):
A white taxi had been tailing them the whole ride.
Inside the taxi are their bodyguards. Bodyguards they have just
escaped from. The couple sprints across the pavement and hops
up the few stairs to the embassy. If a bystander
were to hit pause, freeze frames and zoom in on
(01:04):
the couple their arms outstretched ready to open the heavy doors,
sweat clinging to their foreheads and upper lips, they might
recognize them. This is Shin sang Ak, a famous South
Korean film director, and his wife, the award winning actress
(01:24):
Choi Yunhi. Here on the steps of the United States Embassy.
They are moments away from catching their biggest break yet.
For the last several years, the couple has been in
the claws of the North Korean government. Today they're making
a break for it. Their life has been so bizarre
(01:47):
it could be mistaken for an action movie plot a
little too on the nose for the likes of Shin
and Choi. Their story involves kidnapping, love affairs, and friendships
with unstable dictators. But before we press play and see
if they pass through the embassy doors, we need to
(02:09):
rewind and watch the strange series of events that led
two of the most influential figures in cinema to become
personal hostages of Kim Jong Il. Welcome back to Very
Special Episodes and I heeart original podcast. I'm your host,
(02:33):
Danish Schwartz and this is North by North Korea.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Thank you for joining us. I'm joined by Janishwartz. Hey,
Zarah Burnette. I'm Jason English. I kept thinking as we're
reading drafts of this one that if we were writing
depraved Kim Jong Ill fan fiction like this is the
kind of crazy stuff that we could only hope to approach.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Oh my god, he is such a mercurial, strange character
as a dictator's son, but also as like just a
Hollywood and American lover. You don't see it coming.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It's such amazing character.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
This, I will say, is the one very special episode
the most where as I was reading it, I was like,
this is a movie. Oh, this is incredible. I can't
believe this story was real. I had to like fact
check this episode. As I was going where, I was like,
is Jason doing an April Fool's Day on me?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Is this too good?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah? How can this be real? This is the best
love story I've never heard.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, a couple a love story?
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
All right, I don't want to give too much away.
Let's get back into it. We'll discuss on the other side.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
The first time Shin sang Ak laid eyes on Choi,
and he he saw her for who she truly was,
an ambitious creative force. It was nineteen fifty, three months
after the Korean Wars armistice. Both countries were still smoldering
from bombings and napalm. North Korea was run by socialist dictatorship.
(04:09):
Our story starts in South Korea. Shin was an aspiring
director looking for a leading lady for his upcoming film.
He'd heard of the talented and popular Madame Choi, so
he bought a ticket to see her in a play
in a city south of Seoul. In that theater, on
that unassuming evening, Shin couldn't take his eyes.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Off of her.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
Chin grew up in an affluent household. His talents were
encouraged by his family. He was seen as gifted child.
He went to some of the best schools and he
was able to study painting and art in Tokyo during
the war.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
This is Ravi Mangla, a writer and novelist. His most
recent book, The Observer, is a fictionalized version of Shin
and Choi's story.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
And then on the other side you have Choi, who
is a very shy and reserved child, her talents not
encouraged in the same way. Thing was a place where
she found solace and where she really came alive. And
when she told her parents that that she wanted to
be an actress, that was not something that they accepted readily.
So when she was seventeen, she actually ran away to
(05:20):
join up with a theater troop and during the war
she was an entertainer for troops. So both she and
Shin ended up in the entertainment industry, but through two
very different channels.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
As the play unfolded, Shin watched Choi give everything she
had on stage until she had nothing left.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Choi, who was suffering from exhaustion at the time, fainted
on stage, and as a story goes, Shin rushed up
to the stage, picked her up, threw her over her shoulder,
and then took her to the nearest hospital.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Shin stayed with Choi throughout her hospital visit. When she
was released, Choi told Shin about her struggles, how her
husband couldn't work, and how poor they were. Shin, having
only watched her perform in half a play, felt in
his gut that it was his destiny to meet her,
so he offered her the role in his upcoming film.
(06:20):
He'd pay her as much as he could. According to
Paul Fisher's excellent book A Kim Jong Ill Production, which
we'll link to in the show notes, Shin started loitering
around the theater's back door, waiting for Choi to be
done with her play. Shin always called her Madame Choi
a sign of respect. They'd wander the streets so wrapped
(06:44):
up in conversation they'd miss the mandatory curfew. They snuck
around like teenagers, although they were both well into their
late twenties. Shin told Madame Choi, any film I make,
I want you to be in it. Choi filed for
divorce and swiftly married Chin on March seventh, nineteen fifty four.
(07:06):
They'd known each other therefore less than a year. Once
they joined forces, they were unstoppable. Shin began to build
up his studio and cast Joy in nearly every film,
right when the South Korean public wanted nothing more than
to escape to other worlds.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
They're so powerful, I think as a couple because Chit
is the on screen figure, right and again, she is
so unmistakable, and then Shin is able to take her
through all of these really iconic roles that really span
across the kind of feminine archetypes that you can think
(07:49):
of or you could come up with, right, And so
I think that that partnership is so fruitful because you
have a screen presence and then a behind the camera presence,
and they're kind of in synergy.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
That's Michelle Cho, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto.
Her focus is on in film and culture.
Speaker 6 (08:09):
South Green filmmaking of the early post war is described
as a golden age because there were some really iconic
films that were produced during the time that are really
sophisticated in terms of the way that they're trying to
process the changes that are happening in society.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Shin and Choi worked across genres and grew exponentially.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
Shin was also an innovator. He entered films and competitions
all around the world. So this was the first time
that South Korean film was really getting out onto the
international stage, and people were seeing what was being created
in South Korea, and they were hearing stories that they
had never heard before.
Speaker 6 (08:51):
There are some parts of his body of work that,
you know, people will compare directly to Hollywood films that
he likely adapted a lot of things from. So you know,
he dabbled in the Western, He made a bunch of
the these family melodramas. He made period pieces, he made
war films. He was really kind of a sponge, I think,
(09:17):
in terms of picking up influences esthetically and emotionally from
this kind of world cinema culture that was around him.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
It's up for debate whether Shin was intentional about creating
more political and progressive stories.
Speaker 6 (09:33):
A lot of Shin's films, especially during the Golden Age,
were Enlightenment films quote unquote.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
One obvious example is Shin and Choi's nineteen sixty one
film The Evergreen Tree about an educated couple who tries
to instill modern schooling in a small rural town. They
become local heroes as they also fight against the colonialist
Japanese government trying to undo their teachings.
Speaker 6 (10:04):
And so that has a very specific meaning in postcolonial Korea,
where it's kind of a storytelling mode that talks about
the modernization of a person, whether that's through a transformative
encounter with like an inspiring teacher or a learning experience
(10:26):
of a youth that then kind of forces them to
look at the world in a new way. This enlightenment
mode is really intended to teach the public how to
think of themselves as new national subjects and as new
like modern subjects. So what are modern ways of thinking, rationality,
you know, pursuit of learning, a kind of desire to
(10:49):
remake yourself as like a civilized human being. In this
very like progressive mode.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
These stories helped Korean audiences process not only their violent
past but a hopeful future, and the films were a hit.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
It received quite a lot of acclaim at the time,
but they were extremely prolific during that period, producing over
two hundred films and Shin himself directed over seventy films.
Speaker 6 (11:19):
Shin films is really responsible for the popularization of cinema
as like a core aspect of popular culture in South Korea.
It was such a strong and dominant source of films
and it defined the film culture.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
But Shin's films wouldn't have been nearly half as good
without his better half. Choi was more than a muse.
She was Shin's creative equal.
Speaker 6 (11:47):
She is an unmistakably iconic screen presence. Shin casts her
in a couple of his most iconic films of the fifties.
I have thought quite a lot about how it's the
case that Chin he was so respected despite the fact
that she played characters who are representative of the most
(12:12):
kind of denigrated groups of people in South Korea.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Choi took on every kind of role imaginable, from a
confident sex worker to a chaste and dutiful widow.
Speaker 6 (12:23):
So it's this constant struggle to try and reshape attitudes
around gender which is part of what makes Chi such
a remarkable figure. I have to think that the fact
of her marriage to Shin was part of what protected her.
I think because even if she played characters on screen
who lacked legitimacy. She in real life had the legitimacy
(12:48):
of this very powerful figure in the film industry.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
According to Paul Fisher's book, Choi was paid the highest
fees of any other actress, and even more than Shin,
making Choi the bread winner in their house. Their whole
life revolved around their films. They even optimized their home
for work. They had a room where they set up
an editing bed and a large projector to sit side
(13:14):
by side and edit each movie together. At the height
of Shin Studios, they employed over three hundred people and
produced thirty films a year. Choi also started an acting
school and mentored younger actors. Part of their success came
from Shin's refusal to let anything get in the way
(13:38):
of his vision. A contemporary said Shin would have jumped
down to hell to make a film. By the early sixties,
Shin Studios was at its height. They had it all
well almost.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
There is a story that Choi said that you wanted
to have children, and Shin said, why do we need children?
Our films are our children, which gives you a look
into how single minded he often was about filmmaking.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
But Choi wanted more. When she had a hard time
getting pregnant, they decided to adopt. Now they really had
it all, stratospheric careers, fame, prestige, and a family. Their
names were always mentioned in the same breath. Every day.
Shin got to peer through the camera lens and look
(14:28):
at his two loves at once, Choi and movies. Life
was picture perfect until someone of great importance took notice
of them. Over the border, North Korean film was going
(14:50):
through its own revolution, though under a very different regime.
When the thirty eighth Parallel was tattooed into maps, North
Korea isolated itself for most of the world. The exception
was those countries who were bankrolled them to stay afloat,
like China and the USSR. North Korea became an authoritarian,
(15:14):
socialist regime. There was no freedom of speech, movement, or expression.
Organized religion was restricted. Kim ilsung was the first great leader,
and everything and everyone served his vision. Neighbors were encouraged
to spy on one another, and history was rewritten in
(15:36):
the regime's favor. No one was allowed to question their leader.
Small infractions could be interpreted as an act against the state.
Resulting in relocation to the countryside. Image was everything, and
Kim Il sung knew that.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
So North Korean culture at the time embraced an extreme
level of conformity. People had a strong sense of duty
to Kim's father and figures of authority, and they valued
the cove over the individual, and that was really reflected
in all of the art and cinema and materials.
Speaker 7 (16:14):
Being created at the time.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
Propaganda was being created to enhance the reputation of the
government and earn.
Speaker 7 (16:21):
Loyalty from the populace.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
So North Korean citizens of the time were restricted from
consuming Western media, and the latest films at the time
were not accessible to North Korean residents.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
All films were under state control, and film is the
ideal medium for propaganda. It's easy to tell a message
on a mass scale where everyone watches together and can
watch each other.
Speaker 6 (16:51):
From the beginning, the leadership in North Korea understands the
power of this medium and so wants to be able
to harness it for the sake of educating the public,
of instilling in the public a better understanding of what
the guiding ideology of the North Korean state is and
(17:13):
what it should be. That's the distinctive feature of mass
culture in a socialist country. And so it's entertainment. Yes,
it's showing ways for the populace to be kind of
modern and to think of themselves as new national subjects
after liberation or after the Korean War. But fundamentally it's
(17:35):
there to serve as an ideological vehicle.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
All films are structured around the North Korean philosophy of.
Speaker 6 (17:42):
Jewshe So the North Korean state ideology is called cheu
Che ideology, and it is translated as self reliance. I
think of it as a kind of paradox or tension
at the core of cheu Che ideology in the sense
that it is placing responsibility for maintaining a kind of
(18:07):
collective vision in the individual hands of each member of society.
And so it does this really interesting thing of balancing
out the individual and collective.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Do you say bristles at the thought of asking for help?
It states that every individual should hold their own and
every action they take is for the collective good of
North Korea alone. If the collective relies on each other,
they don't need outsiders and can avoid being dependent on
countries like they had been in the past.
Speaker 6 (18:42):
But it was also a way for North Korea to
also keep itself independent or distinguishable from the Maoist communist
China and the Soviets and not get overshadowed by larger
nation states that seek to incorporate the North into whatever
(19:04):
their agenda might be. And I think that come directly
out of the experience of colonial occupation under Japan, and
that also shapes the way that North Korea sees what
South Korea is, which is as a puppet colony of
the United States.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Because all films were created through the lens of Jeuchet,
all of the films had nearly identical plots.
Speaker 6 (19:29):
The dominant structure of North Korean films is this kind
of trajectory of some individual person going through hardship, either
because of class struggle, you know, or because of some
kind of injustice that they experience, and then coming to
(19:51):
realize through that suffering that the principles of Juche and
the stewardship of the deer leader are what offer some
kind of hope.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
So a de factor of North Korea had sad that
you even have to stay for the second half of
a North Korean.
Speaker 7 (20:09):
Film because he knew what was going to happen. There
was no surprise.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Although these movies objectively were boring and poorly made, there
was one person who was obsessed with film, Kim Ilsong's
eldest son, Kim Jong il.
Speaker 6 (20:25):
He is widely known to be a film buff, with
a huge collection of films in a private collection that
he gets to access because most North Koreans do not
get to see films from the West.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Although Kim Jong Eel was raised in extreme wealth and power,
his childhood wasn't a happy one, so Kim Jong.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
Yel had a lonely upbringing. By all accounts, the people
he played with or was allowed to socialize with was
extremely limited, and he found solace in film. Film was
something he fell in love with.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
So he submerged himself in films. He started a bootlegging
and smug ring to bring international films into the country.
He had American prisoners of war translate and voice American films.
He created his own massive secret cinema layer, air conditioned
and fully staffed with two hundred and fifty people all
(21:25):
for an audience of one, and.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
As he got older, he amassed the collection of more
than twenty thousand films. He was known as a huge
fan of Elizabeth Taylor. He loved the James Bond franchise.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Kim Jong eel would rather watch movies all day than
partake in mandatory military service. He also had a bad
temperament and lashed out at people. Kim Jong il wasn't
qualified to inherit the country. Kim Ilsong couldn't place his
artsy antagonistic son until a perfect situation fell into his lap.
(22:03):
One film was made. Some sources say it was a
play that risked challenging Kim ilsung's personality cult. It was
interpreted as treason. The creators were sent to the mountains,
and Kim il sung stormed into the studio office to
lecture the remaining studio executives. After his tirade, Kim il
(22:26):
sung asked the room if anyone had the courage to
lead the propaganda and Agitation department in accordance with the
party's ideologies and rules. Standing behind nearly everyone in the back,
Kim Jong ill raised his hand.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
In this informal role of propaganda minister, he was allowed
to lean into his love of film craft at the
same time he was being carefully trained to take on
a leadership role at a time that his father stepped aside,
so in a way, it was a win win for
both Kim and for his father.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Once Kim jung il took the reins of the film industry,
he thrived by North Korean standards.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
He even wrote a book of film criticism in nineteen
seventy three called on the Art of Cinema. And this
was not just a thin fifty page book. We are
talking about a four hundred page tome. And in that
book he talked about how all films should be imbued
with an ideology. It advocated for film as propaganda.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Kim il sung loved the films his son oversaw, but
Kim Jung Ill knew something his father didn't. These films
were bad. Although citizens were told that North Korean film
was the best in the world and leading the film industry,
Kim Jung ill had watched enough foreign films to know
(23:57):
that his movies were not up to snuff. Kim Ill's
song also wanted North Korean film to be internationally recognized
so the world could one day know that North Korea
is superior to every other country. But even South Korean
cinema was outpacing them, and he had to do something.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Kim Jong Yale felt that the only way that he
could fix the North Korean film industry was with better talent,
and he saw Shin sang Ok and Choi and he
in South Korea, and he wanted that for his country.
He wanted it in such a literal way he was
willing to go to extreme lengths to get it.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Despite the meteoric success of Shin Studios, Shin and Choi
made movies during a time of increased censorship and authoritarian
rule by the South Korean government, but Shin did what
he had to do not to let anything get in
the way of his films.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
Shin and Choi were able to rub shoulders with the
country's cultural and political elite. They had a good relationship
at the time with General Park.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
The current leader of South Korea was General Park, who
had seized power via coup in nineteen sixty one. Park
wanted to show the world that South Koreans embraced modernism
and were culturally sophisticated, not like those tyrant socialists in
the North. General Park and his wife also had a
(25:46):
close personal relationship with Shin and Choi.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
And for that reason he allowed Shin and Choi with
a great deal of artistic license, at least in the
early going, because he wanted South Korea to be recognized
on the international stage. He wanted that cultural recognition from
the Western world.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
In the nineteen seventies, tensions rose between North and South Korea.
General Park became more authoritarian, he started limiting the rights
and freedoms of South Koreans.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
So from nineteen seventy two onwards kind of shows this
censorship regime growing and kind of being much more involved
in trying to well first take out anything that could
potentially be perceived as political viewpoints. The guiding principle to
all of his initiatives and the way that he's able
(26:45):
to convince the Korean public to go along with it
is this anti communist stance that everything that he's doing
to restrict the liberties and freedoms of South Koreans is
absolutely necessary in order to fend off the threat of
North Korea. But my sense is that Shin made some
of his best films in South Korea and kind of
(27:09):
experienced a lot of growth and really reached the peak
of his career when he had a pretty friendly relationship
with the government. There's a sense that you know, Shin
films and Shin Studios was getting along really well with
the Pukjangi administration until it didn't.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Now, South Korea was becoming as tight lipped as an
estranged brother to the North, especially in the arts.
Speaker 7 (27:39):
Parks.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Regime became much stricter around ideas in film and music
and art, and there were extremely rigid censorship boards that
would review films over and over again to make sure
that the content was nothing that could be seen as
controversial or out of step with South Korea and the
South Korean government at the time.
Speaker 6 (28:01):
So anything that could be even in the slightest way
interpreted as criticism of the government is a no go. Clearly,
he is really interested in policing what people see in
film and television.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Regardless of politics. Shin always managed to use his political
connections to get his movies made. No matter the content,
Shin began to believe that he was above the rules.
He continued to follow his artistic inclinations even if they
went against the censorship laws. Every other time he'd broken
(28:45):
the rules, he would just go and chat with his
government friends. But times were changing.
Speaker 6 (28:53):
In a screening of a film, a new film, Shin
had refused to take out a romantic scene, so a
scene where characters kiss, and that so angered the censorship
office that Shin Film's like finally lose his favor with
the Pakshani administration.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
This time, Shin's justifications fell on deaf ears at the
censorship bureau. He was also stripped of his film license.
That wasn't all he lost during this time.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
About this time, the time that Chin Studios was beginning
to decline and running into struggles with the censorship boards,
was also the time that Shin and Choy's relationship was
facing a lot of difficulties in friction. So in the
early nineteen seventies, Shin struck up an affair with a
(29:50):
younger actress and this became a public scandal.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Up until now, Choi had always looked the other way
when Shin had dalliances with other women. They were usually flings,
nothing serious, But this time was different. One morning home alone,
Choi picked up a film magazine and saw her husband's
(30:14):
name in a headline. Ice ran through her veins as
she scanned through the article. According to the news, Shin
had just become a father. He had had an affair
with a much younger actress, and she gave birth to
Shin's son. Affairs were one thing but a love child.
(30:37):
When Shin knew, Choi was crestfallen that she couldn't give
birth on her own. They tried to make it work,
but then the actress gave birth to a second child.
This was unforgivable, and Choi separated from Shin. Now Shin
had no wife, no career, no studio, no art to make.
(31:01):
The whole life he'd built began to unspool like a
film a reel tumbling to the ground. Due to the
decline of shin studios, Choi's acting studio and career took
a hit two life faded from technicolor to black and
white for both of them. Time went by, it looked
(31:24):
like there was no way for this former powerhouse to
regain their relationship or creative status. Until one unsuspecting day
in nineteen seventy seven, Choi received a curious visitor, a
Hong Kong businessman asked if she would be interested in
(31:46):
directing a film in China. It was a strange request,
but Choi needed a break from South Korea. Choi packed
a bag and flew to Hong Kong, where the Chinese
businessmen whined and dined her. When she tried to mention
the film, the men changed the subject. This unnerved her.
(32:10):
On her penultimate morning, men with sloppy long hair put
a bag over her head and threw her into a boat.
Speaker 5 (32:20):
She described being held in the hall of a cargo
ship and feeling incredible fear. She had no idea what
was going on, but had been coerced onto this boat
and now does not know what the future holds, what
is in front of her, what is happening.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
For six days, Choi felt unmoored as the waves undulated
beneath her. She barely ate. When the boat anchored, she
was transferred to a smaller vessel. Toi was brought up
on deck and then brought on shore a little ways
away from the main port, still wearing the same outfit
(32:56):
she was kidnapped in. A man in a large coat
approached her with a huge smile.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Thank you for coming, Madam Chroi. You must be.
Speaker 7 (33:08):
Welcome. I am Kim Jong il.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Choi musters the strength to not faint. The North Korean
dictator's son is standing before her, talking to her by
her name. People in North Korea hadn't even heard Kim
Jong Il's voice. Yet someone whipped out a camera and
took a photo. Choi tried to hide, the camera clicked,
(33:37):
and the photo is the large, smiling silhouette of Kim
Jong Il. Madame Choi, after a life of having her
picture taken, buried her chin and nose into her scarf.
The rest of her face is hidden under large sunglasses.
Speaker 7 (33:57):
So it's a bit of a whirlwind for Choi.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
Once she arrives in North Korea, she is brought to
luxury accommodations.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Choi is taken to to a villa, which is really
a tacky yet glamorous house. Arrest, her handlers walked her
under gaudy chandeliers to her new rooms. Her passports and
South Korean identity card are taken. Her new bedroom is
filled with clothing tailor to her body, along with makeup
(34:28):
she used to use. They had been expecting her. When
she went to shut the door, she noticed the doors
didn't lock. She will soon find that none of them do.
Inside this prison palace, her days are no longer her
own and are structured around her quote re education.
Speaker 5 (34:50):
She's introduced to a private tutor who immediately begins talking
to her about the life and achievements of Kim Ilsong.
She's isolated on board and being held in these luxury
accommodations for.
Speaker 7 (35:01):
Reasons that she doesn't understand. She doesn't know.
Speaker 5 (35:04):
Why she has been brought to this country, what they
want of her. But she's almost like a you know,
an animal in a cage, just being paraded around and
has no autonomy of her own.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
During her re education, Choi learns fast not to question
what she's taught about North Korea, no matter how fanciful
and highly unlikely. Now in the belly of the beast,
Choi must do her best acting. Yet there's a phone
in her room where Kim jong il has a private
(35:41):
phone line for just Choi. He frequently calls her up,
asking if she's doing anything like it's a genuine question.
Speaker 5 (35:50):
Kim jong il is very excited by the arrival of Choi.
He has been isolated his whole life in his love
of cinema, and in Choi he has somebody who he respects.
He respects her opinion. He wants to know her thoughts
and perspective on art and entertainment. This seems a very
one sided relationship that Kim has almost forced somebody to
(36:15):
be his friend. He has the friend that he always wanted.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
At times, Kim Jung il calls her teacher Choi, given
that she was well into her fifties by now.
Speaker 5 (36:26):
So Choi's behavior at the time is heavily watched over,
and she has people instructing her on how to behave
and act. She does not have a lot of freedom
to do the thing she wants to say the things
she wants. She has been taught to be totally obedient
(36:46):
at this time.
Speaker 7 (36:48):
So while Kim admires her.
Speaker 5 (36:51):
Opinions and wants her perspectives on things in a larger sense,
she's extremely limited in what she can say into.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
As Choi spent more time with Kim, she saw that
he had all the trappings of a dictator's son. He
had lavish parties surrounded by yes men and women. Choi
was invited to the parties, often as if she had
an option to decline.
Speaker 5 (37:18):
So he loved parading Choi around as arm candy, as
a prize or a trophy that he had acquired.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Choi's disappearance didn't go unnoticed in South Korea. Shin had
known she was going to Hong Kong and was growing
concerned he hadn't heard from her, so he called a
friend and was told to go there himself. When he
arrived in Hong Kong, he learned about her disappearance and
(37:48):
that all of her luggage was left in her hotel room,
which gave the impression she would return.
Speaker 5 (37:55):
This was not somebody who had escaped, so Shin believed
that she had been kidnapped or something awful had happened.
And keep in mind they had children. They had children
who were wondering where their mother was.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Hin had to go to the United States for a spell,
but returned to Hong Kong to investigate, and unfortunately he
met a similar fate.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
Chin came to Hong Kong and he ended up being
betrayed by a friend who is an agent for the
North Korean government.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
His kidnapping was a repeat of his wife's. His days
were broken up into hours of ideological training, lunch, and
a nap. The latter half of his day was spent
watching North Korean films that Kim Jong Il specifically requested
he watch. For some reason, the films were so bad.
(38:48):
Shin preferred the ideological training, unlike Choi, who used her
acting chops to survive. Shin only knew action. He was
not used to someone else directing his life. He tried
to escape twice. When he was recaptured the second time,
I'm the North Korean to throw him in a packed
(39:10):
detention center.
Speaker 5 (39:11):
He was kept in that detention center for over three years,
where he was in a cell so small he could
barely lie down. He was forced to undergo extreme re education,
and he lost a great deal of weight. His health
suffered quite a bit during that time.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
With nothing to do, all Shin could do was think.
He relived and rewatched every mistake he had ever made
in his life, his affairs, his children, his career, and
hurting choy and mixed in this stew of regret, he
began to mentally re edit all of his films as
(39:50):
he stared at the same spot in his cell every day,
he redirected his movies in his head, played them on repeat, reshoot, retrimmed,
and reorganized each one to have a stronger impact. If
only he could get one more chance. Then, one day,
after years of living in a deplorable detention center, Shin
(40:15):
was released and told to get ready to meet the
dictator's son. Over the same three years, only the seasons
changed for Choi. When she asked to be reunited with
her family, she was told she would see them once
the two Koreas reunite. As the world continued to spin
(40:35):
around the sun, she quietly celebrated each of her children's
birthdays to herself. She often went into her bathroom and
turned down the faucet so no one could hear her weeping.
Her days were spent writing long congratulatory letters to both
Kim Jong il and his father, thanking them for showing
(40:56):
her the light and superior ways of North Korea. In
the moments when she put down her pen, she continued
to rack her brain as to why she was here.
One unsuspecting night, She's invited to another one of Kim's
lavish parties. When she arrives, she notices that there's something
(41:19):
extra about this party. There are more people, more food,
louder music, and everyone is congratulating her for reasons she
doesn't understand. In all of the merriment, the guest of
honor walks in the music stopped. A woman grabbed Choi
(41:39):
by the arm and began to bring her over to
the guest of honor. A thin and frail man Choi's
heart drops to her stomach. It takes her a moment
to recognize him, but she knew this man, she knew
him very well.
Speaker 5 (41:56):
That's the first time that they are seeing each other
in about five years, so it's hard to imagine just
the shock of seeing a ghost, someone that you weren't
sure was a lie, that you had no idea where
they were, and somebody who you had built a life with.
They are suddenly appearing in this foreign land at a
(42:17):
party by Kim Jong Il, and I think there was
a sense of relief to know that one another was
all right.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Choi was left standing in front of Shin. The room
went quiet. Kim Jong Il looks from one to the other.
He tells them to hug each other. For heaven's sake,
Why are they both just standing there? Then Choi rests
her head on Shin's shoulder the way she used to,
(42:46):
and feels the familiar groove of his collarbone, the safety
of his chest. Despite the bankruptcy and the affairs and
the love children and now kidnapping, the world falls away
and they hold on to each other for dear life.
The room irrupts in applause when Johng Ill announces that
(43:08):
mister Shin will be his film advisor. The party continued
for hours. When the party was over, they were driven
back to another prison palace. They would be living together
again with their handlers.
Speaker 7 (43:25):
Of course.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
When they arrived, they entered their private bathroom. Choi turned
on the faucets, and they tentatively began to recap the
last five years. At first, Shin was apprehensive of Choi,
she seemed to have good relations with the North Koreans
while at the party. Then Choi equipped why the movie
(43:48):
director can't even recognize acting when he sees it and laughed.
Regardless of their past, at least they weren't alone anymore.
The last thing they discussed while the water was still
running was outlining not a movie but an escape. The
next morning, Kim Jong Il put them to work.
Speaker 7 (44:12):
For six months.
Speaker 5 (44:13):
He had them watch four five films a day and
critique them. He gave them access to his entire film library,
and he engaged them in deep conversations about film and art.
So now he has two friends and he is absolutely
over the moon.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
And Choi and Shin finally learned the real reason they
were kidnapped. First, Kim believed making movies would help fund
the economy. Despite these opulent parties, the regime was actually
in decline. The North Korean economy hadn't bounced back enough
to repay the loans they had received from China and
(44:55):
the USSR. Kim Jong Il wanted to maintain his lavish lifestyle.
Amongst many of his devious plans to boost the economy,
Kim Jong Il bill believed that film revenue from international
distribution could be one way.
Speaker 5 (45:13):
And Kim Jong Il's goal is to have North Korean
cinema recognized on an international scale, and he knows a
propaganda film is not going to be what creates that
fame and recognition from you know, from both the East
and the West.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
Kim Jong Il wanted to be on par with Hollywood
and Western films. Choi and Shin were left to square
with a leader of a hermit country who wanted international attention. Now,
Shin and Choi began the balancing act of outlining scripts
and planning their escape. The couple researched and prepared for
(45:58):
their films around the country. They had bodyguards with them
everywhere they went, and in these tours around the country,
Shin and Choi vi did a rare department store that
sold Western items and managed to purchase a tape recorder.
Shin realized he could use it to his advantage. They
could record Kim and get him to admit that he
(46:20):
had planned to kidnap them, and that's just what they
do secretly at a meeting with him. This was obviously
incredibly risky behavior. Recording the North Korean party leaders is
a death sentence, but the couple can't have the outside world,
especially South Korean leaders, thinking they came here willingly. Choi
(46:45):
kept the recorder in her bag. She reached down and
as quietly as she could, pressed record. As Kim Jong
ale began monologing, He discussed the problems with North Korean
films and his knowledge of international films. He also admitted
that he plotted to kidnap them without prompting. He thought
(47:09):
he could only get to Shin if he captured Choi first.
They kept up their appearances, laughing and smiling at Kim's
jokes as they recorded. When the meeting finished, Shin and
Choi played back the tapes with the faucet running in
their bathroom. With this tape, they could prove they didn't
(47:30):
defect to North Korea, but in the immediate term, Shin
and Choi's first task was to make a movie for
Kim Il Sung's birthday April fifteenth. It was late October.
They had six months to go.
Speaker 5 (47:47):
What was so fascinating for me is that any act
of creation, any book you write or film you make,
it is such a deeply personal act. It's an act
that requires safe mental, physical, and psychological space. So the
idea of creating something under duress, having your life being
(48:08):
almost dangled over you while you were making a film
is such a strange and foreign concept that very few
people have ever experienced.
Speaker 7 (48:17):
What is that like? How do you make art that
is being coerced.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
Under duress or not? Shin couldn't help but feel like
himself again when he got behind the camera.
Speaker 5 (48:29):
Kim respected Shin enjoy so much that he allowed them
a level of creative control that he had never allowed
for any North Korean director. He was not micromanaging in
the same way, and he trusted their vision. He had
seen the way that they had catapulted the South Korean
film industry, and he wanted the same thing for North Korea.
(48:49):
And he knew that he was not able to helicopter
over them in the same way if those were the
aspirations that he had in North Korea. He's given a
great deal of license to create what he wants and
given all the resources to create.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
It even leaving the country.
Speaker 5 (49:08):
Kim's desire for cultural superiority and international recognition is so
great that he begins breaking his own rules. So Shin
and Choi were allowed to travel internationally, and they were
allowed to travel on the communist side of the Iron Curtain.
All of this is happening in the climate of the
Cold War at the time.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
Under Kim Jong Il's request, they set up shop in
eastern Europe and started rolling. Shin had officially jumped down
to Hell in order to make a film. Six months later,
their first film, Emissary of No Return, delighted Kim Jong
Ill and global audiences, even winning an international award. Kim
(49:53):
Jong Il showered Toy and Shin with gifts and gave
them full control over future films.
Speaker 5 (50:01):
And that means money is no object. If he wants
a thousand extras, Kim Jong yiel will deliver them. He
routinely would send members conscripted in the army to serve
as extras in Shin's films. He wanted a train to
explode in one of his films, so Kim Jong yeale
delivered a train filled with dynamite. So whatever Shin wanted,
(50:24):
whatever Choi wanted, Kim delivered for them.
Speaker 6 (50:28):
It's like that scale of production was possible in the
North Korean context because he had all of the resources
of the government behind him.
Speaker 2 (50:38):
Over the next three years, Shin and Choi pumped out
six more films, and in the strangeness of this time,
Choi and Shin fell back into a similar rhythm that
mirrored their previous life. They began to fall back in love.
Their days were filled with writing, editing, coaching, acting, and directing.
(51:03):
Like in their early days, the North Korean public loved
all of their films. With each success, Chin asked for
a bigger staff and imported goods from East Germany. The
couple could travel as much as they wanted within the
walls of the Iron Block.
Speaker 5 (51:23):
So they were able to travel to places like Moscow
and Czechoslovakia and enter their films in competitions. Like Kim,
Shin and Choi had a lot of cognitive dissonance at
this time, they are being granted the freedom that they
were yearning for. In South Korea, they have the ability
to make the films of their dreams.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
When Choi and Shin were in Eastern Europe and the USSR,
they demonstrated pride in their work, which made the Western
world question their whole story about them being kidnapped.
Speaker 5 (51:57):
This is also the first time that South Korea is
seeing Choi and Shin. They did not know what happened
to them or where they went, and this creates a
ton of speculation.
Speaker 7 (52:08):
And rumor in South Korea at the time, and.
Speaker 5 (52:10):
What most people believe was that they defected, that they defected.
Speaker 7 (52:14):
To North Korea.
Speaker 5 (52:15):
So now Shin and Joy, formerly leading lights, formerly stars
of South Korean cinema, are now persona on Grada. They
are now widely despised by the South Korean public.
Speaker 2 (52:29):
The Western world started doubting their loyalties.
Speaker 6 (52:33):
And I think that, yeah, Shin, there are a lot
of questions about what his political ideologies actually were and
how he really felt about one regime or another, and
I think we'll never be able to know that for sure. Yes,
it's a kidnapping, was it a defection. There's not a
lot of clarity. So Shin gets to make his big
(52:54):
you know, spectacles, and Kim gets his kind of tool mouthpiece.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
Shin and Troy maintained that escape was always in the
back of their minds, no matter how gratifying the art
process was.
Speaker 5 (53:10):
So in one hand they're very satisfied. On the other hand,
they are still captive. They can't see their children, they
can't travel to many parts of the world, and they
knew that this was not a long term or sustainable situation.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
The height of their fame in North Korea was their
monster movie Paul Gasari, a North Korean ripoff of Godzilla.
Speaker 5 (53:35):
This was the most expensive film that North Korea had
ever produced. It included thousands of extras and was a
huge hit. Kim Jong Yel loved it, and due to
the success of that, they were able to make a
pitch for an even larger film. They wanted to make
an epic about Genghis Khan, and they knew that they
would need more financing for this, so Kim allowed them
(53:59):
to go to Vienna to meet with financiers for this
speculative project, and that's where they hatch theirs.
Speaker 2 (54:18):
In nineteen eighty six, Shin and Choi cashed in all
of their chips. They convinced Kim Jong Ill to let
them set up their European studio in Vienna. At the time,
Austria was explicitly neutral in the contest between East and West,
so being in Vienna could give them enough wiggle room
(54:40):
to slip under the Iron curtain altogether. Shin and Choi
arrive at their hotel in the city center with their bodyguards.
When their bodyguards aren't looking, Shin slips a piece of
paper to a hotel employee. It says who they are,
that they're kidnapped by the North Koreans, and to please
(55:01):
send help from the US embassy.
Speaker 5 (55:05):
Normally, whenever Shin and Choi left the country, they would
have guards and minders and people making sure that they
didn't escape. But over time it became a little bit
more lax, and they created the pretense or lie of
a journalistic interview. So Shin and Choi made up a
(55:27):
story about an interview with a journalist so they were
able to gain some privacy from their bodyguards.
Speaker 2 (55:34):
Shin then calls an old friend, a Japanese reporter Inoki,
living in Vienna, and tells him to be ready the
next day with a car waiting outside their hotel. Shin
then tells their bodyguards that they had an interview with
a journalist which could help convince the Western world that
(55:54):
they were in North Korea by choice. Wink wink, nuge nudge.
The next morning, Shin and Choi have the bodyguards over
for breakfast in their hotel room to make appearances. Then
at twelve thirty, Shin and Choi go outside to meet Aenoki.
They notice their bodyguards idling outside. Shin spots Anoki standing
(56:20):
by a taxi. Shin and Choi, as casually as they can,
muster walk down the street at a seemingly normal pace.
Then once they get close to the car, Shin shoves
both the reporter and his wife into the taxi, slams
the door, and they book it. In the car, Shin
(56:41):
tells Anoki they have been kidnapped by the North Koreans
and need to make it to the American embassy. As
Shin tries to spit out the situation, Choi notices in
the rear view mirror that a white taxi is making
every turn. As they do it, they tell their driver
to go around in circles to try to lose the
(57:02):
taxi the taxi's radio speakers come on. The white taxi
is calling to ask where they went. Inoki handed their
taxi driver wads of cash and told their driver to
lie to the other taxi tell them they went the
other way. They were only a few minutes away from
(57:23):
the embassy. Finally they arrived at the bottom of a hill.
There's too much traffic for the taxi to go through,
so Choi and Shin jump out of the car and
sprint towards the embassy and burst through the doors. The
couple pants and sweats and tries to explain who they are.
American diplomats escort them outside and bring them to a
(57:46):
safe house. When they enter the safe house, Choi cries
and falls into her husband's arms. International papers blew up
when the news broke about Shin and Choi. In public accounts,
the North Korean claimed that Chin and Choi had come
(58:10):
to North Korea voluntarily and were now kidnapped by the
South Korean government. Who knows what Kim Jong ill thought
after they escaped.
Speaker 5 (58:21):
So this is the first time that Chin and Choi
can tell their own story, and they are brought to
the United States and they are held in protective housing
in Virginia for several years.
Speaker 2 (58:34):
Now, after decades of making fiction stories and propaganda, all
they cared about was telling the truth.
Speaker 5 (58:42):
This is a time that they began writing their memoirs
and telling the true story behind their kidnapping. And fortunately
for Chin and Choi, they had been recording a lot
of their conversations with Kim. There were many people who
believe that they had voluntarily defected, and because of this
recordings that in many cases Choi had captured holding the
(59:03):
recorder in her purse. They were able to set the
record straight.
Speaker 2 (59:07):
They eventually moved to Los Angeles, a filmmaker's dream. This
was the third time Shin tried to rebuild Shin Studios
from scratch, but they couldn't catch a break. Hollywood operated
much differently than the film industry in Korea.
Speaker 5 (59:27):
They found it much more difficult than they expected, and
Shin did have a little bit of success. He directed
three films. People may know them as a Three Ninjas franchise.
He directed them under the alias of Simon Sheen, so
when you look at the credits, it's not Shin sang
ok on there. But these were small hits. They were
low budget films that had a fair amount of success,
(59:50):
but it wasn't what Shin wanted to do. He wanted
to make epics, He wanted to make artistic masterpieces, and
he was forced to make sequels for children's films, so
it was not his ideal situation.
Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
When Shin and Choi talked to Hollywoo with producers about
turning their own lives into a movie, the producers were
hesitant to have three Asian leads. In nineteen ninety nine,
Shin and Choi returned to South Korea and lived out
the rest of their lives together. Looking back, there seemed
(01:00:25):
to be conflicting feelings about their time in North Korea.
Although they insisted that they were kidnapped, was it really
all that bad?
Speaker 5 (01:00:36):
Shin regarded his time in North Korea as a real
artistic flourishing so the film run Away, for instance, he
considers his masterpiece. He considers a film that he made
while in captivity the.
Speaker 7 (01:00:48):
Best film that he had ever made. So he left
with a.
Speaker 5 (01:00:53):
Certain measure of reluctance if he could somehow take that
artistic freedom, that amount of resources that he had been
given in North Korea and bring that to a place
where he could live his life freely. I think that
would have been the ideal situation for him.
Speaker 2 (01:01:10):
When they returned to South Korea, they did go through
questioning by the government and in the media. People wanted
to make sure they hadn't willingly defected. Shin died in
two thousand and six and Choi passed twelve years later.
Obituaries written by American and South Korean papers referenced the kidnapping,
(01:01:32):
solidifying the story that they had been abducted. Although they
didn't exactly go out with a bang, their wider impacts
are still felt in South Korean cinema.
Speaker 6 (01:01:43):
I think that Shin's work, and then you know his
partnership with Chin, the way that they again ranged across
so many different genres and showed that they could adapt
story forms and settings like in dementia in Western to
the Korean context and make really compelling films. It's basically
(01:02:06):
exactly what the South Korean film industry has become famous
worldwide for doing. They were ahead of their time, and
so I think that his influence it can't be overstated.
It's recognizable everywhere in the South crane industry, and then
across the region too. I think Asian cinema is part
(01:02:28):
of that as well.
Speaker 3 (01:02:32):
What a story.
Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
Oh my goodness, Paul Gasari, come on now, Oh my.
Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
God, this love story.
Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
I can't believe they came together. And the daring escape.
Were you kidding me? The foot chase? Oh you're so
right down up top? This is a movie.
Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
It's like you could see it.
Speaker 3 (01:02:48):
Yeah, so, Zaren, I know you knew this story because
you and Elizabeth covered this on Ridiculous Crime. Is there
any other color that we had to leave out of
this version?
Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
I would just the only thing that we've fixated on
in the story that we kind of didn't cover in
this version was the abductors themselves were a funny group,
and that nobody could ever get the number right, so
always like it was like three to four guys. We
just kept laughing about how humans have a hard time
counting past three. You get to like four, I know
it's three or four, maybe five, I don't know. So
the idea that these abductors, who we pointed out, they
(01:03:20):
both get abducted, but they get abducted in such strange ways,
and all of a sudden you show up in North Korea,
Like how bizarre is that? Is a life moment like,
so I would say that was the part that we
fixated on. But other than that, it's the exact same
story and it's so beautiful that I loved this rendition
because we spent more time on the love story. I
love this love story. This made me so happy totally.
And by the way, the love story I'm talking about
(01:03:41):
is Kim jong Ill and Paul Gasari the monster. That's
what I meant.
Speaker 4 (01:03:46):
Yeah, yeah, that's the real romance of this episode.
Speaker 1 (01:03:49):
Also, by the way, Paul Gasari I kept noticing, but
this time I didn't notice it before. Sounds all like
Paul Gasol the form of basketball players. I kept picturing
a Paul Gasol inside the Godzilla style monster suit. So
that was just fun for me.
Speaker 3 (01:04:00):
I knew this story because going way back and the
Mental Floss magazine print. Oh yeah, someone had written this
as a feature about Kim Jong Ill and the filmmakers
he kidnapped and the Godzilla movie. He always wanted to
make something like that, And I remember the night that
Kim jong Ill died, we had a meeting, like frantic
(01:04:22):
phone meeting about like, wow, we should put something up
about Kim Jong Ill. What do we got and then like, well,
I guess this is as good as story as any.
Not sure how to talk about a brutal dictator on
his death, but this felt like, well, people should know
this story. So I'm glad we continue to get this
story out to more people in more elaborate ways.
Speaker 1 (01:04:43):
And that is a proper perspective for a dictator is
to kind of poke fun at them.
Speaker 3 (01:04:46):
Any very special characters on either of your radars.
Speaker 4 (01:04:50):
I will do the Godzilla monster. Oh yeah, good, call
the monster itself yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:04:54):
And following in that, I picked the filmmaker, but not
when he was in either South or North Korea, but
when he was in America and known as Simon Sheen
and he directed the Three Ninjas franchise. I had no
idea that the director of the Three ninjasranchise had once
been kidnap by Kim Jong Il. I was like, oh man,
this changes the whole movie.
Speaker 3 (01:05:11):
How about their friend and Nooki, the Japanese journalist, She's
just like, helps bribe the cab driver, I mean that guy.
Speaker 4 (01:05:18):
Got them out.
Speaker 3 (01:05:20):
Yeah, and the cab driver, because cab driver is going
about his day and this jumps into your cab.
Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
That was and you're an international intrigue. This one was
interesting on casting, by the way, because I had a
prizing number of Korean actors that I wanted to cast
in this. I thought it was gonna be a challenge,
but I was like, oh, man, for Kim il sung,
you gotta go with Choi Min sick from Old Boy
from the Chi Parkers Old Boy, right, he can nail it.
And then for Kim Jong il the Son, I thought,
have a little more fun with this. You go Bobby
(01:05:46):
Lee from Mad TV or the co host of podcast
Bad Friends. I thought Bobby Lee would be great. And
then for the South Korean director Shin Song Oh, I
was thinking John cho He was in Cowboy Bebop and
so I thought he's kind of the cool version of
what you want for that and Elsie he could play
a lover. And then for his wife, the South Korean
actress Choi yun yi Kim yun jin who played son
(01:06:07):
on the TV show Lost If you remember that at all,
so I thought she would be great. She has the
right vibe that I could not really cast Paul Gasari
other than the Paul Gasol inside the suit. So that's
all I got.
Speaker 4 (01:06:18):
You know, I love that you pulled John Choe because
I'm like, team put John Choe in more romantic comedies.
John cho it was in a very short lived TV
show called Selfie that no one watched but me, but
it was sort of like a rom com TV show,
and I'm like, this man needs to be a romantic lead.
And now that he is like a little older, like
making the director, let's see that relationship.
Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
I'm so into that call also for a very special character.
I also like the US Prisoners of War having to
do voiceover work and translating the plots of Elizabeth Taylor films.
I thought that was just.
Speaker 3 (01:06:51):
Great, some good roles for the film version, which definitely
now has to happen.
Speaker 8 (01:06:58):
Very special episodes is made by some very special people.
Today's episode was written by Adrian Bain and edited by
Carmen Borka Korea.
Speaker 1 (01:07:07):
At Wondermedia Network.
Speaker 8 (01:07:09):
The show is hosted by Danis Schwartz, Zaren Burnett, and
Jason English. Our producer is Josh Fisher. Editing and sound
design by Chris Childs. Additional editing by Mary Doo, mixing
and mastering by Chris Childs. Original music by Elise McCoy.
Back checking by Austin Thompson Show logo by Lucy Quintonia.
(01:07:33):
The executive producer is Jason English. If you want to
email the show, can reach us at Very Special Episodes
at gmail dot com. Very Special Episodes is a production
of iHeart.
Speaker 2 (01:07:44):
Podcasts and thanks for listening. Could you do us a
quick favor? If you are enjoying Very Special Episodes, go
subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform and
give us a rating on Apple or Spotify. It all helps.
We'll see you next time.
Host
Jamie Loftus
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