A Kim Jong-Il Production
The Incredible True Story of North Korea and the Most Audacious Kidnapping in History
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
A Kim Jong-Il Production by Paul Fischer - love, films and kidnapping in North Korea, the world's wildest regime
Before becoming the world's most notorious dictator, Kim Jong-Il ran North Korea's film industry. He directed every film made in the country but knew they were nothing compared to Hollywood. Then he hit on the perfect solution: order the kidnapping of South Korea's most famous actress and her ex-husband, the country's most acclaimed director.
In a jaw-dropping mission the couple were kidnapped, held hostage and then 'employed' to make films for the Dear Leader, including a remake of Godzilla. They gained Kim's trust - but could they escape?
A non-fiction thriller with a plot so jaw-dropping even Hollywood couldn't make it up, this extraordinary book will be enjoyed by fans of Argo and Nothing to Envy.
'A story almost too wild to believe . . . Unputdownable' Benjamin Wallace, author of New York Times bestseller The Billionaire's Vinegar
Paul Fischer is a film producer and writer. Born in Saudi Arabia and raised in France, he studied Social Sciences at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris and Film at the University of Southern California and the New York Film Academy. He has worked as an independent film producer in London for the past seven years; his first feature, the documentary Radioman, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Doc NYC festival. A Kim Jong-Il Production is his first book.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
North Korea is a nightmarish movie theater without an exit in this gripping true-life thriller. Fischer, a documentary filmmaker, recounts the 1977 78 abductions of South Korea's leading director, Shin Sang-Ok, and his ex-wife, the movie star Choi Eun-Hee. The two were abducted on the orders of North Korea's movie-obsessed crown prince Kim Jong-Il, who wanted them to upgrade the government's wooden propaganda films with pizzazz and higher production values. The story combines harrowing hardships Choi endured house arrest and constant Kafkaesque "reeducation" exercises; Shin was starved and tortured in prison after escape attempts with dizzying reversals of fortune as the couple are rehabilitated to make hit films under Kim's sponsorship and later plot a nerve-racking flight to the West. In Fischer's vivid close-up, Kim emerges as "the archetypal film producer" writ monstrous: charming and lordly, basking in parties with Joy Brigade starlets and groveling underlings, full of tasteless visions, and ruthless when crossed. (He ordered a mistress who two-timed him to be shot in front of thousands of spectators, including her husband.) Fischer's entertaining narrative paints an arresting portrait of a North Korean "theater state," forced to enact the demented script of a sociopathic tyrant. Photos.
