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A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator’s Rise to Power

Author:
Publisher: , 2015
Link to online store *

Publisher description:

It opens with a double kidnapping . . .

Madame Choi, South Korea’s most famous actress, is lured to Hong Kong, drugged and smuggled out on a ship. When her ex-husband, Shin Sang-Ok, Korea’s most acclaimed director, goes to look for her, he vanishes too. The pair wake to find themselves in North Korea. There they are imprisoned, tortured and brainwashed.

Then they meet North Korea’s murderous head of propaganda and next leader, Kim Jong-Il. He gives them a choice – go back to prison or make movies for him . . .

Kidnap. Torture. Murder . . . Making movies North Korean style.

LKL says:

The source for Paul Fischer’s book is mainly Shin Sang-ok’s and Choi Eun-hee’s own accounts, supplemented and cross-checked with interviews, site visits and other materials. But all the fact-checking is not at the expense of literary style: the book is a real page-turner, and has you gripped from start to finish.

LKL rating: score-2score-2score-2score-2score-1. Read our review of this book here.

Entry on Goodreads.com here.

* Where the book is available from a number of sources, they are prioritised as follows: (1) Amazon UK site, or Bookshop.org for the more recent uploads (2) Amazon US site (3) Other sites in US or Europe, including second-hand outlets (4) LTI Korea, where the title is advertised as available from there (5) Onlines stores in Korea. Links to Bookshop.org and Amazon UK site contain an affiliate code which, should you make a purchase, gives a small commission to LKL at no additional cost to you.