The Lovers & the Despot

source: The Lovers & the Despot

This documentary film tells the remarkable ordeal of a famous South Korean actress and a film director, who were kidnapped by North Korea in 1970's to strengthen the North Korean film industry. The actress recounts her multi-year ordeal, together with interviews from multiple people and the film director's voice recordings to tell the world their experience. "The Lovers & the Despot" is a well executed documentary. It appears comprehensive, as it has extended interviews by Choi, Choi's children, US government officials, international film critics and even a Hong Kong police officer. It tells a horrible story of kidnapping, brainwashing and torture. It must have taken them great courage to speak up on record against the most secretive regime in the world. It is engaging and captures me throughout. Even though it is comprehensive, I am quite sure it only scratches the surface of what they have gone through in North Korea.

Just after a quick glimpse slightly confused. Why do the subtitles always say (speaking in Korean) and even say (Speaking in Korean) when 신상옥 recordings clearly have him speaking in Japanese? Why does the Hong Kong Police guy seem not very Police like - he also uses the date 30th February - is that used in Hong Kong? Sorry stopped watching after these quibbles - tolerate! Watch it!

THE LOVERS AND THE DESPOT is an intriguing documentary that shines a light on an unexplored aspect of North Korea: the country's entertainment industry. The true story that it tells is so bizarre that it feels fictional in itself; North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was so fed up with the films being made by his country that he kidnapped a director and star that he admired from South Korea and forced them to make films in his own country. I've seen one such film, the notorious monster flick PULGASARI, so I had some knowledge of this tale, but it still proves to be entertaining viewing. It's the usual mix of interview footage mixed with decent material from the era; particularly interesting is the audio footage of Jong-il himself, giving a glimpse into a mindset so often alien to the West. Some clips from the films in question are fun, but of course as a film fan I would have preferred to see more.

This is a very good film. A book about the incredible true story provides more details: "A Kim Jung-Il Production." And it is details that are missing from the film version such as: 1] Did Choi & Shin bring their children from South Korea to the US? 2] What became of Choi's two children with his mistress? Also, some other details which would only have taken a few minutes to add might have been: --when Choi & Shin met, Choi was in an abusive marriage from which he rescued her, in essence. --when Shin's mistress died, her rival, Choi was the only person in attendance at her funeral. These equally fascinating details which I learned from the book might have been of interest and added to the fullness of the narrative. Otherwise, this film does a marvelous job of placing one in the terror, the abject state of a captured trophy performer. The true details of Shin's incarceration are far more brutal than was portrayed, however. The absurdity of North Korea's megalomania-cal rulers and Kim Jung-Il's fondness for film are comical save for the devastating effects on the kidnapped, caged humans in his menagerie. Kim also had US servicemen who defected & had not finished high school become professors of the English department at North Korean universities. And, he had them star in films as evil Americans, of course. This may be the most bizarre true story about world class film-making to date.

For those who like to research about history and culture of different countries, North Korea is still a big mystery. While reading about the Kim dynasty the other day, I discovered little is known about Kim Jong- un, the "Supreme Leader" of the country. It is scaring to know this these days of internet and open information. If NK government can do this today, we figure out how easy it was to do this decades ago. And it is on this idea 'The Lovers and the Despot' focus on. It was a time when Kim Jong-un's father, Kim Jong-il, had absolute power over North Koreans and, among other things, used cinema to spread the idea North Korea should be an example of success and democracy. Seeing this, watch "The Lovers and the Despot" and learn a bit more about this mysterious country.

Back in the 1960s and 70s, Choi Eun-hee and her husband, Shin Sang-OK, were giants in the South Korean film industry. He directed many of his wife's films and the pictures were beloved by South Koreans...as well as an unlikely fan in the North, Kim Jong-il...the son of the country's dictator and the man who would one day take his place. Kim had envisioned creating a great North Korean film industry and instructed his spies to make it so--and they kidnapped Choi! When Shin went looking for her, he, too, was kidnapped and both disappeared off the radar. No one knew, exactly, what happened to them. Using interviews, old film footage and audio recordings they surreptitiously made of Kim, the documentary pieces together their long, sad journey back to freedom. This is not an especially enjoyable film but is a story worth seeing. One of the reasons is that the film is very slow paced and I found my attention occasionally waning. Still, the story is one to hear and learn from despite its slowness.

To outsiders, the North Korean government seems not just cruel but downright bizarre, no more so than in this story of the time that Kim Jong-il, then heir apparent to the Presidency, allegedly kidnapped two famous people from South Korea's film industry so that North Korea could outshine its neighbour. Some said they went willingly: what is less ambiguously true is that they did indeed make films for their "dear leader", and in the end fled, in fear of their lives. It's a very odd tale, although actress Eun-hie Choi tells her side of it convincingly. But although as defectors the protagonists provided western intelligence with their best view yet into the mind of Kim, he remains mostly an inscrutable figure, whose true intentions (and grasp of reality) we can only guess at.

BBC is always a label that indicates I will be interested more than American films. The main review above indicating the many lapses of 'what happened then?' to the story presented left gaps to the understanding of the story of these 2 South Koreans, and left me, the viewer, wondering. And this gaping was not just occasional but repeated with no further references to the lack clarifications - or the 'filling the holes' of their life's story. However, because it is actual as documentary and many still fotos included where some filming was obviously impossible, the result is what is commonly seen on screens of historical events or celebrities. But then the repeated shots of a tape recorder became boring because they were continually used to validate the story. So those recordings were meant to be educational or make believably. That the couple were abducted and held against their will is believable. But how the '5 yrs' of the actress's life in North Korea were lived was unclear - as to whether she was a mistress, only-an-actress-object, or a mainly a celebrity -- used to prove North had what the South loved and lost. And while there is indication of her being drugged when abducted, but then that was left as a vague hint but w/o a more comprehensible description of the drug effects on her - or how long that drugging continued, or did not. I wondered. That the dictator/ruler of North Korea used these celebrities for PRO-paganda purposes was the important msg. learned, Kim's holding people with the military power all autocratic rulers use. Some descriptions of the North Korea population's emotional reactivity was interesting, and while not stating clearly how that was produced, one could imagine some psychological ways that the repression and group-identity of large groups of people could then enclose them and reproduce their extreme attachment to 'their leader'. So there were some revealing and educational benefits, plus the unusual topic, and real-story was a good lure to this movie. The female star's descriptions of her life then were believable too. Documentaries are appreciated when they show, teach, reveal, educate and explore what is lacking elsewhere and unknown. This film did so, tho the techniques were often repetitive and boring at times. Still worth watching for the rarity anyhow.

The Lovers & the Despot