Why is This Not a Movie?: Kim Jong Il Kidnaps a Movie Industry

In the Golden Age of Korean Cinema in the ’60s, director Shin Sang-ok and actress Choi Eun-hee were making acclaimed films as a glamorous power couple. But their lives took a turn for the worse as their divorce and new censorship laws hurt both their careers. And then they were both kidnapped… by brutal dictator and rabid cinephile Kim Jong Il. After keeping Shin and Choi prisoner for several years, Kim put them to work building a North Korean film industry he wanted to be the envy of the world. They made several awards-bait films, and then a North Korean Godzilla knockoff, before they made a daring escape. Wyatt Dunn, an American writer living in South Korea, brings us a real life story so unbelievable, it has to be a movie.