The Lovers and the Despot
“Why do all our movies have the same plot? Why so many crying scenes? How come we don’t get into more festivals?” The whiny voice we’re hearing, secretly taped, is not some beleaguered studio executive but Kim Jong- il: movie lover, propagandist extraordinaire and ruler of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
That’s the despot in Ross Adam’s and Robert Cannan’s believe- it- or- not documentary. The lovers were South Korean film star Choi Eunhee and her ex- husband, filmmaker Shin Sang- ok. In 1978 she was kidnapped by North Korean agents in Hong Kong and brought directly to Kim. Shin soon followed, though whether it was kidnapping or defection is still an open question.
The movie reconstructs the bizarre tale through interviews with Choi ( Shin died in 2006), the couple’s two children, various secretagent types from back in the day, and clandestine recordings of Kim made by Choi on a tape recorder hidden in her purse. (Sometimes straightforward spycraft is best.)
Kim gave Shin a licence to shoot ( movies), which resulted in a brief, one- man flowering in North Korean cinema; some of Shin’s work is used to dramatize real-life events. Ironically, the director had more freedom in the north, where the capitalist requirement that his films turn a profit was ignored.
There are many bizarre twists, such as Shin’s abort ive attempt to flee the north, which plays out like a movie; call it The Not- So-Great Escape. But the directors take too many narrative tangents, as though eager to let anyone with a stake in the case have his or her 15 minutes on the screen.
The result is a fascinating Cold War spy story, but one with a few too many unanswered questions and unlit corners. You can’t make this stuff up, but I wonder if the movie might have been better if they’d tried. ΩΩ