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- [00:00]
Dana Schwartz
You're listening to an iHeart podcast.
- [00:05]
Zarin Burnett
We're leaving today and entering a world.
- [00:08]
Dana Schwartz
Of Cinderella, Castle, sightseeing, Tron Light cycling, Jungle cruise, punning Pirate, swashbuckling, Everest climbing, Dapper Danning, danning, danning. Soaring, soaring Fireworks, show of I'm not crying, you're crying. World of Favorites for whatever you love, infinite worlds await at the magical place on earth, Walt Disney World Resort.
- [00:35]
Soledad O'Brien
This podcast is sponsored by Talkspace. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and Talkspace, the leading virtual therapy provider, is telling everyone, let's face it in therapy, by talking or texting with a supportive licensed therapist at Talkspace, you can face whatever is holding you back, Whether it's mental health symptoms, relationship drama, past trauma, bad habits, or another challenge that you need support to work through, it's easy to sign up. Just go to talkspace.com and you'll be paired with a provider, typically within 48 hours. And because you'll meet your therapist online, you don't have to take time off work or arrange childcare. You'll meet on your schedule. Plus, Talkspace is in network with most major insurers and most insured members have a $0 copay. Make your mental health a priority and start today. If you're not covered by Insurance, get $80 off your first month with Talkspace when you go to talkspace.com and enter promo code SPACE80. That's S P A CE80 to match with a licensed therapist today, go to talkspace.com and Enter promo code SPACE80.
- [01:35]
I'm Soledad O' Brien and on my new true crime podcast, Murder on the Towpath, I'm taking you back to 1964 to the cold case of artist Mary Pinchot Meyer.
- [01:47]
Zarin Burnett
She had been shot twice in the head and in the back.
- [01:50]
Soledad O'Brien
It turns out Mary was connected to a very powerful man.
- [01:55]
Zarin Burnett
I pledge you that we shall neither commit nor provoke aggression.
- [02:00]
Soledad O'Brien
John F. Kennedy. Listen to Murder on the towpath with Soledad O' Brien on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
- [02:14]
Holly Fry
Explore the winding halls of historical true crime with Holly Fry and Maria Tremarke, hosts of Criminalia, as they uncover curious cases from the the legend of the Highwayman suggests men dominated the field, but tell that to Lady Catherine Ferrers, known as the wicked lady who terrorized England in the mid-1600s. Her legend persists nearly 400 years after her death. Highwaymen are in the hot seat this season. Find more crime and cocktails on Criminalia. Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [02:52]
Zarin Burnett
This is an iHeart original. On March 13, 1986, a couple burst out of a taxi in Vienna. In front of them, the U.S. embassy. Only a few dozen feet stand between them and their freedom. When they hastily push open the car door, they don't bother to close it behind them. Every second counts. A white taxi had been tailing them the whole ride. Inside the taxi are their bodyguards, bodyguards they have just escaped from. The couple sprints across the pavement and hops up the few stairs to the embassy. If a bystander were to hit pause, freeze frame and zoom in on the couple, their arms outstretched, ready to open the heavy doors, sweat clinging to their foreheads and upper lips, they might recognize them. This is Shin Sang ok, a famous South Korean film director, and his wife, the award winning actress Choi Yoon Hee. Here on the steps of the United States Embassy, they are moments away from catching their biggest break yet. For the last several years, the couple has been in the claws of the North Korean government. Today, they're making a break for it. Their life has been so bizarre, it could be mistaken for an action movie plot. A little too on the nose for the likes of Shin and Choi. Their story involves kidnapping, love affairs, and friendships with unstable dictators. But before we press play and see if they pass through the embassy doors, we need to rewind and watch the strange series of events that led two of the most influential figures in cinema to become personal hostages of Kim Jong Il. Welcome back to Very Special Episodes, an I Heart original podcast. I'm your host Dana Schwartz, and this is north by North Korea.
- [05:23]
Jason English
Thank you for joining us. I'm joined by Jana Schwartz. Hey, Zarin Burnett. I'm Jason English. I kept thinking as we were reading drafts of this one that if we were writing depraved Kim Jong Il fan fiction, like this is the kind of crazy stuff that we could only hope to approach.
- [05:40]
Dana Schwartz
Oh my God, he is such a mercurial, strange character as the dictator's son, but also as like a just a Hollywood and American lover. You don't see it coming.
- [05:48]
Zarin Burnett
It's such an amazing character. This, I will say is the one very special episode, the most where as I was reading it, I was like, this is a movie. This is incredible. I can't believe this story was real. I had to like fact check this episode. As I was going where I was like, is Jason doing an April Fool's Day on me? Is this too good?
- [06:07]
Jason English
Yeah.
- [06:07]
Dana Schwartz
How can this be real? This is the best love story I'VE never heard.
- [06:11]
Zarin Burnett
Yeah. A couple.
- [06:12]
Soledad O'Brien
A love story.
- [06:13]
Dana Schwartz
Are you kidding me?
- [06:14]
Jason English
All right, I don't want to give too much away. Let's get back into it. We'll discuss on the other side.
- [06:24]
Zarin Burnett
The first time Shin Sang OK laid eyes on Choi Yoon Hee, he saw her for who she truly was. An ambitious creative force. It was 1953, months after the Korean War's armistice. Both countries were still smoldering from bombings and napalm. North Korea was run by a socialist dictatorship. Our story starts in South Korea. Shin was an aspiring director looking for for a leading lady for his upcoming film. He'd heard of the talented and popular Madame Choi, so he bought a ticket to see her in a play in a city south of Seoul. In that theater, on that unassuming evening, Shin couldn't take his eyes off of her.
- [07:15]
Ravi Mengla
Shin grew up in an affluent household. His talents were encouraged by his family. He was seen as gifted child. He went to some of the best schools, and he was able to study painting and art in Tokyo during the war.
- [07:30]
Zarin Burnett
This is Ravi Mengla, a writer and novelist. His most recent book, the observer, is a fictionalized version of Shin and Choi's story.
- [07:40]
Ravi Mengla
And then on the other side, you have Choi, who is a very shy and reserved child, her talents not encouraged in the same way. And acting was a place where she found solace and where she really came alive. And when she told her parents that that she wanted to be an actress, that was not something that they accepted readily. So when she was 17, she actually ran away to join up with a theater troupe. And during the war, she was an entertainer for troops. So both she and Shin ended up in the entertainment industry, but through two very different channels.
- [08:16]
Zarin Burnett
As the play unfolded, Shin watched Choi give everything she had on stage until she had nothing left.
- [08:24]
Ravi Mengla
Choi, who was suffering from exhaustion at the time, fainted on stage. And as the story goes, Shin rushed up to the stage, picked her up, threw her over his shoulder, and then took her to the nearest hospital.
- [08:39]
Zarin Burnett
Shin stayed with Choi throughout her hospital visit. When she was released, Choi told Shin about her struggles, how her husband couldn't work, and how poor they were. Shin, having only watched her perform in half a play, felt in his gut that it was his destiny to meet her. So he offered her the role in his upcoming film. He'd pay her as much as he could. According to Paul Fisher's excellent book, A Kim Jong Il Production, which which we'll link to in the show notes, Shin started loitering around the theater's back door, waiting for Choi. To be done with her play, Shin always called her Madame Choi, a sign of respect. They'd wander the streets so wrapped up in conversation, they'd miss the mandatory curfew. They snuck around like teenagers. Although they were both well into their late 20s, Shin told Madame Choi, any film I make, I want you to be in it. Choi filed for divorce and swiftly married Shin on March 7, 1954. They'd known each other for less than a year. Once they joined forces, they were unstoppable. Shin began to build up his studio and cast Choi in nearly every film, right when the South Korean public wanted nothing more than to escape to other worlds.
- [10:09]
Michelle Cho
They're so powerful, I think, as a couple, because Choi is the on screen figure, right? And again, she is so unmistakable. And then Shin is able to take her through all of these really iconic roles that really span across the kind of feminine archetypes that you can think of or you could come up with, right? And so I think that that partnership is so fruitful because you have a screen presence and then a behind the camera presence, and they're kind of in synergy.
- [10:42]
Zarin Burnett
That's Michelle Cho, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto. Her focus is on Korean film and culture.
- [10:51]
Michelle Cho
South Korean filmmaking of the early post war is described as a golden age because there were some really iconic films that were produced during the time that are really sophisticated in terms of the way that they're trying to process the changes that are happening in society.
- [11:09]
Zarin Burnett
Shin and Choi worked across genres and grew exponentially.
- [11:14]
Ravi Mengla
Shin was also an innovator. He entered films and competitions all around the world. So this was the first time that South Korean film was really getting out onto the international stage, and people were seeing what was being created in South Korea, and they were hearing stories that they had never heard before.
- [11:33]
Michelle Cho
There are some parts of his body of work that people will compare directly to Hollywood films that he likely adapted a lot of things from. So he dabbled in the Western, he made a bunch of these family melodramas, he made period pieces, he made war films. He was really kind of a sponge, I think, in terms of picking up influences aesthetically and emotionally, from this kind of world cinema culture that was around him.
- [12:08]
Zarin Burnett
It's up for debate whether Shin was intentional about creating more political and progressive stories.
- [12:15]
Michelle Cho
A lot of Shin's films, especially during the golden age, were enlightenment films, quote, unquote.
- [12:23]
Zarin Burnett
One obvious example is Shin and Choi's 1961 film the Evergreen Tree, about an educated couple who tries to instill modern schooling in a small rural town. They become local heroes as they also fight against the colonialist Japanese government trying to undo their teachings.
- [12:46]
Michelle Cho
And so that has a very specific meaning in post colonial Korea, where it's kind of a storytelling mode that talks about the monetization of a person, whether that's through a transformative encounter with, like, an inspiring teacher or a learning experience of a youth that then kind of forces them to look at the world in a new way. This enlightenment mode is really intended to teach the public how to think of themselves as new national subjects and as new, like, modern subjects. So what are modern ways of thinking? Rationality, you know, pursuit of learning, A kind of desire to remake yourself as like, a civilized human being in this very, like, progressive mode.
- [13:39]
Zarin Burnett
These stories helped Korean audiences process not only their violent past, but a hopeful future. And the films were a hit.
- [13:48]
Ravi Mengla
They received quite a lot of acclaim at the time, but they were extremely prolific during that period, producing over 200 films. And Shin himself directed over 70 films.
- [14:01]
Michelle Cho
Shin films is really responsible for the popularization of cinema as the like, a core aspect of popular culture in South Korea. It was such a strong and dominant source of films, and it defined the film culture.
- [14:18]
Zarin Burnett
But Shin's films wouldn't have been nearly half as good without his better half. Choi was more than a muse. She was Shin's creative equal.
- [14:29]
Michelle Cho
She is an unmistakably iconic screen presence. Shin casts her in a couple of his most iconic films of the 50s. I have thought quite a lot about how it's the case that Choi and Hee was so respected, despite the fact that she played characters who are representative of the most kind of denigrated groups of people in South Korea, Choi took.
- [14:57]
Zarin Burnett
On every kind of role imaginable, from a confident sex worker to a chaste and dutiful widow.
- [15:05]
Michelle Cho
So it's this constant struggle to try and reshape attitudes around gender which is part of what makes Choi such a remarkable figure. I have to think that the fact of her marriage to Shin was part of what protected her, I think, because even if she played characters on screen who lacked legitimacy, she in real life had the legitimacy of this very powerful figure in the film industry.
- [15:34]
Zarin Burnett
According to Paul Fisher's book, Choi was paid the highest fees of any other actress. And even more than Shin, making Choi the breadwinner in their house, their whole life revolved around their films. They even optimized their home for work. They had a room where they set up an editing bed and a large projector to sit stand side by side and edit each movie together. At the Height of Shin Studios. They employed over 300 people and produced 30 films a year. Choi also started an acting school and mentored younger actors. Part of their success came from Shin's refusal to let anything get in the way of his vision. A contemporary said Shin would have jumped down to hell to make a film. By the early 60s, Shin Studios was at its height. They had it all. Well, almost.
- [16:34]
Ravi Mengla
There is a story that Choi said that she wanted to have children. And Shin said, why do we need children? Our films are our children. Which gives you a look into how single minded he often was about filmmaking.
- [16:48]
Zarin Burnett
But Choi wanted more. When she had a hard time getting pregnant, they decided to adopt. Now they really had it all. Stratospheric careers, fame, prestige, and a family. Their names were always mentioned in the same breath. Every day, Shin got to peer through the camera lens and look at his two loves at once. Choi and movies Life was picture perfect until someone of great importance took notice of them. Over the border, North Korean film was going through its own revolution, though under a very different regime. When the 38th parallel was tattooed into maps, North Korea isolated itself from most of the world. The exception was those countries who were bankrolling them to stay afloat. Like China and the ussr, North Korea became an authoritarian socialist regime. There was no freedom of speech, movement or expression. Organized religion was restricted. Kim Il Sung was the first great leader, and everything and everyone served his vision. Neighbors were encouraged to spy on one another, and history was rewritten in the regime's favor. No one was allowed to question their leader. Small infractions could be interpreted as an act against the state, resulting in relocation to the countryside. Image was everything, and Kim Il Sung knew that.
- [18:37]
Ravi Mengla
So North Korean culture at the time embraced an extreme level of conformity. People had a strong sense of duty to Kim's father and figures of authority, and they valued the collective over the individual. And that was really reflected in all of the art and cinema and materials being created at the time. Propaganda was being created to enhance the reputation of the government and earn loyalty from the populace. So North Korean citizens at the time were restricted from consuming Western media, and the latest films at the time were not accessible to North Korean residents.
- [19:18]
Zarin Burnett
All films were under state control, and film is the ideal medium for propaganda. It's easy to tell a message on a mass specific scale where everyone watches together and can watch each other.
- [19:33]
Michelle Cho
From the beginning, the leadership in North Korea understands the power of this medium and so wants to be able to harness it for the sake of educating the public, of instilling in the public, a better understanding of what the guiding ideology of the North Korean state is and what it should be. That's the distinctive feature of mass culture in a socialist country. And so it's entertainment. Yes, it's showing ways for the populace to be kind of modern and to think of themselves as new national subjects after liberation or after the Korean War. But fundamentally, it's there to serve as an ideological vehicle.
- [20:21]
Zarin Burnett
All films were structured around the North Korean philosophy of Juche.
- [20:25]
Michelle Cho
So the North Korean state ideology is called Juche ideology, and it is translated as self reliance. I think of it as a kind of paradox or tension at the core of Juche ideology in the sense that it is placing responsibility for maintaining a kind of collective vision in the individual hands of each member of society. And so it does this really interesting thing of balancing out the individual and collective.
- [21:01]
Zarin Burnett
Juche bristles at the thought of asking for help. It states that every individual should hold their own and every action they take is for the collective good of North Korea alone. If the collective relies on each other, they don't need outsiders and can avoid being dependent on countries like they had been in the past.
- [21:24]
Michelle Cho
But it was also a way for North Korea to also keep itself independent or distinguishable from the Maoist Communist China and the Soviets, and not get overshadowed by larger nation states that seek to incorporate the north into whatever their agenda might be. And I think that comes directly out of the experience of colonial occupation under Japan. And that also shapes the way that North Korea sees what South Korea is, which is as a puppet colony of the United States.
- [22:04]
Zarin Burnett
Because all films were created through the lens of Juche, or all of the films had nearly identical plots.
- [22:11]
Michelle Cho
The dominant structure of North Korean films is this kind of trajectory of some individual person going through hardship, either because of a class struggle, you know, or because of some kind of injustice that they experience. And then coming to realize through that suffering that the principles of Juche and the stewardship of the Dear Leader are what offer some kind of hope.
- [22:45]
Ravi Mengla
So a defector of North Korea had said that you didn't even have to stay for the second half of a North Korean film because you knew what was going to happen. There was no surprise.
- [22:55]
Zarin Burnett
Although these movies objectively were boring and poorly made, there was one person who was obsessed, obsessed with film. Kim Il Sung's eldest son, Kim Jong Il.
- [23:07]
Michelle Cho
He is widely known to be a film buff with a huge collection of films in a private collection that he gets to access because most North Koreans do not get to see films from the West.
- [23:22]
Zarin Burnett
Although Kim Jong Il was raised in extreme wealth and power. His childhood wasn't a happy one.
- [23:30]
Ravi Mengla
So Kim Jong Il had a lonely upbringing. By all accounts, the people he played with or was allowed to socialize with was extremely limited. And he found solace in film. Film was something he fell in love with.
- [23:43]
Zarin Burnett
So he submerged himself in films. He started a bootlegging and smuggling ring to bring international films into the country. He had American prisoners of war translate and voice American films. He created his own massive secret cinema lair, air conditioned and fully staffed with two hundred and fifty people, all for an audience of one.
- [24:09]
Ravi Mengla
As he got older, he amassed a collection of more than 20,000 films. He was known as a huge fan of Elizabeth Taylor. He loved the James Bond franchise.
- [24:19]
Zarin Burnett
Kim Jong Il would rather watch movies all day than partake in mandatory military service. He also had a bad temperament and lashed out at people. Kim Jong Il wasn't qualified to inherit the country. Kim Il Sung couldn't place his artsy, antagonistic son until a perfect situation fell into his lap. One film was made. Some sources say it was a play that risked challenging Kim Il Sung's personality culture. It was interpreted as treason. The creators were sent to the mountains and Kim Il Sung stormed into the studio office to lecture the remaining studio executives. After his tirade, Kim Il Sung asked the room if anyone had the courage to lead the propaganda and agitation department in accordance with the party's ideologies and rules. Standing behind nearly everyone in the back, Kim Jong Il raised his hand.
- [25:26]
Ravi Mengla
In this informal role of propaganda minister, he was allowed to lean into his love of film craft. At the same time, he was being carefully trained to take on a leadership role at a time that his father stepped aside. So in a way, it was a win win for both Kim and for his father.
- [25:48]
Zarin Burnett
Once Kim Jong Il took the reins of the film industry, he thrived by North Korean standards.
- [25:55]
Ravi Mengla
He even wrote a book of film criticism in 1973 called on the Art of Cinema. And this was not just a thin 50 page book. We are talking about a 400 page tome. And in that book he talked about how all films should be imbued with an ideology. It advocated for film as propaganda.
- [26:17]
Zarin Burnett
Kim Il Sung loved the films his son oversaw. But Kim Jong Il knew something his father didn't. These films were bad. Although citizens were told that North Korean film was the best in the world and leading the film industry, Kim Jong Il had watched enough film foreign films to know that his movies were not up to snuff. Kim Il Sung also wanted North Korean film to be internationally recognized so the world could one day know that North Korea is superior to every other country. But even South Korean cinema was outpacing them, and he had to do something.
- [27:01]
Ravi Mengla
Kim Jong Il felt that the only way that he could fix the North Korean film industry was with better talent. And he saw Shin Sang OK and Choi Eun Hee in South Korea, and he wanted that for his country. He wanted it in such a literal way, he was willing to go to extreme lengths to get it.
- [27:28]
Soledad O'Brien
This podcast is sponsored by Talkspace. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and Talkspace, the leading virtual therapy provider, is telling everyone let's face it in therapy, by talking or texting with a supportive licensed therapist at Talkspace, you can face whatever is holding you back, whether it's mental health symptoms, relationship drama, past trauma, bad habits, or another challenge that you need support to work through, it's easy to sign up. Just go to talkspace.com and you'll be paired with a provider, typically within 48 hours. And because you'll meet your therapist online, you don't have to take time off work or arrange childcare. You'll meet on your schedule. Plus, Talkspace is in network with most major insurers and most insured members have a $0 copay. Make your mental health a priority and start today. If you're not covered by Insurance, get $80 off your first month with Talkspace when you go to talkspace.com and enter promo code SPACE80. That's S P A CE83 to match with a licensed therapist today, go to talkspace.com and Enter promo code SPACE80.
- [28:28]
I'm Soledad O' Brien and on my podcast Murder on the Towpath, I'm taking you back to the 1960s. Mary Pinchot Meyer was a painter who lived in Georgetown in Washington, dc. Every day she took a daily walk along a tow path near the E and O Canal. So when she was killed in a wealthy neighborhood, she had been shot twice.
- [28:51]
Zarin Burnett
In the head and in the back, behind the heart.
- [28:55]
Soledad O'Brien
The police arrived in a heartbeat. Within 40 minutes, a man named Raymond Crump Jr. Was arrested. He was found nearby, soaking wet, and he was black. Only one woman dared defend him, civil rights lawyer Dovey Roundtree. Join me as we unravel this story with a crazy twist, because what most people didn't know is that Mary was connected to a very powerful man.
- [29:23]
Zarin Burnett
I pledge you that we shall neither commit nor provoke aggression.
- [29:28]
Soledad O'Brien
John F. Kennedy Listen to Murder on the towpath with Soledad O' Brien on the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.
- [29:47]
Zarin Burnett
Despite the meteoric success of Shin Studios, Shin and Choi made movies during a time of increased censorship and authoritarian rule by the South Korean government. But Shin did what he had to do not to let anything get in the way of his films.
- [30:07]
Ravi Mengla
Shin and Choi were able to rub shoulders with the country's cultural and political elite. They had a good relationship at the time with General Park.
- [30:18]
Zarin Burnett
The current leader of South Korea was General park, who had seized power via coup in 1961. Park wanted to show the world that South Koreans embraced modernism and were culturally sophisticated, sophisticated, not like those tyrant socialists in the North. General park and his wife also had a close personal relationship with Shin and Choi.
- [30:45]
Ravi Mengla
And for that reason, he allowed Shin and Choi with a great deal of artistic license, at least in the early going. Because he wanted South Korea to be recognized on the international stage. He wanted that cultural recognition from the Western world.
- [31:03]
Zarin Burnett
In the 1970s, tensions rose between north and South Korea. General park became more authoritarian. He started limiting the rights and freedoms of South Koreans.
- [31:17]
Michelle Cho
So from 1972 onwards, kind of shows the censorship regime growing and kind of being much more involved in trying to, well, first take out anything that could potentially be perceived as political viewpoints. The guiding principle to all of his initiatives and the way that he's able to convince the Korean public to go along with it is this anti communist stance that everything that he's doing to restrict the liberties and freedoms of South Koreans is absolutely necessary in order to fend off the threat of North Korea. But my sense is that Shin made some of his best films in South Korea and kind of experienced a lot of growth and really reached the peak of his career when he had a pretty friendly relationship with the government. There's a sense that, you know, Shin Films and Shin Studios was getting along really well with the Park Chung Hee administration until it didn't.
- [32:24]
Zarin Burnett
Now South Korea was becoming as tight lipped as its estranged brother to the north, especially in the arts.
- [32:34]
Ravi Mengla
Park's regime became much stricter around ideas in film and music and art. And there were extremely rigid censorship boards that would review films over and over again to make sure that the content was nothing that could be seen as controversial or out of step with South Korea and the South Korean government at the time.
- [32:56]
Michelle Cho
So anything that could be even in the slightest way, interpreted as criticism of the government is a no go. Clearly, he is really interested in policing what people see in film and television.
- [33:17]
Zarin Burnett
Regardless of politics, Shin always managed to use his political connections to get his movies made. No matter the content. Shin Began to believe that he was above the rules. He continued to follow his artistic inclinations, even if they went against the censorship laws. Every other time he'd broken the rules, he. He would just go and chat with his government friends. But times were changing.
- [33:48]
Michelle Cho
In a screening of a film, a new film, Shin had refused to take out a romantic scene. So a scene where characters kiss. And that so angered the censorship office that Shin Films like Finally Loses favorite with the Park Chung Hee administration.
- [34:10]
Zarin Burnett
This time, Shin's justifications fell on deaf ears at the censorship bureau. He was also stripped of his film license. That wasn't all he lost during this time.
- [34:24]
Ravi Mengla
About this time, the time that Shin Studios was beginning to decline and running into struggles with the censorship boards, was also the time that Shin and Choi's relationship was facing a lot of difficulties and friction. So in the early 1970s, Shin struck up an affair with a younger actress. And this became a public scandal.
- [34:48]
Zarin Burnett
Up until now, Choi had always looked the other way. When Shin had dalliances with other women, they were usually flings, nothing serious. But this time was different. One morning, home alone, Choi picked up a film magazine and saw her husband's name in a headline. Ice ran through her veins as she scanned through the article. According to the news, Shin had just become a father. He had had an affair with a man, much younger actress, and she gave birth to Shin's son. Affairs were one thing, but a love child. When Shin knew Choi was crestfallen, that she couldn't give birth on her own, they tried to make it work. But then the actress gave birth to a second child. This was unforgivable. And Choi separated from Shin. Now Shin had no wife, no career, no studio, no art to make. The whole life he'd built began to unspool like a film, a reel tumbling to the ground. Due to the decline of Shin Studios, Choi's acting, studio and career took a hit too. Life faded from Technicolor to black and white. For both of them, time went by. It looked like there was no way for this former powerhouse to regain their relationship or creative status. Until one unsuspecting day in 1977, Choi received a curious visitor. A Hong Kong businessman asked if she would be interested in directing a film in China. It was a strange request, but Choi needed a break from South Korea. Choi packed a bag and flew to Hong Kong, where the Chinese businessmen wined and dined her. When she tried to mention the film, the men changed the subject. This unnerved her. On her penultimate morning, men with sloppy long hair put A bag over her head and threw her into a boat.
- [37:15]
Ravi Mengla
She described being held in the hull of a cargo ship and feeling incredible fear. She had no idea what was going on, but had been coerced onto this boat and now does not know what the future holds, what is in front of her, what is happening?
- [37:30]
Zarin Burnett
For six days, Choi felt unmoored as the waves undulated beneath her. She barely ate when the boat anchored. She was transferred to a smaller vessel. Choi was brought up on deck and then brought onshore a little ways away from the main port, still wearing the same outfit she was kidnapped in. A man in a large coat approached her with a huge smile.
- [37:58]
Ravi Mengla
Thank you for coming, Madam Choi.
- [38:00]
Dana Schwartz
You must be exhausted.
- [38:03]
Zarin Burnett
Welcome.
- [38:03]
Dana Schwartz
I am Kim Jong Il.
- [38:08]
Zarin Burnett
Choi musters the strength to not faint. The North Korean dictator's son is standing before her, talking to her by her name. People in North Korea hadn't even heard Kim Jong Il's voice yet. Someone whipped out a camera and took a photo Choi tried to hide. The camera clicked in. The photo is the large, smiling silhouette of Kim Jong Il. Madame Choi, after a life of having her picture taken, buried her chin and nose into her scarf. The rest of her face is hidden under large sunglasses.
- [38:52]
Ravi Mengla
So it's a bit of a whirlwind for Choi. Once she arrives in North Korea, she is brought to luxury accommodations.
- [39:00]
Zarin Burnett
Choi is taken to a villa, which is really a tacky yet glamorous house arrest. Her handlers walked her under gaudy chandeliers to her new room. Her passport and South Korean identity card are taken. Her new bedroom is filled with clothing tailored to her body, along with makeup she used to use. They had been expecting her. When she went to shut the door, she noticed the doors didn't lock. She will soon find that none of them do. Inside this prison palace, her days are no longer her own and are structured around her quote, re education.
- [39:44]
Ravi Mengla
She's introduced to a private tutor who immediately begins talking to her about the life and achievements of Kim Il Sung. She's isolated and bored and being held in these luxury accommodations for reasons that she doesn't understand. She doesn't know why she has been brought to this country, what they want of her. But she's almost like a, you know, an animal in a cage just being paraded around and has no autonomy of her own.
- [40:14]
Zarin Burnett
During her re education, Choi learns fast not to question what she's taught about North Korea, no matter how fanciful and highly unlikely. Now, in the belly of the beast, Choi must do her best acting yet. There's a phone in her room, where Kim Jong Il has a private phone line for just Choi, he frequently calls her up asking if she's doing anything like it's a genuine question.
- [40:45]
Ravi Mengla
Kim Jong Il is very excited by the arrival of Choi. He has been isolated his whole life in his love of cinema and in Choi, he has somebody who he respects. He respects her opinion. He wants to know her thoughts and perspectives on art and entertainment. This seems a very one sided relationship that Kim has almost force somebody to be his friend. He has the friend that he always wanted.
- [41:14]
Zarin Burnett
At times Kim Jong Il calls her teacher Choi, given that she was well into her 50s by now.
- [41:21]
Ravi Mengla
So Choi's behavior at the time is heavily watched over and she has people instructing her on how to behave and act. She does not have a lot of freedom to do the things she wants to say the things she wants. She has been taught to be totally obedient at this time. So while Kim admires her opinions and wants her perspectives on things, in a larger sense, she's extremely limited in what she can say and do.
- [41:54]
Zarin Burnett
As Choi spent more time with Kim, she saw that he had all the trappings of a dictator's son. He had lavish parties, surrounded by yes men and women. Choi was invited to the parties often, as if she had an option to decline.
- [42:13]
Ravi Mengla
So he loved parading Choi around as arm candy, as a prize or a trophy that he had acquired.
- [42:22]
Zarin Burnett
Choi's disappearance didn't go unnoticed in South Korea. Shin had known she was going to Hong Kong and was growing concerned he hadn't heard from her. So he called a friend and was told to go there himself. When he arrived in Hong Kong, he learned about her disappearance and that all of her luggage was left in her hotel room, which gave the impression she would return.
- [42:50]
Ravi Mengla
This was not somebody who had escaped, so Shin believed that she had been kidnapped or something awful had happened. And keep in mind, they had children. They had children who were wondering where their mother was.
- [43:03]
Zarin Burnett
Shin had to go to the United States for a spell, but returned to Hong Kong to investigate. And unfortunately, he met a similar fate.
- [43:14]
Ravi Mengla
Shin came to Hong Kong and he ended up being betrayed by a friend who was an agent for the North Korean government.
- [43:21]
Zarin Burnett
His kidnapping was a repeat of his wife's. His days were broken up into hours of ideological training, lunch and a nap. The latter half of his day was spent watching North Korean films that Kim Jong Il specifically requested he watch. For some reason, the films were so bad Shin preferred the ideological training. Unlike Choi, who used her acting chops to survive, Shin only knew action he was not used to someone else directing his life. He tried to escape twice. When he was recaptured the second time, the North Koreans threw him in a packed detention center.
- [44:06]
Ravi Mengla
He was kept in that detention center for over three years, where he was in a cell so small he could barely lie down. He was forced to undergo extreme re education and he lost a great deal of weight. His health suffered quite a bit during that time.
- [44:23]
Zarin Burnett
With nothing to do, all Shin could do was think. He relived and re watched every mistake he had ever made in his life. His affairs, his children, his career, and hurting Choi. And mixed in this stew of regret, he began to mentally re edit all of his films. As he stared at the same spot in his cell every day, he redirected his movies in his head, played them on repeat, reshoot re trimmed and reorganized each one to have a stronger impact. If only he could get one more chance. Then one day, after years of living in a deplorable detention center, Shin was released and told to get ready to meet the dictator's son. Over the same three years, only the seasons changed for Choi. When she asked to be reunited with her family, she was told she would see them once the two Koreas reunite. As the world continued to spin around the sun, she quietly celebrated each of her children's birthdays to herself. She often went into her bathroom and turned on the faucet so no one could hear her weeping. Her days were spent writing long, congratulatory letters to both Kim Jong Il and his father, thanking them for showing her the light and superior ways of North Korea. In the moment when she put down her pen, she continued to rack her brain as to why she was here. One unsuspecting night, she's in of front, invited to another one of Kim's lavish parties. When she arrives, she notices that there's something extra about this party. There are more people, more food, louder music, and everyone is congratulating her for reasons she doesn't understand. In all of the merriment, the guest of honor walks in, the music stopped. A woman grabbed Choi by the arm and began to bring her over to the guest of honor, a thin and frail man. Choi's heart drops to her stomach. It takes her a moment to recognize him. But she knew this man. She knew him very well.
- [46:51]
Ravi Mengla
That's the first time that they are seeing each other in about five years. So it's hard to imagine just the shock of seeing a ghost, Someone that you weren't sure was alive, that you had no idea where they were, and somebody who you had built a life with. They are suddenly appearing in this foreign land at a party by Kim Jong Il. And I think there was a sense of relief to know that one another was all right.
- [47:20]
Zarin Burnett
Choi was left standing in front of Shin. The room went quite quiet. Kim Jong Il looks from one to the other. He tells them to hug each other. For heaven's sake. Why are they both just standing there? Then Choi rests her head on Shin's shoulder, the way she used to, and feels the familiar groove of his collarbone, the safety of his chest. Despite the bankruptcy in the affairs and the love children and now kidnapping, the world falls away and they hold on to each other for dear life. The room erupts in applause. Kim Jong il announces that Mr. Shin will be his film advisor. The party continued for hours. When the party was over, they were driven back to another prison palace. They would be living together again with their handlers, of course. When they arrived, they entered their private bathroom. Choi turned on the faucets and they tentatively began to recap the last five years. At first, Shin was apprehensive of Choi. She seemed to have good relations with the North Koreans while at the party. Then Choi quipped why the movie director can't even recognize acting when he seize it. And laughed. Regardless of their past, at least they weren't alone anymore. The last thing they discussed while the water was still running was outlining not a movie, but an escape. The next morning, Kim Jong Il put.
- [49:05]
Ravi Mengla
Them to work for six months. He had them watch four or five films a day and critique them. He gave them access to his entire film library. And he engaged them in deep conversations about film and art. So now he has two friends and he is absolutely over the moon.
- [49:27]
Zarin Burnett
And Choi and Shin finally learned the real reason they were kidnapped. First, Kim believed making movies would help fund the economy. Despite these opulent parties, the regime was actually in decline. The North Korean economy hadn't bounced back enough to repay the loans they had received from China and the ussr. Kim Jong Il wanted to maintain his lavish lifestyle. Amongst many of his devious plans to boost the economy. Kim Jong Il believed that film revenue from international distribution could be one way.
- [50:08]
Ravi Mengla
And Kim Jong Il's goal is to have North Korean cinema recognized on an international scale. And he knows a propaganda film is not going to be what creates that fame and recognition from, you know, from both the east and the West.
- [50:27]
Zarin Burnett
Kim Jong Il wanted to be on par with Hollywood and Western films. Choi and Shin were left to square with a leader of a hermit country who wanted international attention. Now Shin and Choi began the balancing act of outlining scripts and planning their escape. The couple researched and prepared for their films around the country. They had bodyguards with them everywhere they went. And in these tours around the country, Shin and Choi visited a rare department store that sold Western items and managed to purchase a tape recorder. Shin realized he could use it to his advantage. They could record Kim and get him to admit that he had planned to kidnap them. And that's just what they do secretly at a meeting with him. This was obviously incredibly risky behavior. Recording the North Korean party leaders is a death sentence. But the couple can't have the outside world, especially South Korean leaders, thinking they came here willingly. Choi kept the recorder in her bag. She reached down and, as quietly as she could, pressed record. As Kim Jong Il began monologuing, he discussed the problems with North Korean films and his knowledge of international films. He also admitted that he plotted to kidnap them without prompting. He thought he could only get to Shin if he captured Choi first. They kept up their appearances, laughing and smiling at Kim's jokes as they recorded. When the meeting finished, Shin and Choi played back the tapes with the faucet running in their bathroom. With this tape, they could prove they didn't defect to North Korea. But in the immediate term, Shin and Choi's first task was to make a movie for Kim il Sung's birthday, April 15th. It was late October. They had six months to go.
- [52:42]
Ravi Mengla
What was so fascinating for me is that any act of creation, any book you write or film you make, it is such a deeply personal act. It's an act that requires safe mental, physical and psychological space. So the idea of creating something under duress, having your life being almost dangled over you while you are making a film, is such a strange and foreign concept that very few people have ever experienced. What is that like? How do you make art that is.
- [53:16]
Zarin Burnett
Being coerced, under duress or not, Shin couldn't help but feel like himself again when he got behind the camera.
- [53:24]
Ravi Mengla
Kim respected Shin and Choi so much that he allowed them a level of creative control that he had never allowed for any North Korean director. He was not micromanaging in the same way, and he trusted their vision. He had seen the way that they had catapulted the South Korean film industry, and he wanted the same thing for North Korea. And he knew that he was not able to helicopter over them in the same way. If those were the aspirations that he had in North Korea, he's given a great deal of license to create what he wants and given all the resources.
- [53:59]
Zarin Burnett
To create it, even leaving the country.
- [54:03]
Ravi Mengla
Kim's desire for cultural superiority and international recognition is so great that he begins breaking his own rules. So Shin and Choi were allowed to travel internationally, and they were allowed to travel on the Communist side of the Iron Curtain. All of this is happening in the climate of the Cold War at the time.
- [54:23]
Zarin Burnett
Under Kim Jong Il's request, they set up shop in Eastern Europe and started rolling. Shin had officially jumped down to hell in order to make a film. Six months later, their first film, Emissary of no Return, delighted Kim Jong Il and global audiences, even winning an international award. Kim Jong Il showered Choi and Shin with gifts and gave them full control over future films.
- [54:56]
Ravi Mengla
And that means money is no object. If he wants a thousand extras, Kim Jong Il will deliver them. He routinely would send members conscripted in the army to serve as extras in Shin's films. He wanted a train to explode in one of his films. So Kim Jong Il delivered a train filled with dynamite. So whatever Shin wanted, whatever Choi wanted to, Kim delivered for them.
- [55:23]
Michelle Cho
It's like that scale of production was possible in the North Korean context because he had all of the resources of the government behind him.
- [55:33]
Zarin Burnett
Over the next three years, Shin and Choi pumped out six more films. And in the strangeness of this time, Choi and Shin fell back into a similar rhythm that that mirrored their previous life. They began to fall back in love. Their days were filled with writing, editing, coaching, acting and directing. Like in their early days, the North Korean public loved all of their films. With each success, Shin asked for a bigger staff and imported goods from East Germany. The couple could travel as much as they wanted within the walls of the iron block.
- [56:18]
Ravi Mengla
So they were able to travel to places like Moscow and Czechoslovakia and enter their films and competitions. Like Kim, Shin and Choi had a lot of cognitive dissonance at this time. They are being granted the freedom that they were yearning for in South Korea. They have the ability to make the films of their dreams.
- [56:39]
Zarin Burnett
When Choi and Shin were in Eastern Europe and the ussr, they demonstrated pride in their work, which made the Western world question their whole story about them being kidnapped.
- [56:52]
Ravi Mengla
This is also the first time that South Korea is seeing Choi and Shin. They did not know what happened to them or where they went. And this creates a ton of speculation and rumor in South Korea at the time. And what most people believe was that they defected, that they defected to North Korea. So now Shin and Choi, formerly leading lights, formerly stars of South Korean cinema, are now Persona non grata. They are now widely despised by the South Korean public.
- [57:23]
Zarin Burnett
The Western world started doubting their loyalties.
- [57:27]
Michelle Cho
And I think that, yeah, Shin, there are a lot of questions about what his political ideologies actually were and how he really felt about one regime or another. And I think we'll never be able to know that for sure. Yes, it's a kidnapping. Was it a defection? There's not a lot of clarity. So Shin gets to make his big, you know, spectacles and Kim gets his kind of tool mouthpiece.
- [57:56]
Zarin Burnett
Shin and Choi maintained that escape was always in the back of their minds, no matter how gratifying the art process was.
- [58:05]
Ravi Mengla
So on one hand they're very satisfied. On the other hand, they are still captive. They can't see their children, they can't travel to many parts of the world. And they knew that this was not a long term or sustainable situation.
- [58:21]
Zarin Burnett
The height of their fame in North Korea was their monster movie, Paul Gasari, a North Korean ripoff of Godzilla.
- [58:30]
Ravi Mengla
This was the most expensive film that North Korea had ever produced. It included thousands of extras and was a huge hit. Kim Jong Il loved it. And due to the success of that, they were able to make a pitch for an even larger film. They wanted to make an epic about Genghis Khan and they knew that they would need more financing for this. So Kim allowed them to go to Vienna to meet with financiers for this speculative project. And that's where they hatch their escape.
- [59:07]
Soledad O'Brien
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- [60:07]
I'm Soledad O' Brien and on my podcast, Murder on the Towpath, I'm taking you back to the 1960s. Mary Pinchot Meyer was a painter who lived in Georgetown in Washington, D.C. every day she took a daily walk along the Tow Pan path near the E and O Canal. So when she was killed in a wealthy neighborhood, she had been shot twice.
- [60:30]
Zarin Burnett
In the head and in the back, behind the heart.
- [60:34]
Soledad O'Brien
The police arrived in a heartbeat. Within 40 minutes, a man named Raymond Crump Jr. Was arrested. He was found nearby, soaking wet, and he was black. Only one woman dared defend him. Sid civil rights lawyer Dovey Roundtree. Join me as we unravel this story with a crazy twist, because what most people didn't know is that Mary was connected to a very powerful man.
- [61:01]
Zarin Burnett
I pledge you that we shall neither commit nor provoke aggression.
- [61:07]
Soledad O'Brien
John F. Kennedy Listen to Murder on the towpath with Soledad O' Brien on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
- [61:26]
Zarin Burnett
In 1986, Shin and Choi cashed in all of their chips. They convinced Kim Jong Il to let them set up their European studio in Vienna. At the time, Austria was a explicitly neutral in the contest between east and west, so being in Vienna could give them enough wiggle room to slip under the Iron Curtain altogether. Shin and Choi arrive at their hotel in the city center with their bodyguards. When their bodyguards aren't looking, Shin slips a piece of paper to a hotel employee. It says who they are, that they're kidnapped by the North Koreans, and to please send help from the US Embassy.
- [62:13]
Ravi Mengla
Normally, whenever Shin and Choi left the country, they would have guards and minders and people making sure that they didn't escape. But over time, it became a little bit more lax and they created the pretense or lie of a journalistic interview. So Shin and Choi made up a story about an interview with a journalist so they were able to gain some privacy from their bodyguards.
- [62:42]
Zarin Burnett
Shin then calls an old friend, a Japanese reporter, Inoki, living in Vienna, and tells him to be ready the next day with a car waiting outside their hotel. Shin then tells their bodyguards that they had an interview with a journalist which could help convince the Western world that they were in North Korea by Choi's wink, wink, nudge nudge. The next morning, Shin and Choi have the bodyguards over for breakfast in their hotel room to maintain appearances. Then, at 12:30, Shin and Choi go outside to meet Inoki. They notice their back bodyguards idling outside. Shin spots Inoki standing by a taxi. Shin and Choi, as casually as they can, muster walk down the street at a seemingly normal pace. Then, once they get close to the car, Shin shoves both the reporter and his wife into the taxi, slams the door, and they book it in the car, shiny. Shin tells Inoki they have been kidnapped by the North Koreans and need to make it to the American embassy. As Shin tries to spit out the situation, Choi notices in the rearview mirror that a white taxi is making every turn as they do it. They tell their driver to go around in circles to try to lose the taxi. The taxi's radio speakers come on the window. White taxi is calling to ask where they went. Inoki handed their taxi driver wads of cash and told their driver to lie to the other taxi, tell them they went the other way. They were only a few minutes away from the embassy. Finally, they arrived at the bottom of a hill. There's too much traffic for the taxi to go through, so Choi and Shin jump out of the car and sprint towards the embassy and burst through the doors. The couple pants and sweats and tries to explain who they are. American diplomats escort them outside and bring them to a safe house. When they enter the safe house, Choi cries and falls into her husband's arms. International papers blew up when the news broke about Shin and Choi. In public accounts, the North Koreans claimed that Shin and Choi had come to North Korea voluntarily and were now kidnapped by the South Korean government. Who knows what Kim Jong Il thought after they escaped.
- [65:29]
Ravi Mengla
So this is the first time that Shin and Choi can tell their own story and they are brought to the United States and they are held in protective housing in Virginia for several years.
- [65:42]
Zarin Burnett
Now, after decades of making fiction, stories and propaganda, all they cared about was telling the truth.
- [65:50]
Ravi Mengla
This is a time that they began writing their memoirs and telling the true story behind their kidnapping. And fortunately for Chin and Choi, they had been recording a lot of their conversations with Kim. There were many people who believed that they had voluntarily defected. And because of this, recordings that in many cases Choi had captured holding the recorder in her purse, they were able to set the record straight.
- [66:15]
Zarin Burnett
They eventually moved to Los Angeles. A filmmaker's dream. This was the third time Shin tried to rebuild Shin Studios from scratch. But they couldn't catch a break. Hollywood operated much differently than the film industry in Korea.
- [66:35]
Ravi Mengla
They found it much more difficult than they expected. And Shin did have a little bit of success. He directed three films. People may know them as the Three Ninjas franchise. He directed them under the alias of Simon Sheen. So when you look at the credits, it's not Shin Sang OK on there but these were small hits. They were low budget films that had a fair amount of success. But it wasn't what Shin wanted to do. He wanted to make epics, he wanted to make artistic masterpieces. And he was forced to make sequels for children's films. So it was not his ideal situation.
- [67:11]
Zarin Burnett
When Shin and Choi talked to Hollywood producers about turning their own lives into a movie, the producers were hesitant to have three Asian leads. In 1999, Shin and Choi returned to South Korea and lived out the rest of their lives together. Looking back, there seemed to be conflicting feelings about their time in North Korea. Although they insisted that they were kidnapped. Was it really all that bad?
- [67:44]
Ravi Mengla
Shin regarded his time in North Korea as a real artistic flourishing. So the film Runaway, for instance, he considers his masterpiece. He considers a film that he made while in captivity the best film that he had ever made. So he left with a certain measure of reluctance. If he could somehow take that artistic freedom, that amount of resources that he had been given in North Korea and bring that to a place where he could live his life freely, I think that would have been the ideal situation for him.
- [68:18]
Zarin Burnett
When they returned to South Korea, they did go through questioning by the government and in the media. People wanted to make sure they hadn't willingly defected. Shin died in 2006 and Choi passed 12 years later. Obituaries written by American and South Korean papers referenced the kidnapping, solidifying the story that they had been abducted. Although they didn't exactly go out with a bang, their wider impacts are still felt in South Korean cinema.
- [68:51]
Michelle Cho
I think that Shin's work, and then, you know, his partnership with Chaeyeon, the way that they again ranged across so many different genres and showed that they could adapt story forms and settings, like in the Manchurian Western, to the Korean context and make really compelling films. It's basically exactly what the South Korean film industry has become famous worldwide for doing. They were ahead of their time. And so I think that his influence, it can't be overstated. It's recognizable everywhere in the South Korean industry and then across the region too. I think Asian cinema is part of that as well.
- [69:40]
Jason English
What a story.
- [69:42]
Dana Schwartz
Oh my goodness. Paul Gasari, Come on now.
- [69:44]
Zarin Burnett
Oh my God. This love story. I can't believe they came together.
- [69:48]
Dana Schwartz
And the daring escape. Are you kidding me? The foot chase. Oh, this? You're so right. Dan, up top. This is a movie.
- [69:54]
Zarin Burnett
It's like you can see it.
- [69:56]
Dana Schwartz
Yeah.
- [69:56]
Jason English
So, Zarin, I know you knew this story. Cause you and Elizabeth covered this on ridiculous crime. Is there any other color that we had to leave out of this version.
- [70:06]
Dana Schwartz
Oh, I would just say the only thing that we fixated on in the story that we kind of didn't cover in this version was the abductors themselves were a funny group and nobody could ever get the number right. So it was like three to four guys. We just kept laughing about how humans have a hard time counting past three. You get to like four. I don't know. It's three or four, maybe five. I don't know. So the idea that these abductors who we pointed out, they both get abducted, but they get abducted in such strange ways, and all of a sudden you show up in North Korea, like, how bizarre is that as a life moment? So I would say that was the part that we fixated. But other than that, it's the exact same story. And it's so beautiful that I loved this rendition because we spent more time on the love story.
- [70:44]
Zarin Burnett
I love this love story. This made me so happy.
- [70:46]
Dana Schwartz
Totally. And by the way, the love story I'm talking about is Kim Jong Il and Paul Gasari, the Godzilla style monster. That's what I meant.
- [70:54]
Zarin Burnett
Yeah, yeah. That's the real romance of this episode.
- [70:57]
Dana Schwartz
Also, by the way, Paul Gasari, I kept noticing. This time I didn't notice it before, sounds a lot like Paul Gasol, the former basketball player. So I kept picturing a Paul Gasol inside the Godzilla style monster suit. So that was just fun for me.
- [71:08]
Jason English
I knew this story because going. Going way back in the Mental Floss magazine print. Oh, yeah, Someone had written this as a feature about Kim Jong Il and the filmmakers he kidnapped and the Godzilla movie. He always wanted to make something like that. And I remember the night that Kim Jong Il died, we had a meeting, like, frantic phone meeting about, like, well, we should put something up about Kim Jong Il. What do we got? And then like, well, I guess this is as good as story as any. Not sure how to talk about a brutal dictator on his death, but this felt like, well, people should know this story. So I'm glad we continue to get this story out to more people in more elaborate ways.
- [71:51]
Dana Schwartz
And that is the proper perspective for a dictator, is to kind of poke fun at them.
- [71:54]
Jason English
Any very special characters on either of.
- [71:57]
Zarin Burnett
Your radars, I will do the Godzilla monster.
- [72:00]
Dana Schwartz
Oh, yeah, good call.
- [72:01]
Zarin Burnett
The monster itself.
- [72:02]
Dana Schwartz
Yeah. And following in that, I picked the filmmaker, but not when he was in either south or North Korea, but when he was in America, known as Simon Sheen and he directed the Three Ninjas franchise. I had no idea that the director of the three Ninjas franchise had once been kidnapped by Kim Jong Il. I was like oh man, this changes the whole movie.
- [72:19]
Jason English
How about their friend Inoki, the Japanese journalist who just like helps bribe the cab driver?
- [72:25]
Zarin Burnett
I mean that guy got them out.
- [72:28]
Dana Schwartz
Yeah.
- [72:28]
Jason English
And the cab driver, cab driver just going about his day. This jumps into your cab, all of.
- [72:33]
Dana Schwartz
A sudden you're an international intrigue. This one was interesting on casting by the way. Cause I had a surprising number of Korean actors that I wanted to cast in this. I thought it was gonna be a challenge but I was like oh man. For Kim Il Sung, you gotta go with Choi Min Sik from Oldboy, from the Cha Eun Wook park version of Oldboy. Right. He could nail it. And then for Kim Jong Il, the son, I thought have a little more fun with this. You go Bobby Lee from MADtv or the Co host of podcast Bad Friends. I thought Bobby Lee would be great. And then for the South Korean director Shin Song, ok, I was thinking John Cho, he was in cowboy bebop and so I thought he's kind of the cool vers of what you want for that. And also he could play a lover. And then for his wife, the South Korean actress Choi Eun Yi. Kim Yoon Jin who played sun on the TV show Lost, if you remember that at all. So I thought she would be great. She has the right vibe. I couldn't not really cast Paul Gasari other than the Paul Gasol inside the suit. So that's all I got.
- [73:26]
Zarin Burnett
You know I love that you pulled John Cho because I'm like team put John Cho in more romantic comedies. John Cho. It was in a very short lived TV show called Selfie that no one watched but me. But it was sort of like a rom com TV show and I'm like this man needs to be a romantic lead and now that he's like a little older, like make him the director. Let's see that relationship.
- [73:49]
Dana Schwartz
I'm so into that call. Also for a very special character. I also like the US prisoners of war having to do voiceover work and translating the plots of Elizabeth Taylor films. I thought that was just crazy.
- [74:00]
Jason English
Some good roles for the film version which definitely now has to happen 100% Very Special Episodes is made by some very special people. Today's episode was written by Adrian Bain and edited by Carmen Borca Carillo at Wonder Media Network. This show is hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zarin Burnett and Jason English. Our producer is Josh Fisher. Editing and sound design by Chris Childs. Additional editing by Mary Do. Mixing and mastering by Chris Childs. Original Music by Elise McCoy Fact Checking by Austin Thompson show logo by Lucy Quintanilla Executive Producer is Jason English. If you want to email the show, you can reach us@veryspecialepisodesmail.com Very Special Episodes is a production of I Heart Podcasts.
- [74:57]
Zarin Burnett
And thanks for listening. Could you do us a quick favor? If you're enjoying Very Special Episodes, go subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform and give us a rating on Apple or Spotify. It all helps. We'll see you next time.
- [75:14]
Soledad O'Brien
This podcast is sponsored by Talkspace. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and Talkspace, the leading virtual therapy provider, is telling everyone, let's face it in therapy, by talking or texting with a supportive licensed therapist at Talkspace, you can face whatever is holding you back. Whether it's mental health symptoms, relationship drama, past trauma, bad habits, or another challenge that you need support to work through, it's easy to sign up. Just go to talkspace.com and you'll be paired with a provider, typically within 48 hours. And because you'll meet your therapist online, you don't have to take time off work or arrange childcare. You'll meet on your schedule. Plus, Talkspace is in network with most major insurers and most insured members have a $0 copay. Make your mental health a priority and start today. If you're not covered by Insurance, get $80 off your first month with Talkspace when you go to talkspace.com and enter promo code SPACE80. That's S P A CE80 to match with a licensed therapist today, go to talkspace.com and Enter promo code SPACE80.
- [76:14]
I'm Soledad O' Brien and on my new true crime podcast, Murder on the Towpath, I'm taking you back to 1964 to the cold case of artist Mary Pinchot Meyer.
- [76:25]
Zarin Burnett
She had been shot twice in the head and in the back.
- [76:29]
Soledad O'Brien
It turns out Mary was connected to a very powerful man.
- [76:34]
Zarin Burnett
I pledge you that we shall neither commit nor provoke aggression.
- [76:38]
Soledad O'Brien
John F. Kennedy Listen to Murder on the towpath with Soledad O' Brien on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
- [76:53]
Holly Fry
Explore the winding halls of historical True crime with Holly Fry and Maria Tremarchi, hosts of Criminalia, as they uncover curious cases from the past. The legend of the Highwayman suggests men dominated the field, but tell that to Lady Catherine Ferrers, Known as the wicked lady who terrorized England in the mid-1600s, her legend persists nearly 400 years after her death. Highwaymen are in the hot seat this season. Find more crime and cocktails on Criminalia. Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [77:29]
Michelle Cho
A crime makes headlines. People talk about it for a few days. Then it disappears. But for the people left behind, their.
- [77:36]
Ravi Mengla
Story is just beginning.
- [77:38]
Michelle Cho
But at night, we hear the garage opening and my son hears it.
- [77:42]
Ravi Mengla
We freak out. Honestly, I didn't tell my son this.
- [77:45]
Michelle Cho
But I felt that was it. From the exactly right network. This is the Knife. Real stories of crime's ripple effects told by those who lived them. New episodes every Thursday. Listen to the knife on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [78:02]
Dana Schwartz
You're listening to an iHeart podcast.