The NORTH Korean Godzilla!

Thanks Peter!

In the early 1970’s, Shin Sang-ok was one of South Korea’s most respected filmmakers— meaning, you understand, that he was pretty much unknown outside of East Asia except among a small group of hardcore movie nerds, but on his home turf he was a big deal. Nevertheless, he had a troubled relationship with his government (which, in its way, honestly wasn’t a whole lot less repressive than that of the North in those days), and it was looking increasingly like his career was pretty much over. That’s when Kim Jong Il, son of North Korean Great Leader Kim Il Sung, entered the picture. The younger Kim has always had a reputation as a movie nut, and has even written a book on the philosophy of communist filmmaking. In the 70’s, one of his jobs was overseeing the North’s popular culture, and it appears to have bothered him immensely that his own country didn’t have even a single director who could compare with Shin Sang-ok down south. So with Kim Il Sung’s blessing (or maybe it was the old man’s idea in the first place— I told you I’ve been having a hard time pinning down the details), Kim Jong Il had both Shin and his wife kidnapped and brought across the DMZ.

Link to the rest of the story behind the film. Via 1000 Misspent Hours