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Choi Eun-hee

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Template:Korean name

Choi Eun-hee
Born(1926-11-20)November 20, 1926
Gwangju, Japanese Korea
DiedApril 16, 2018(2018-04-16) (aged 91)
Gangseo, Seoul, South Korea
NationalitySouth Korean
OccupationActress
Years active1947–2006
SpouseShin Sang-ok (divorced 1976, remarried 1983)
Korean name
Hangul
최은희
Hanja
崔銀姬
Revised RomanizationChoe Eun-Hui
McCune–ReischauerCh'oe Ǔn-hŭi

Choi Eun-hee (Hangul: 최은희; November 20, 1926 – April 16, 2018)[1] was a South Korean actress, who was one of the country's most popular stars of the 1960s and 1970s.[2] In 1978, Choi and her then ex-husband, movie director Shin Sang-ok, were abducted to North Korea, where they were forced to make films until they sought asylum at the U.S. embassy in Vienna in 1986.[3][4] They returned to South Korea in 1999 after spending a decade in the United States.[5]

Biography

Choi was born in 1926. She began her film career in 1947 in the film A New Oath. For the next 20 years, she was one of the biggest stars in Korean film and led the Shin Film company along with her husband, the director Shin Sang-ok.

In 1978, Choi and Shin, whom she had recently divorced due to Shin having committed adultery, were kidnapped in Hong Kong and taken to North Korea by order of Kim Jong-il.[6] Kim's plan was to have Shin work as his propagandist and for Choi to be the star. Shortly after agreeing to the demands of Kim, they were remarried at his recommendation. The couple finally staged their escape in 1986 while on a trip to Vienna, fleeing to the United States embassy and requesting political asylum.[7] With Shin, she wrote an account of their years in Pyongyang.[8] Shin also wrote his autobiography shortly before his death.[9]

According to the Internet Movie Database, from 1955 to 1985, Choi appeared in eighty-one films. She received the award for best actress at the 14th Moscow International Film Festival in 1985, for her part in the film Sogum.[10][11][12][13] Choi converted to Roman Catholicism while in North Korea. She was baptized in fallen leaves by a fellow abductee.[14]

In 2015, an English-language biography of her life (along with Shin Sang-ok) was published by Paul Fischer titled A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker.[12] In January 2016, at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, in the World Cinema Documentary Competition, a documentary about the North Korean ordeal, entitled The Lovers and the Despot and directed by Robert Cannan and Ross Adam, was presented.[15][16]

On 16 April 2018, Choi died in hospital where she was due to have a kidney dialysis during the afternoon.[2] Her death resulted in widespread mourning across South Korea.[4]

Selected filmography

Year Title Role
1958 A Flower in Hell So-nya
1960 To the Last Day
1961 The Houseguest and My Mother
1962 A Happy Day of Jinsa Maeng Ip-bun
The Memorial Gate for Virtuous Women
1963 Rice
1964 Red Scarf Ji-seon
Deaf Sam-yong
1965 The Sino-Japanese War and Queen Min the Heroine
1967 Phantom Queen
1968 Woman

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Nominated work Result
1959 2nd Buil Film Awards Best Actress A Flower in Hell Won
1962 5th Buil Film Awards Best Actress The Houseguest and My Mother Won
1964 2nd Blue Dragon Film Awards Popular Star Award — Won
1966 9th Buil Film Awards Best Actress The Sino-Japanese War and Queen Min the Heroine Won
4th Blue Dragon Film Awards Popular Star Award — Won
2006 5th Korean Film Awards Lifetime Achievement Award — Won
2008 28th Korean Association of Film Critics Awards Lifetime Achievement Award — Won
2009 17th Chunsa Film Art Awards Chunsa Daesang (Grand Prize) — Won
2010 47th Grand Bell Awards Lifetime Achievement Award
for the Advancement of Cinema		 — Won

Bibliography

  • Choi Eun-hee (2007). Ch'oe Ŭn-hŭi ŭi kobaek: yŏnghwa poda tŏ yŏnghwa kat'ŭn sam 최 은희 의 고백: 영화 보다 더 영화 같은 삶 [Confessions of Choi Eun-hee] (in Korean). Seoul: Random House Korea. ISBN 9788925513997.
  • Choi Eun-hee; Shin Sang-ok (1988). Chogugŭn Chŏhanŭl Chŏmŏlli [My Motherland is Faraway] (in Korean). Vol. 2. Monterey: Pacific Artist Cooperation.
  • —; — (1988). The Kingdom of Kim Jong-il (in Korean). Tonga Il-bosa.
  • —; — (1994). My Name is Kim Jong-il (in Korean). Haengnim Chulpan.
  • —; — (2001). Uriŭi Talchurŭn Kkŭnaji [Anatta Our Escape has not Ended yet] (in Korean). Seoul: Wŏlgan Chosŏnsa.
  • Choi Eun-hee; Shin Sang-ok; Yi Chang-ho (2009). Yŏnghwa kamdok Sin Sang-o: kŭ ŭi sajin p'unggyŏng kŭrigo parŏn 1926-2006 영화 감독 신 상옥: 그 의 사진 풍경 그리고 발언 1926-2006 [Walks and Works of Shin Sang-ok: The Mogul of Korean Film] (in Korean). P'aju-si: Yŏrhwadang. ISBN 9788930103459.

See also

References

  1. ^ Lee, Kyung-ho (2018-04-16). "영화배우협회, 최은희 별세..'영화인장, 유족과 협의할 것'" [Screen Actors' Guild's Choi Eun-hee Dies...]. Star News (in Korean). Money Today. Retrieved 2018-04-17. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  2. ^ a b "Film icon Choi Eun-hee dies at 92". Yonhap News. 2018-04-16. Retrieved 2018-04-17. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  3. ^ "Rumors Reappear with South Korean Couple". The New York Times. 1986-03-23. Retrieved 2018-04-17. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  4. ^ a b "Choi Eun-hee: South Korean actress who was kidnapped by North dies". BBC News. 2018-04-17. Retrieved 2018-04-17. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  5. ^ Belam, Martin (2018-04-17). "Choi Eun-hee, actor once abducted by North Korea, dies". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-04-17. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  6. ^ Kim, Chanmi (2013-08-12). "배우 최은희 "외도로 이혼한 신상옥 납북 후 용서했다"". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "Same Bed, Different Dreams". This American Life. 2015-05-02. Archived from the original on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2015-05-01. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ 우리의 탈출은 끝나지 않았다: 신상옥·최은희 비록 Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ 난, 영화였다 : 영화감독신상옥이남긴마지막글들 Archived 2010-05-25 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ "14th Moscow International Film Festival (1985)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 2013-03-16. Retrieved 2013-02-10. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Sebag-Montefiore, Clarissa (Jan 28, 2015). "The Day North Korea Really Did Steal the Show – The Book 'A Kim Jong-Il Production' Explores a Bizarre Case in Cinema History". The Wall Street Journal. New York. Archived from the original on January 29, 2015. Retrieved Aug 27, 2015. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ a b Fischer, Paul (February 3, 2015). A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power. Flatiron Books. ISBN 978-1250054265.
  13. ^ Kirby, Michael Donald; Biserko, Sonja; Darusman, Marzuki (7 February 2014). "Report of the detailed findings of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - A/HRC/25/CRP.1". United Nations Human Rights Council: 288–89 (Paragraph 905). Archived from the original on February 27, 2014. In 1978, South Korean Actress Ms Choi Un-hee was abducted from Hong Kong after travelling there to meet people in the movie industry. After being forced onto a boat by DPRK agents, Ms Choi demanded an explanation from the abductors, to which they replied "Madam Choi, we are now going to the bosom of General Kim Il-sung". On her arrival in the DPRK on 22 January, she was met by Kim Jong-il who took her on a tour of Pyongyang. Upon learning of her disappearance, Ms Choi's ex-husband Shin Sang-ok, a leading filmmaker, went to Hong Kong to look for her. He was also abducted from Hong Kong by the same DPRK agent in July 1978. Kim Jong-il said to Mr Shin upon his arrival in the DPRK "I had ordered the operations group to carry out a project to bring you here as I wanted a talented director like you to be in the North." This information is consistent with the accounts from former DPRK officials who were personally involved in abductions who indicated that Kim Jong-il personally signed off on abduction orders. During their time in the DPRK, Mr Shin Sang-ok and Ms Choi Un-hee were involved in a number of DPRK-produced movies of which Kim Jong-il was the executive producer. The couple escaped into the United States Embassy while visiting a film festival in Vienna in 1986. They later settled in the United States; Mr Shin has since passed away. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ Fischer, Paul (2016). A Kim Jong-Il Production: Kidnap, Torture, Murder... Making Moves North Korean-Style. London: Penguin Books. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-241-97000-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  15. ^ http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/culturesports/2018/04/16/0701000000AEN20180416011600315.html
  16. ^ http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2018/04/121_247380.html?utm_source=dable

Further reading

  • Breen, Michael (2011). Kim Jong-il: North Korea's Dear Leader (2nd ed.). Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781118153796.
  • Bärtås, Magnus; Ekman, Fredrik (2015). All Monsters Must Die: An Excursion to North Korea. Toronto: House of Anansi. ISBN 978-1-77089-881-3.
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