Kidnapped Filmmaker's Extraordinary True Story: A Kim Jong-Il Production

jeff hamilton: This book will give you an enlightened perspective about North Korea. If there was any doubt in your mind about how bonkers that regime is, this will dispel that notion.

Canada on Feb 20, 2023

KL: great story about film making and abduction in an evil country.

Canada on Feb 15, 2017

Garrett Zecker: Paul Fischer's A Kim Jong Il Production presents the rudimentary story of tragic life in the DPRK, however this volume's subjects are two clever kidnapping victims who go on to be creative survivors of the cruel fates orchestrated by Kim Jong-Il. The manner in which Fischer incorporates strategic interviews, facts, historical research, and a touching creative nonfiction narrative creates a vibrant and dynamic voice that makes this book an effective combination of multiple genres encapsulated into one book.

The book is a nonfiction narrative that covers both Kim Jong-Il's rise to power and the kidnapping and employment of Choi Eun-Hee and Shin Sang-Ok from South Korea to kickstart the DPRK's new film industry. Through a variety of cloak and dagger operations, the two were able to undermine the authority of Kim and use their influence over the Dear Leader, the country, and various diplomatic and professional connections to their advantage in escaping the brutal kingdom. But the manner in which Fischer combines testimony, narrative, and facts is masterfully woven throughout each paragraph of the book.

In A Kim Jong-Il Production, Fisher tells a captivating story using a...

United States on Nov 02, 2016

nachomama: I heard the author interviewed on NPR and immediately ordered this. 12 CD's isn't what I expected or wanted but it ended up being so immersive and extraordinary, my three-hour commute would fly by and I'd find myself waiting a little longer in the driveway just to finish a section. Also, the reader is terrific and helped a westerner's ear to get the names correct and even the tone. Important tip for myself with regard to foreign politics or even fictional books. Let someone read it to you. They know better how to help one interpret cultural and language differences that make a huge difference in understanding the material.
The story is not a story. It is an eye-opening, yet still hard to imagine or believe primer on North Korea. Very blunt yet also sensitive. I don't think I've learned more about a subject in any other format. Hard to call it entertaining but YES it was so bizarre as to be fictional...yet amazingly it is not fiction
This happened.
But I don't think Seth Rogan's movie was funny anymore. Certain forms of antagonism are not helpful. We know we are American. We know it's a privilege to SAY anything. But that is old news and is too often an excuse for to...

United States on Jul 14, 2016

Rodrigo Moraes: A realidade supera a ficção nessa história impressionante do casal coreano sequestrado por Kim Jong-Il para fazer filmes na Coreia do Norte. Muito bom para aprender sobre a historia das Coreias, da Guerra Fria e do cinema oriental. Um dos melhores livros que ja li na vida!

Brazil on Jul 05, 2016

Amazon Customer: Very interesting read.

Canada on Jan 02, 2016

Max Layton: Sensitively written. Penetrating psychological insights into the plight of two gifted South Korean artists kidnapped by Kim Jong-Il who uses them, and everyone else, as puppets in the epic he is trying to create on his personal stage -- which just happens to be his own country.

Canada on Nov 19, 2015

Pat Wallwork: Normally I would never read a book like this but thanks to Shane Smith from Vice who was recently a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast and who told a short but riveting synopsis of the story that this book covers in far more detail, I was completely intrigued and excited to learn more.

I knew next to nothing about North (or even South for that matter) Korea before starting this book. I am surprised at what I have learned now and I am even more surprised how this book inspired me to research more about North Korea, it’s people, and it’s history…something that I had zero interest in previously. I hope this book becomes popular and has this same effect on many others. I don’t believe the global public really has any understanding of just how oppressed the North Korean’s are and just how hard a life they must endure.

The book starts off detailing the history of the Korean Peninsula and explains the Kim’s history of rule, starting with the “The Supreme Leader” Kim Il-Sung, his son “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-Il (who is the focus in this book), and finally but briefly Jong-Il’s son, Kim Jong-Un, who is the current ruler. The latter part of the book...

United States on Feb 28, 2015