Oftentimes the incredible stories we hear coming out of North Korea seem unimaginable, and a new book by Paul Fischer tells the unbelievable true story of a brazen kidnapping by Kim Jong-Il in the 1970s. Before he became dictator of the world’s most mysterious nation, he was North Korea’s propaganda minister, a position in which he exercised complete control of the country’s film studios.
In the new non-fiction thriller, A Kim Jong-Il Production, Paul Fischer recounts the dramatic kidnapping of two famous South Korean film stars, Choi Eun-Hee (Madam Choi)—South Korea’s most acclaimed actress—and her ex-husband Shin Sang-Ok, the country’s most well-known filmmaker. This highly engrossing chronicle sheds light on Kim Jong Il’s quest to become the next leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and shows just how very far he was willing to go in a vain attempt to be taken seriously by the international community. His nefarious plot involved luring the couple to Hong Kong—separately, in 1978—and whisking them away to Pyongyang, where they were imprisoned for years in luxury accommodations and forced to act as advisers to the Dear Leader’s propaganda machine. This meticulously researched true story offers a rare glimpse into North Korea’s bizarre and secretive history and is filled with emotion, intrigue and politics.
Fischer is a film producer who studied in Paris, California and New York. His first documentary, Radioman, was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the DOC NYC Film Festival in 2012. A Kim Jong-Il Production is his first book. Fischer will speak at Boswell Book Co. at 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 16.
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Book Happening:
Quan Barry
7 p.m., Feb. 17
Boswell Book Co.
2559 N. Downer Ave.
World history and the supernatural collide in Quan Barry’s debut work of fiction, She Weeps Each Time You’re Born. Set in Vietnam during the war and following the withdrawal of American forces, this poetic and mesmerizing tale follows a magical girl named Rabbit whose powers of intuition allow her to connect with the spirit world and ease the passing of the recently deceased. Quan Barry is an award-winning poet who currently serves as a professor of English at UW-Madison.
