.png)
Recent from talks
Shin Sang-ok
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Shin Sang-ok
Shin Sang-ok (Korean: 신상옥; Hanja: 申相玉; 1925 or 1926 – April 11, 2006), anglicized as Simon Sheen, was a South Korean filmmaker who directed 74 films in a career spanning over five decades. He is best known in South Korea for his efforts during the 1950s and 1960s, many of them collaborations with his wife Choi Eun-hee. Shin posthumously received the Gold Crown Cultural Medal, the country's top honor for an artist.
In 1978, Shin and Choi were kidnapped by order of Kim Jong Il, who wanted them to improve the North Korean film industry. The couple remained in captivity for 8 years and Shin directed seven films for Kim, including An Emissary of No Return, Runaway (both 1984), Love, Love, My Love, Salt, and Pulgasari (produced in 1985), before they escaped in 1986 and sought asylum in the United States. Shin gained American citizenship in 1989, and continued to produce films in the United States, now under his adopted name Simon S. Sheen. He and Choi eventually returned to South Korea for his final years.
Sometime between 1925 and 1926, Shin was born Shin Tae-ik (신태익) or Shin Tae-seo (신태서) in Chongjin, in the northeastern part of the Korean Peninsula, at the time occupied by Japan and currently a part of North Korea. His father was a prominent doctor of Korean medicine. Shin studied in Japan at Tokyo Fine Arts School, the predecessor of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, before returning to Korea three years later.
Shin started his film career as an assistant production designer on Choi In-kyu's Viva Freedom!, the first Korean film made after the country achieved independence from Japan. During the "Golden Age" of South Korean cinema in the late 1950s and 1960s, Shin worked prolifically, often directing two or more films per year, earning the nickname the "Prince of South Korean Cinema". Shin featured the Western princess, female sex workers for American soldiers, in The Evil Night (1952) and A Flower in Hell (1958). The production company he started, Shin Films, produced around 300 films during the 1960s, including Prince Yeonsan (1961), the winner of the Best Film prize at the first Grand Bell Awards ceremony and a Grand Bell Award-winning 1964 remake of Na Woon-gyu's 1926 Beongeoli Sam-ryong. His 1961 film The Houseguest and My Mother became the first South Korean submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
During the 1970s, Shin became less active, while South Korea's cinema industry in general suffered under strict censorship and constant government interference. Most of the films he directed during this period ended up being flops. After Shin ran afoul of the repressive government in 1978, Park Chung Hee closed Shin's studio.
In 1978, Shin's former wife, Choi Eun-hee, an actress who starred in many of his films, was kidnapped in Hong Kong and taken to North Korea. Shin himself came under suspicion of causing her disappearance and when he traveled to Hong Kong to investigate, he was kidnapped as well. The kidnappings were on orders of future leader Kim Jong Il, who wanted to establish a film industry for his country to sway international opinion regarding the views of the Workers' Party of Korea. The North Korean authorities have denied the kidnapping accusations, claiming that Shin came to the country willingly. Shin and Choi made secret audiotapes of conversations with Kim Jong Il, which supported their story.
Shin was put in comfortable accommodation, but after two escape attempts was placed in a prison for over two years. Once his re-education in North Korean ideology was thought to be complete, he was taken to Pyongyang in 1983 to meet Kim Jong Il and learn why he had been abducted to North Korea. His ex-wife was brought to the same dinner party, where she first learned that Shin was also in North Korea. They remarried shortly afterwards, as suggested by Kim Jong Il.
From 1983 on, Shin directed seven films, with Kim Jong Il acting as an executive producer. The last and best-known of these films is Pulgasari, a giant-monster film similar to the Japanese Godzilla. In 1986, eight years after his kidnapping, Shin and his wife escaped while in Vienna for a film festival. They managed to obtain political asylum from the US embassy in Vienna and Kim Jong Il became convinced that the couple had been kidnapped by the Americans. Shin and his wife lived covertly for two years in Reston, Virginia, under American protection and authorities debriefed the couple about Kim Jong Il and their experience in North Korea.
Hub AI
Shin Sang-ok AI simulator
(@Shin Sang-ok_simulator)
Shin Sang-ok
Shin Sang-ok (Korean: 신상옥; Hanja: 申相玉; 1925 or 1926 – April 11, 2006), anglicized as Simon Sheen, was a South Korean filmmaker who directed 74 films in a career spanning over five decades. He is best known in South Korea for his efforts during the 1950s and 1960s, many of them collaborations with his wife Choi Eun-hee. Shin posthumously received the Gold Crown Cultural Medal, the country's top honor for an artist.
In 1978, Shin and Choi were kidnapped by order of Kim Jong Il, who wanted them to improve the North Korean film industry. The couple remained in captivity for 8 years and Shin directed seven films for Kim, including An Emissary of No Return, Runaway (both 1984), Love, Love, My Love, Salt, and Pulgasari (produced in 1985), before they escaped in 1986 and sought asylum in the United States. Shin gained American citizenship in 1989, and continued to produce films in the United States, now under his adopted name Simon S. Sheen. He and Choi eventually returned to South Korea for his final years.
Sometime between 1925 and 1926, Shin was born Shin Tae-ik (신태익) or Shin Tae-seo (신태서) in Chongjin, in the northeastern part of the Korean Peninsula, at the time occupied by Japan and currently a part of North Korea. His father was a prominent doctor of Korean medicine. Shin studied in Japan at Tokyo Fine Arts School, the predecessor of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, before returning to Korea three years later.
Shin started his film career as an assistant production designer on Choi In-kyu's Viva Freedom!, the first Korean film made after the country achieved independence from Japan. During the "Golden Age" of South Korean cinema in the late 1950s and 1960s, Shin worked prolifically, often directing two or more films per year, earning the nickname the "Prince of South Korean Cinema". Shin featured the Western princess, female sex workers for American soldiers, in The Evil Night (1952) and A Flower in Hell (1958). The production company he started, Shin Films, produced around 300 films during the 1960s, including Prince Yeonsan (1961), the winner of the Best Film prize at the first Grand Bell Awards ceremony and a Grand Bell Award-winning 1964 remake of Na Woon-gyu's 1926 Beongeoli Sam-ryong. His 1961 film The Houseguest and My Mother became the first South Korean submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
During the 1970s, Shin became less active, while South Korea's cinema industry in general suffered under strict censorship and constant government interference. Most of the films he directed during this period ended up being flops. After Shin ran afoul of the repressive government in 1978, Park Chung Hee closed Shin's studio.
In 1978, Shin's former wife, Choi Eun-hee, an actress who starred in many of his films, was kidnapped in Hong Kong and taken to North Korea. Shin himself came under suspicion of causing her disappearance and when he traveled to Hong Kong to investigate, he was kidnapped as well. The kidnappings were on orders of future leader Kim Jong Il, who wanted to establish a film industry for his country to sway international opinion regarding the views of the Workers' Party of Korea. The North Korean authorities have denied the kidnapping accusations, claiming that Shin came to the country willingly. Shin and Choi made secret audiotapes of conversations with Kim Jong Il, which supported their story.
Shin was put in comfortable accommodation, but after two escape attempts was placed in a prison for over two years. Once his re-education in North Korean ideology was thought to be complete, he was taken to Pyongyang in 1983 to meet Kim Jong Il and learn why he had been abducted to North Korea. His ex-wife was brought to the same dinner party, where she first learned that Shin was also in North Korea. They remarried shortly afterwards, as suggested by Kim Jong Il.
From 1983 on, Shin directed seven films, with Kim Jong Il acting as an executive producer. The last and best-known of these films is Pulgasari, a giant-monster film similar to the Japanese Godzilla. In 1986, eight years after his kidnapping, Shin and his wife escaped while in Vienna for a film festival. They managed to obtain political asylum from the US embassy in Vienna and Kim Jong Il became convinced that the couple had been kidnapped by the Americans. Shin and his wife lived covertly for two years in Reston, Virginia, under American protection and authorities debriefed the couple about Kim Jong Il and their experience in North Korea.
Recent media