Choi Eun-hee (Korean: 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
Early career and success in South Korea
Choi was born in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, in 1926. Her first acting role was in the 1947 film A New Oath.[2] She rose to fame the following year after starring in the 1948 film The Sun of Night and soon became known as one of the "troika" of Korean film, alongside actresses Kim Ji-mee and Um Aing-ran.[6]
After marrying the director Shin Sang-ok in 1954, the two founded Shin Film. Choi went on to act in over 130 films and was considered one of the biggest stars of South Korean film in the 1960s and 1970s.[2][7] She starred in many of Shin's iconic films including 1958's A Flower in Hell and 1961's The Houseguest and My Mother.[8]
After she was diagnosed with infertility, they adopted two children together, Jeong-kyun and Myung-kim.
In 1976, Choi divorced Shin after seeing news that he had fathered two children with the young actress Oh Su-mi.[9][10] Choi's career began to suffer after her divorce, and she traveled to Hong Kong in 1978 to meet with a person posing as a businessman who offered to set up a new film company with her.[4] In Hong Kong, Choi was abducted and taken to North Korea by the order of Kim Jong Il. While searching for Choi after her abduction, Shin was also abducted and taken to North Korea soon after.[2][11]
In North Korea, Choi and Shin were remarried, at Kim's recommendation.[5] Kim had them make films together, including 1985's Salt, for which Choi won best actress at the 14th Moscow International Film Festival.[8] Choi later said that the couple was able to make "films with artistic values, instead of just propaganda films extolling the regime," but that she could not forgive Kim for kidnapping her.[5] While in North Korea, Choi converted to Catholicism.[12]
On April 16, 2018, Choi died at 91 in a hospital where she was due to have a kidney dialysis during the afternoon.[2] Her death resulted in widespread mourning across South Korea.[4]
In media
In 2015, film producer and writer Paul Fischer released an English-language biography of Choi's and Shin's lives titled A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker.[14] 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, directed by Robert Cannan and Ross Adam, was presented.[15]
Choi Eun-hee (2007). Confessions of Choi Eun-hee [최 은희 의 고백: 영화 보다 더 영화 같은 삶] (in Korean). Seoul: Random House Korea. ISBN9788925513997.
Choi Eun-hee; Shin Sang-ok; Yi Chang-ho (2009). Walks and Works of Shin Sang-ok: The Mogul of Korean Film - Photos and Words, 1926-2006 [영화 감독 신 상옥: 그 의 사진 풍경 그리고 발언 1926-2006] (in Korean). Paju: Youlhwadang Publishers. ISBN9788930103459.
^ abcYu, Seon-hui (2018-04-16). "'영화보다 더 영화같은 삶' 배우 최은희 잠들다" ['Life More Like a Movie than a Movie,' Actress Choi Eun-hee Dies]. The Hankyoreh (in Korean). Retrieved 2018-04-17.
^Kim, Chanmi (2013-08-12). "배우 최은희 '외도로 이혼한 신상옥 납북 후 용서했다'" [Actress Choi Eun-hee: 'I Forgave Shin Sang-ok For His Affair and Divorce After He Was Kidnapped by North Korea]. Newsen (in Korean). Retrieved 2018-04-17.
^Fischer, Paul (2016). A Kim Jong Il Production: Kidnap, Torture, Murder... Making Movies North Korean-Style. London: Penguin Books. p. 193. ISBN978-0-241-97000-3.
^"2회 부일영화상 수상작" [2nd Build Film Awards Prizes]. Buil Film Awards (in Korean). Busan Daily. Archived from the original on 2018-04-18. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
^"5회 부일영화상 수상작" [5th Build Film Awards Prizes]. Buil Film Awards (in Korean). Busan Daily. Archived from the original on 2018-04-18. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
^"9회 부일영화상 수상작" [9th Build Film Awards Prizes]. Buil Film Awards (in Korean). Busan Daily. Archived from the original on 2018-04-18. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
^"제2회 청룡영화상" [2nd Blue Dragon Film Awards]. Blue Dragon Awards (in Korean). Sports Chosun. Archived from the original on 2021-04-25. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
^"제4회 청룡영화상" [4th Blue Dragon Film Awards]. Blue Dragon Awards (in Korean). Sports Chosun. Archived from the original on 2017-10-12. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
^"대종상 영화제: 여우주연상" [Grand Bell Awards: Best Actress Award]. Naver Movies (in Korean). Retrieved 2018-04-18.
^"대종상 영화제: 2010년 제47회" [47th Grand Bell Awards 2010]. Naver Movies (in Korean). Retrieved 2018-04-18.