A Kim Jong-Il Production Audiobook By Paul Fischer cover art

A Kim Jong-Il Production

The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power

Preview
Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

A Kim Jong-Il Production

By: Paul Fischer
Narrated by: Stephen Park
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.25

Buy for $20.25

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

Before becoming the world's most notorious dictator, Kim Jong-Il ran North Korea's Ministry for Propaganda and its film studios. Conceiving every movie made, he acted as producer and screenwriter. Despite this control, he was underwhelmed by the available talent and took drastic steps, ordering the kidnapping of Choi Eun-Hee (Madam Choi) - South Korea's most famous actress - and her ex-husband Shin Sang-Ok, the country's most famous filmmaker.

Madam Choi vanished first. When Shin went to Hong Kong to investigate, he was attacked and woke up wrapped in plastic sheeting aboard a ship bound for North Korea. Madam Choi lived in isolated luxury, allowed only to attend the Dear Leader's dinner parties. Shin, meanwhile, tried to escape, was sent to prison camp, and "re-educated". After four years he cracked, pledging loyalty. Reunited with Choi at the first party he attends, it is announced that the couple will remarry and act as the Dear Leader's film advisors. Together they made seven films, in the process gaining Kim Jong-Il's trust. While pretending to research a film in Vienna, they flee to the U.S. embassy and are swept to safety.

A nonfiction thriller packed with tension, passion, and politics, A Kim Jong-Il Production offers a rare glimpse into a secretive world, illuminating a fascinating chapter of North Korea's history that helps explain how it became the hermetically sealed, intensely stage-managed country it remains today.

©2015 Paul Fischer (P)2014 Random House Audio
Americas Art Asia Entertainment & Performing Arts Film & TV History & Criticism Korea United States World Imperialism Film History
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_T1_webcro805_stickypopup
Gripping Kidnapping Story • Fascinating Historical Account • Beautiful Narration • Rich Storytelling • Solid Performance
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
this book was very enlightening about the lives of the people of North Korea. it was interesting to see how the entire nation had been brainwashed to believe that everyone except for themselves was in worse shape than they were. it was interesting to see how bad their gulags or prisons were how much the prisoners were persecuted torture everyday how they were not only humiliated but so much so that they had they lost hope and everything. but not only that how to know song or whatever his name is how he was so corrupt and how he spent so much money when his people were starving how he really did not care about his people all he wanted was their praise. the story was very nice it was interesting to see how they finally did escape but to me the story of how the North Koreans were and how they were treated and how they were brainwashed and how the entire nation was put on spectacle for the rest of the world is what I really believe the story was about.

an entire nation brainwashed

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

A very interesting story, that I think was enhanced by the audible experience. It is a fascinating story.

Fascinating!!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

As my son had to read this for his South Korean history class at university, I got the audiobook before a trip we took. We were both hooked from the beginning. I had very little knowledge of South or North Korean history, and was astonished at the reversal of fortune of the two countries after the Korean War. And, as someone living in a time of mounting dictatorships, possibly even in our own country, I found the plight of the North Koreans, sprinkled throughout the story (thankfully in small enough doses not to overwhelm the “thriller” plot) even worse than I’d imagined, because so carefully orchestrated. As the author suggests, North Korea became a stage upon which the evil yet somehow bereft “director” could create his masterwork of fiction. Ugh. The two main characters, however, were delightfully human and their complex love story, adventures, trials, escape attempts, and final escape are extremely cinematic- I’m astonished no one has put this to film yet. Or have they? It would be an amazing movie. Difficult to film, yes, but I hope to see the movie one day. In the meantime, I was immensely satisfied with the narrator’s skill at presenting these amazing events in a factual and intelligent manner. If the reader had been melodramatic, it would have ruined the effect, because there was already enough high drama running throughout the book. I appreciated the narrator’s more matter-of-fact tone, so much so that I ended up conflating him with the author and got confused at the end when their names were different! Much thanks to the narrator, and especially to the author, for bringing this incredible story to a wider audience in such a competent and compelling way.

This is an absolutely fascinating story that reads more like fiction than fact!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This kept me wanting to come back to pick up where I left off. A fantastic balance of true-life drama and historical context. The story itself builds effortlessly into suspense and ends perfectly with a touching and humanizing denouement.

More Amazing and Inspiring Than You Can Imagine

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Narration is pretty slow so you'll need to listen to it at 1.5x the normal speed, at least. But everything else is pretty good.

Slow Narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Where does A Kim Jong-Il Production rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It was my first audiobook!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Probably Kim Jong Il himself,

What does Stephen Park bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He did a wonderful job. I guess one thing would be I wouldn't have known how to pronounce the Korean names and places.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No it didn't make me laugh or cry, however, it did make me want to learn more and read more books about North Korea.

Fascinating read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Fascinating and terrifying. Insightful and well-researched. What a story!!! Also, I learned a lot about Korean name pronunciation from the excellent narrator. Listen now!

Absolutely incredible.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This is a very balanced look at a high profile kidnapping. The good and bad traits of the "dear leader" are explained in all their glory. It's nothing new, but worth a listen. Methinks the poor ratings are from Pyongyang.

accurate

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Enjoyed all aspects of the book. Very interesting and engaging. Written well and good narrator.

Thrilling true story!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

The person who recommended this book to me described it as “a La Carre thriller, but true and bizarre”.
Excellent from start to finish.

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews