Book Log 2015 #14: A Kim Jong-Il Production by Paul Fischer

One of the few things we know (or think we know) about Kim Jong-Il is his love of film. Beyond his personal passion, he saw how movies could serve as both propaganda and as a way to promote North Korea to the wider world.

To that end, a well known South Korean actress and her director ex-husband (both on the tail end of their careers at home) were apparently kidnapped and brought to the north to make movies that would inspire the citizenry and improve the country's reputation globally. And this kind of worked - the duo made a number of films that were well-received, even winning some international rewards. This all came to an end when the pair, allowed to travel abroad as part of their duties, escaped to the West.

This book tells what is a pretty fantastic story, even by the measure of what we hear about life in North Korea. Fischer provides plenty of background about the country and its leaders to flesh out the story (some reviews say too much, I didn't find it so). The most interesting part of the story to me, though, was the theory that the pair actually went to North Korea voluntarily and left because they thought they'd been rehabilitated enough to find film work in the West. I was a little surprised at how widely held this belief was, especially among South Koreans. But I suppose it's no more weird than a pair of kidnappings.

Worth a read if you're interested in North Korea, certainly.

(Popsugar Reading Challenge: a book published this year)