Review by C.J. Bunce
It’s based on a true story of an actress and movie director kidnapped by North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il. Were they really kidnapped, or did they go to North Korea on their own to re-ignite their film careers? Most evidence points to the former, and that’s the story recounted in German writer Patrick Spät and German artist Sheree Domingo’s 2022 graphic novel Madame Choi and the Monsters: A True Story, arriving this month in its first English edition from SelfMadeHero, available for pre-order here at Amazon. Typical of 20th and 21st century dictators, Kim was a weak-minded leader who governed harshly (he was known to have someone killed for stealing a grain of rice), demanding oaths of loyalty and amassing great personal wealth, including a collection of movies he treasured and studied. In the 1950s to 1960s, Madame Choi Eun-hee was the best known actress and her husband Shin Sang-ok the most popular director in South Korea. Then they vanished.
Spät and Domingo create a stylized, bare knuckles approach to this drama, told half as dark kidnapping thriller, half as a parallel fantasy–of a monstrous beast called the Bulgasari, a Korean take on Godzilla, and subject of a movie created by the story’s real-life filmmaking couple. The Bulgasari elements are cryptic at times, but seem to mirror the unrestrained tyranny and oppression by North Korea under the dictator.
Easier to understand is the chronology of events that sees Madame Choi leave South Korea for Hong Kong in 1978 to be considered for her next movie work. That project is a trap, set by agents of Kim, and Choi is taken hostage personally by Kim. Six months later, while searching for Choi in Hong Kong, Shin is also kidnapped and tortured. Five years later, Kim–creepy in all his actions–finally reunites the couple and forces them to remarry. Oddly enough, they are granted more freedom to create films than in South Korea where they were subject to censorship and no funding. They go on to complete seven films under Kim, who purportedly was seeking to compete on the international stage. All the time the couple “kept up appearances” to stay alive and comply with the dictator’s manipulated world for them.
It’s at a film festival in Vienna where the couple makes their escape to the U.S. consulate, seeking asylum. They escape and live out several years in the United States, and are historically notable for providing the CIA with the first-ever audio recording of Kim Jun-il. Oddly enough the couple moves to California where they produce Disney films under pseudonyms, including two 3 Ninjas movies. Eventually they return to Seoul and live out their days into the 21st century.
On the historical front, Spät’s plot is tightly written and makes for a gripping read. Although Domingo’s illustration style takes some getting used to, her best feature is her depiction of Kim himself. If you ever saw him in the press via news or documentaries, you may recall he was universally seen as an odd character. Domingo gets his look just right.
A glimpse of an obscure snippet of history well made by these creators from Germany, Madame Choi and the Monsters: A True Story arrives in bookstores November 26, 2024, in its first English edition from SelfMadeHero, translated by Michael Waaler, available for pre-order here at Amazon.
*Some images above are from the German edition.
