001 Historical Drama – New
Very, very behind.
Let’s see if I can get the 2019 Quarter 2 and Quarter 3 reviews out by
the end of the year!
Lights, Camera,
Kidnap! by Lucy Catherine was billed as a comedy, but I wasn’t so
sure. Based on the true story of Sin-sen
Auk (Liz Sutherland) and her husband Chue Un-Hi (Paul Courtney Hu) and how they
escaped the North Korean Communist regime in the 1980s. But it’s a lot more than that: they were South Korea’s dream couple, she the
actress, he the film director. However,
fame drew them apart. They divorced, and
it was only when Kim Jong Il had them kidnapped that they were drawn back
together. Kim Jong Il, a keen
cinema-goer, also believed in the propaganda power of films. He was certain that if Korea’s best actress
and best director teamed up again in the service of the Revolution, they could
change the world. Brainwashed and
brutalized after years of being separated from their families, Sen and Chue had
to learn to trust each other again. Once
they did, they hatched a daring plan: to
be allowed to visit the West and defect.
It took them a long time; they had to make propaganda films for North
Korea. Then, while filming in Austria,
they took their chance. A daring,
fascinating, and quite stylish thriller; it’s certainly made me interested in
the book upon which it is based. It also
starred Leo Wong, David Yip, Samuel James, Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong, Gary Duncan,
Adam Fitzgerald and Abby Andrews. It was
directed by Sasha Yevtushenko.
