My second non-fiction book this year. This one is very politically driven as it deals with the past leader of North Korea.

I do have to say that I wasn’t sure I was going to like this book very much, and I can’t say I enjoyed it because the contents were gruesome and unjust. But don’ let that turn you away from reading it; it was very insightful so I suggest the read because you learn things while reading it.

I don’t want to spoil it if you plan on reading it, but this story was crazy. At times you have to think to yourself, is what I’m reading really true? Or has the story been altered to make it more readable? By the end I wanted to believe it was true because don’t they always say the truth is harder to believe than fiction?

Here’s my review:

A Kim Jong-Il Production by: Paul Fischer: This book follows the true tale told by Choi Eun-Hee, the most famous actress in South Korea. It’s a her recount of what happened when she and her husband, Shin Sang-Ok South Korea’s most famous filmmaker, were kidnapped back in 1978 by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il. The reader learns a lot of about Jong-Il, and how obsessed he was with movies. He wanted to dictate his people with movies, so he kidnaps the two most influential people in cinema to make him movies. The book is a captivating read on the woeful tale of what the couple went through, being kidnapped and trying to escape. By the end of the book you almost feel like you know these two personally because the writing is very personal, and everything is accounted for. It’s a very enticing, and a very insightful read not only on the film industry in both North and South Korea, but on the way North Korea was run, and how people lived. It’s truly an incredible story of tragedy, but also of overcoming tragedy and doing what you must to live another day. Overall, it was definitely an eye opener into a whole new world.