Where have the top stars gone?
On the 28th, SBS 'The Story of Biting the Tail' (hereinafter 'Kkokomu'), lit up the story of top actress Choi Eun-hee that day with the subtitle 'Top Star and Secret Tape'.
In January 1978, a guest disappeared from a hotel in Hong Kong.
And the identity of the guest was soon revealed, and the main character was Choi Eun-hee, the best actress of the time.
The news of his disappearance shocked South Korea.
The best actress in Korea in name and reality suddenly disappeared, especially because it was speculated that it was a kidnapping rather than a simple disappearance.
And soon, a horrific rumor circulated that Choi Eun-hee's disappearance was related to her ex-husband.
Her ex-husband was director Shin Sang-ok, who was the best film director at the time.
Director Shin flew to Hong Kong with the promise to bring their mothers to the children.
And after a while, the news that even director Shin had disappeared, shocked him.
Choi Eun-hee was invited to Hong Kong.
But instead of the person she was supposed to meet, she met a woman who arranged a meeting with her investor who said she was interested in her art.
Choi Eun-hee followed her woman.
But seeing that she was heading to a different place than the meeting place, she sensed her strangeness somewhere.
At that moment, a man said, "Mr. Choi, we are going to the arms of the general now. We are going to the arms of the great leader."
Yes.
Choi Eun-hee's boat was heading to North Korea.
She was surprised, and Choi Eun-hee begged her to return her please, but she refused his request.
Choi Eun-hee, who arrived in North Korea on the 8th day after boarding the ship and got off at the pier.
Then a man came up to him and asked to shake his hand.
The man said, "You worked hard to come, this is my Kim Jong-il."
With the appearance of Kim Jong-il, flashes were taken here and there, and pictures were taken.
Then, Kim Jong-il took Choi Eun-hee next to the limousine and went out as a guide around the city of North Korea.
After that, he took Choi Eun-hee to his villa and asked her to rest.
After that, Kim Jong-il's appeal to Choi Eun-hee continued.
He even jokes to please him and party every night.
And Choi Eun-hee spent five hours every day receiving an education in North Korean ideology, and she missed her family at sunset.
Her life continued like that for 5 years, and one day another incident occurred.
In front of Choi Eun-hee, who was invited to Kim Jong-il's house, someone appeared, and it was director Shin Sang-ok.
He was kidnapped in the same way as Choi Eun-hee, and while trying to escape twice, he was imprisoned in a political prison camp and met Choi Eun-hee after 5 years.
The two met and talked in the bathroom to avoid wiretapping.
They confirmed their desire to return to their families.
And Choi Eun-hee said, "Until now, we did acting and directing for someone. Now, let's do directing and acting for us." She promised to write a screenplay for the escape together.
In fact, censorship of creative works was strict in Korea at the time.
As a result, the film studio operated by director Shin was caught under censorship and the license was revoked.
The two decided to record Kim Jong-il's voice to reveal their innocence.
And they recorded a voice directly mentioning the kidnapping that Kim Jong-il, who was a movie buff, kidnapped a Korean talent while dreaming of entering the world.
At the time, Kim Jong-il, who had a personal home theater the size of a high school at home, was a movie buff so much that he collected all the movies from around the world and watched them alone.
He was unsatisfied with North Korean films, so he planned to kidnap director Shin Sang-ok.
And Choi Eun-hee was the bait to lure him in.
The two, who recorded this fact, planned an overseas location for their escape.
In response, Kim Jong-il readily allowed it, but only allowed the location to a communist country, not the country the two wanted to go to.
The two were unable to escape, but succeeded in secretly delivering the recording to an acquaintance they met abroad.
Two people who only dreamed of the day they could escape and made as many movies as 10 films a year.
This led to Kim Jong-il's full support.
Director Shin Sang-ok made films of various genres, which won awards at overseas film festivals, and Kim Jong-il's satisfaction continued to rise.
The dream of Kim Jong-il, who had dreamed of entering the world through film, came true.
For this, Kim Jong-il rewarded the two men.
Even if the huge rewards continued, the two only wanted to return to their families.
Director Shin Sang-ok said, "In North Korea, I use toothpaste. After I finish squeezing it, I throw it away." The goal was to escape before everything was squeezed out.
The two, who missed their family so much, asked Kim Jong-il to let him know the news to his family.
And the tape was handed over to the Ministry of National Security, and the government announced on a large scale that Choi Eun-hee and Shin Sang-ok had been abducted.
As a result, South Korean demand for the return of the two men to North Korea was pouring in, and Kim Jong-il told them to go freely to neutral countries so that they would not appear to have been kidnapped for the sake of his image.
Rather, the two men, who received good news, headed to Austria, a neutral country.
And before they left, they asked Kim Jong-il to keep the bodyguards from sticking together even in front of reporters, saying that he could be suspicious of the strict security guard, and Kim Jong-il agreed.
The two of them went to Austria after 8 years of coming to North Korea and wrote a scenario in which they would shun the bodyguards.
The next day, I asked a Japanese reporter who had an interview plan to call a taxi in advance.
On the day the interview was scheduled, the two told the bodyguards that followed that Kim Jong-il had given them permission and prevented them from following them.
So they got into a taxi with a Japanese reporter without a bodyguard.
And they earnestly begged, "Please, let us go to the US embassy."
However, a white taxi chased them, seized the opportunity and succeeded in evading them.
Just then, on the way to the US embassy, the taxi's radio rang.
The content of the radio is about where the three Asians are going.
The two earnestly begged, "Tell me that we are going in the opposite direction."
And the Japanese reporter took out all the money he had and asked for it together.
The taxi driver granted their earnest request.
The two arrived safely in front of the US embassy.
They ran madly inside.
And the tapes handed over through acquaintances were delivered to the U.S. State Department and protected by the U.S. embassy.
The information about the supreme leader of North Korea, which had previously been shrouded in veil, was delivered thanks to the two of them.
In response, the U.S. government had previously ordered U.S. embassies around the world to take protective measures against the two men.
At that time, when she was barely breathing, the consul handed a pink rose to Choi Eun-hee and said to welcome her, and Choi Eun-hee poured out the tears she had been holding back.
So for eight years she'd achieved her acting goal, which she had only done for one thing.
After that, the two chose asylum in the United States rather than returning to their homeland.
He said he didn't like North Korea's tyranny, but also hated the South Korean military regime, saying, "I don't want to be an anti-communist trumpeter."
At that time, in Korea, hearing the news of their escape, they had only planned to use the two in a way that was favorable to them.
Asylum seekers in the United States were able to live with their families while disguising their names and nationalities in accordance with the United States' privacy protection measures.
After 15 years, the two returned to Korea and passed away in 2006 and 2018.
The story friends and storytellers who heard the story of that day felt sorry for the fate of those who could not return to their country even if they were free.
They also agreed that the revival of K-contents that is taking place around the world today would not have been possible without the past days of overcoming the era of censorship.
(SBS Entertainment News Editor Kim Hyo-jung)