Intrigue, Romance and Politics Converge in The Lovers and the Despot
Ross Adam and Robert Cannan’s thrilling documentary The Lovers and the Despot tells a true-life story too crazy to be true.
Several moments in Ross Adam and Robert Cannan’s documentary The Lovers and the Despot are surreal; none more so than the victims at the center of it’s declaration that Kim Jong-il “seemed like an artist who loved films.” The Lovers and the Despot possesses a story so disturbing it has the makings of fiction, so it’s understandable that a director and his muse would be at the center. In one of the year’s weirdest documentaries is a movie within a movie about one dictator’s hope of finding a little slice of Hollywood.
Director Shin Sang-ok and actress Choi Eun-hee were South Korea’s biggest celebrities in the 1970s. Sang-ok revitalized South Korean cinema, taking it mainstream with his eventual bride, Eun-hee. When North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il wants to enter the movie business he decides to bring South Korea’s biggest filmmaker and star to his country…whether they like it or not.
The Lovers and the Despot is a fantastic crash course in South Korean cinema. The promotional material calls Sang-ok and Eun-hee the “Brangelina of South Korea” and it’s true. There are photos of the actress meeting Marilyn Monroe for crying out loud! Using Sang-ok and Eun-hee’s films to reenact scenes from their own lives, the audience learns how opulent films were for the country, as well as how these two blurred the lines between life and art. This could easily be a live-action film in its own right because it hits all the requisite beats of a major motion picture: romance, intrigue, a daring escape, a horrific villain.
Image courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
Everything plays out like a modern-day action movie. In fact, Eun-hee explains one of the reasons they didn’t escape was because they knew no one would believe them. Adam and Cannan wonder if that’s the only reason. Sang-ok and Eun-hee were kidnapped separately – her first, then him – leaving their small children to worry about them for months. And yet, there is no doubt where they were. North Korea parade the couple like prize hogs, taking photos and giving the couple freedom to go wherever they want within the country. Were they truly kidnap victims or defectors?
There’s never a clear indication, though Sang-ok eventually moved to the United States, starting the “beloved” 3 Ninjas series of films. He died in 2006 and the lack of anyone speaking for him leaves the audience to wonder if this is meant as titillation. Based on the evidence, it’s hard not to assume Sang-ok either defected or become complacent to his new life in North Korea.
The Lovers and the Despot’s prime target is the despot himself, Kim Jong-il. When Sang-ok and Eun-hee attempt their escape they record their conversations with the shadowy dictator as a means of proving their intimate ties with him. Ripped straight out of a Robert Ludlum novel, Eun-hee becomes a spy, obtaining the first recordings of the dictator’s speech!
The directors are fascinated by North Korean culture which, sadly, hasn’t changed significantly since the time period within the documentary. Rare footage of North Korean daily life depressingly showcases the bleak lives of those living under Kim Jong-il’s regime, and forecasts the lives of those living under his son, Kim Jong-un. Watching the country mourn Jong-il’s death is one of the year’s most terrifying moments, with people wailing and tearing their hair out, desperate to look upset or risk being killed.
Though Jong-il is never presented directly, nor are his thoughts regarding Sang-ok and Eun-hee known, he’s a calculating figure with stars in his eyes. Upset that all the movies made in his country are the same and irritated that he’s not invited to film festivals, much of his motivation for kidnapping the couple is to one-up South Korea in their filmmaking. Sounds petty doesn’t it? He outright wonders what it would take to “lure this director [Sang-ok],” and once the couple is brought to him, he acts with all the joviality of a man who’s invited them to his vacation home! It’s a truly bizarre depiction of madness, terrifying in its authenticity.
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The length of Sang-ok and Eun-hee’s stay becomes a bit muddled with an oblique “couple of months” specified. But it’s hard not to get wrapped up in The Lovers and the Despot which is the filmic equivalent of a great beach read. I wouldn’t be surprised if a major studio attempted to fictionalize it for cinemas, though they wouldn’t need to.