SHIN Sang-ok’s North Korea-Produced SALT to Premiere in Asian World Film Festival

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SHIN Sang-ok’s North Korea-Produced SALT to Premiere in Asian World Film Festival

Oct 17, 2017

Writer by Pierce Conran
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Period Siege Drama THE FORTRESS Selected as Centerpiece Screening

Classic Korean filmmaker SHIN Sang-ok’s North Korea-produced Salt (1985) will have its North American premiere on November 1st, during the 3rd edition of the Asian World Film Festival in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, director HWANG Dong-hyuk’s Joseon Era siege drama The Fortress has been selected as the festival’s Centerpiece screening.

Renowned for his classic dramas in South Korea, such as The Flower In Hell (1958) and Mother And A Guest (1961), SHIN and his wife, star CHOI Eun-hee, were famously kidnapped by North Korean agents in 1978 during a trip to Hong Kong. They were brought to Pyongyang where they were forced by North Leader KIM Jong-il to make propagandist films.

Set in the 1930s, Salt features CHOI as the wife in a family that harbors a rich Korean-Chinese businessman. When her husband dies, she asks for the merchant’s help and eventually enters an illegal salt trade. She is later attacked by the Japanese but then saved by a communist group.

Salt was screened at the Moscow International Film Festival, where it earned the Best Actress Award for CHOI. Both SHIN and CHOI finally managed to escape their captivity while visiting Austria for a film festival in 1986. SHIN passed away in 2006.

The Fortress, which stars LEE Byung-hun, KIM Yun-seok and PARK Hae-il, recently topped the box office in Korea, where it was released during the Chuseok holiday period. Also screening in the Culver City-based festival will be RYOO Seung-wan’s The Battleship Island and JANG Hun’s A Taxi Driver.

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