[Korean DVD News] The Shin Sang Ok Collection Up For Pre-Order

An event of major importance for film lovers, Taewon Entertainment will be releasing a set of five films by legendary director Shin Sang-ok [신상옥], some of which have never before been seen in the West. Shin, born in Chongjin (now part of North Korea) in 1926, went to Japan at the age of 16 to study film. Returning to Korea three years later, he got his first start in motion pictures as art director on Choi In-kyu’s Liberation film Hurrah! For Freedom (1946). In the 1950s and 1960s, Shin established himself as one of Korea’s major filmmakers, producing hundreds of films and directing as many as two or three per year. In 1954, Shin married popular actress Choi Eun-hee, who would later star in several of the director’s films, including Mother and a Guest, for which Shin received the Best Director prize at the 1st Daejong Film Awards. In the 1970s, strict government censorship crippled the local film industry, and Shin’s studio was closed down in 1978. That same year, Shin and his recently divorced wife were kidnapped by North Korean dictator and self-professed film buff Kim Jung-il, with the intention of jump-starting the Stalinist state’s film industry. Shin directed seven films in the North before making a daring escape with Choi in 1986. The couple sought asylum in the United States where the director, working under the alias Simon Sheen, made “3 Ninjas Knuckle Up” (1995), a children’s martial-arts movie. Shin returned to South Korea in 1994, continuing to make films until health problems put an end to his career. Shin died in Seoul on April 11, 2006. The “Shin Sang Ok Collection” includes A Romantic Papa (1960), Mother and a Guest [사랑방 손님과 어머니] (1961), Seong Chun-hyang [성춘향] (1961), Deaf Samryongee (1964), and One Thousand-Year-Old Fox (1969). Special features include a 50-minute documentary on the director, an essay by film scholar An Jin-soo, an interview with producer Hwang Nam, and audio commentary by Shin's wife Choi Eun-hee. Optional English subtitles are provided for the films and bonus materials, and the set comes with a handsome Korean/English guidebook.

Review of Mother and a Guest (by Peter Martin)

Obituary by X

Wikipedia entry

Pre-Order Shin Sang Ok Collection, LE (5 DVD Box Set) (Scheduled release date: July 19, 2007)