Shin Sang Ok

▪ 2007

      South Korean film director (b. Oct. 11, 1926, Chungjin, Korea [now N.Kor.]—d. April 11, 2006, Seoul, S.Kor.), was one of the foremost directors in South Korea during the 1950s and '60s, with such classic melodramas as Sarangbang sonnimgwa eomeoni (1961, My Mother and Her Guest), Saroksu (1961, Evergreen Tree), and Naeshi 2 (1969, The Eunuch 2), before he and his film actress wife, Choi Eun Hee, were allegedly kidnapped in 1978 by North Korean agents. Shin and his wife reportedly spent five years in prison before they agreed to make films for Kim Jong Il, the son of the then leader of the country. They produced seven films, including Pulgasari (1985), a monster flick inspired by the Japanese Godzilla, with a story line by Kim. While on a cultural trip to Vienna, the couple escaped their captors and were given sanctuary in the U.S. Shin made two more films in South Korea, Mayumi (1990, Virgin Terrorist) and Jeungbal (1994, Vanished), before returning to Los Angeles. Thereafter he began working under the name Simon S. Sheen and found success as the producer of a series of Disney films featuring ninjas.

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