Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of I Heart Radio. Yo,
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Dutton, what you doing girl, Zarin Burnett, I got
Speaker 1: a question for you. Yes, you know what's ridiculous? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I do. Actually come on now all right listen. You
Speaker 1: like football, right, like you're a football guy, producer, Dave's
Speaker 1: a football guy. Yeah. Um, you like how when they
Speaker 1: hit their heads and they get the brain damage. That's
Speaker 1: like your favorite part, right you non football fans? Um,
Speaker 1: you know soccer people get concussions and brain damage. Dude,
Speaker 1: No one talks about this, the CTE damage of soccer.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, yeah, well okay, so good point. Um,
Speaker 1: here's here's the thing. Like when you know, you think
Speaker 1: about football, and especially we're like Super Bowl time and um,
Speaker 1: it's all like not just the football that's being played,
Speaker 1: but the football and your tummy cheese, well yeah, all
Speaker 1: the snacks. Right, so you've got like, um, nachos like
Speaker 1: you said, and chili and beer and that's ridiculous. No,
Speaker 1: you know where I'm going. Where are you going? Okay,
Speaker 1: So there's this thing that pairs well, as they said,
Speaker 1: with recliners, gaming and late night snack attacks. And it
Speaker 1: was we got so many of like sent to us,
Speaker 1: of these things sent to us, not physically, but we
Speaker 1: got a lot of messages about this from so many
Speaker 1: brew dudes and all working against me. Go on, Okay,
Speaker 1: So there's this thing and it's called Hormel Chili Chili
Speaker 1: Cheese Brew. It's beer, Hormel Chili Cheese Brew. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: website says, Yes, this madness is real. The tastiness of
Speaker 1: Hormel Chili Cheese Dip has come to life as a
Speaker 1: beer perrier dip with SIPs. When you pick up a
Speaker 1: four pack of this smooth chili cheese spice beer, it's
Speaker 1: dip a clock, y'all. Could you imagine drinking enough to
Speaker 1: get sick and the stuff coming back up a flavor burning?
Speaker 1: Can I read you the press release? It's amazing, arriving
Speaker 1: just in time for Super Bowl or Super Bowl for
Speaker 1: those you know in different space. Um l V I
Speaker 1: I what's that? Hormel today launched a first ever Hormel
Speaker 1: Chili Cheese Brew in a partnership with the award winning
Speaker 1: Modest Brewing Company. Inspired by the brand signature chili Cheese Dip.
Speaker 1: Limited edition American Logger features features Minnesota pills and er barley,
Speaker 1: malt and flaked corn. Here's the part brace yourself with
Speaker 1: its corn chip flavored bass. Oh god, taste like right okay,
Speaker 1: Modest brewing Company tastes like athletes Foot added a mix
Speaker 1: of savory spices and hints of cheddar cheese powder to
Speaker 1: bring the flavors of Hormel Cheese Dip to life. Starting Tuesday,
Speaker 1: January at eight a m. East. Oh damn, I probably
Speaker 1: missed it. Then, four packs are available to purchase Hormel
Speaker 1: Chili cheesebrew dot com for while supplies last. The price
Speaker 1: includes shipping and handling Hormel Chili Cheese brew wile ship
Speaker 1: in time for fans to enjoy when watching the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl on February. Fans can whip up a batch of
Speaker 1: Hormels Chili Cheese Dip by combining Hormel chili no beans
Speaker 1: with a one pound package of pasteurized cheese cut into
Speaker 1: half inch cubes. Mixed together the ingredients in a microwave
Speaker 1: safe bowl and micro wave on high for four and
Speaker 1: a half to five minutes until hot and cheese is melt,
Speaker 1: served with corn chips if desired. Why would they do that?
Speaker 1: I win the ridiculousness, dude, that is more than ridiculous.
Speaker 1: That's just hate chili cheese. Are you going to do
Speaker 1: that to a super Bowl party? Because could you meague
Speaker 1: if you showed up a super Bowl party and they
Speaker 1: were serving the there like, I wouldn't be surprised. I
Speaker 1: don't know what happens at this that's true, you don't.
Speaker 1: It's not that bad. It's not as bad as you think.
Speaker 1: If you got a second. You're familiar with the leader
Speaker 1: of North Korea, right, Kim Jong doon? Okay, well, there
Speaker 1: was his one time when his daddy, the former dear
Speaker 1: leader Kim Jong ill, he kidnapped the biggest star and
Speaker 1: the best director from South Korea. Then he brought them
Speaker 1: to North Korea and he had them shoot a remake
Speaker 1: of Godzilla. Yes, he wanted a North Korean Godzilla who
Speaker 1: could crush the capitalist swine. Now you have to understand,
Speaker 1: this is such a wild story. Are you ready for
Speaker 1: the story of the making of a movie that feels
Speaker 1: like it's story would make an even better movie than
Speaker 1: the movie that was made? I am ready? All right?
Speaker 1: This is Ridiculous Crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,
Speaker 1: heights and cons. It's always murder free and one ridiculous Elizabeth.
Speaker 1: I would like to talk with you today about your
Speaker 1: Lord and savior, Godzilla. Have you been saved? Are you
Speaker 1: a fan of Godzilla? No? Okay, well I'm gonna lay
Speaker 1: some facts on your I mean, disappointment is an understatement,
Speaker 1: but whatever, you know, let me just lay some facts
Speaker 1: on you so you can appreciate the cult of the
Speaker 1: thunder Lizard. All right, So Godzilla is an americanization of
Speaker 1: a Japanese name, right, So in Japan his name is Godjira,
Speaker 1: and Gojira is a portmanteau in Japanese. It's two Japanese
Speaker 1: words braided together, and the words are goira for gorilla
Speaker 1: and kujira for whale. So Godzilla's name really means guerrilla whale.
Speaker 1: I thought you'd like that. Yeah, it's starting to win
Speaker 1: me over right. I'm working and from not caring to
Speaker 1: like caring a little bit the dial I'm a little curious.
Speaker 1: What is that, Godzilla? Curious? You can't understand god have
Speaker 1: you You've never seen a single movie I have. He
Speaker 1: didn't enjoy it, he didn't stay with you, just didn't care.
Speaker 1: When we're the other How can you say that? I
Speaker 1: just didn't care when we are the other. You said
Speaker 1: it twice, so nice, I said it all right. Well whatever,
Speaker 1: So Godzilla my dog, not yours. Born of the sea whale, exactly,
Speaker 1: my gerilla whale. What up dog? Awakened by the nuclear age,
Speaker 1: he in a sense, is the revenge of nature against civilization.
Speaker 1: Godzilla is the spirit of our times. Elizabeth, you know
Speaker 1: I love that, I thought you. Yeah, you know I
Speaker 1: love animals and creatures attacking us in the street, kidding
Speaker 1: all around the world. Godzilla is loved by many people
Speaker 1: who aren't you, and he is the monster you love
Speaker 1: to hate. He stars in movies. He's also he has
Speaker 1: ted TV shows, cartoon shows, comic books, mangas, graphic novels
Speaker 1: literally very novels, video games, music videos, and of course
Speaker 1: knockoff porn videos. So Godzilla, I'm not sure if you
Speaker 1: know this. He's not young. He came to screens in
Speaker 1: ninety four in Japan, and then in two years later
Speaker 1: he comes to America and he starts to reckon Shop,
Speaker 1: and the americanized version heavily edited, and they threw in
Speaker 1: a Raymond burd just to really make the American audiences connect.
Speaker 1: It was called Godzilla, King of the Monsters exclamation point.
Speaker 1: Now the American release, it becomes a big hit, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's one of those things that pretty much
Speaker 1: created not just a genre, but a whole thing. You know,
Speaker 1: it is a world to itself. And there's the mathra things,
Speaker 1: all the monsters exactly. Okay, So in four Godzilla had
Speaker 1: been off of screens for a decade. There have been
Speaker 1: no movies. The seventies have been hard on Godzilla. They
Speaker 1: got a little cheesy in the sixties, and by the
Speaker 1: seventies people are like, what what is this mecha zillah?
Speaker 1: I don't even care anymore? Right, So the people, good
Speaker 1: people of Tohe Films, they decided in let's bring back Godzilla.
Speaker 1: They're like, yeah, like not only that, let's a race
Speaker 1: all of those bad movies we've made. So they take
Speaker 1: the fourteen films in between the first one and the
Speaker 1: new one they plan and they go, none of those counted,
Speaker 1: and so they say this will be the first sequel
Speaker 1: to the original film. The rest all just went to
Speaker 1: Mystery Science theater. Pretty much, Yeah, pretty much because Zilla.
Speaker 1: The people from Toe they realized we went we made
Speaker 1: a mistake. We stopped letting Godzilla be the monster. We
Speaker 1: made him the hero of fighting other monsters. I want
Speaker 1: to go back to him being the one coming after us. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: So Godzilla comes back eighty meters tall, fifty thousand tons
Speaker 1: of lizard monstrous, right, big bigg and so he's this
Speaker 1: long daddy. The movie is called the Return of Godzilla.
Speaker 1: In America, it's called Godzilla. You've seen this one. Raymond
Speaker 1: Burr came back for the sequel, did wow. I don't
Speaker 1: recall if I've seen it or not, but there's a
Speaker 1: lot I don't remembers. It's very likely you maybe have
Speaker 1: seen it. Is the Godzilla movie. A lot of Americans
Speaker 1: have seen it, even if they don't know it. Right now,
Speaker 1: I know you're probably thinking, Zarin, what is it that
Speaker 1: we all love about Godzilla? Darren, what is it that
Speaker 1: we all love about Godzilla? It's a great question, Elizabeth.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you now. Koji Hashimoto, he's the director of
Speaker 1: the Return of Godzilla. He said, and I quote, the
Speaker 1: existence of Godzilla is itself a dilemma. Godzilla is a
Speaker 1: living conflict of evil and sadness. Yes, he is the
Speaker 1: monster you feel sorry for. Well, well, I mean maybe
Speaker 1: I do okay. Now, the writer of Godzilla remake, Tomo
Speaker 1: Yuki Tanaka, he said, and I quote, Godzilla is the
Speaker 1: son of the atomic bomb. He is a nightmare created
Speaker 1: of the darkness of the human soul. He is the
Speaker 1: sacred beast of the apocalypse. Right. Yeah, Now, when the
Speaker 1: Godzilla reboot dropped, there was one cinephile out there, not you,
Speaker 1: who saw Godzilla re emerged from the dark and deep
Speaker 1: and was like, I need me one of those Godzillas,
Speaker 1: Get me a Godzilla. And that man's name was Kim
Speaker 1: Jong Ill, the next in future dear leader of North Korea.
Speaker 1: At the time, he was the son of the founder
Speaker 1: of dpr K. He was always the son of the founder,
Speaker 1: but at the time he was not yet the leader.
Speaker 1: He was still like, you know, junior dictator to be.
Speaker 1: Now his father's running the show, so that means his
Speaker 1: son had a lot of time on his hands. So
Speaker 1: what he liked to do was watch movies, specially bootleg
Speaker 1: Western movies. The dude loved movies. Like I'm talking, he
Speaker 1: had fifteen thousand film library. Now remember these legals, no
Speaker 1: American products or Western products are supposed to be in
Speaker 1: the country. He's got fifteen thousand bootleg film movies for me,
Speaker 1: but not for the exact So the ones he loved,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if I'll just tell you. He loved
Speaker 1: action movies like Rambo, loved the Rambo movies. He also
Speaker 1: loved James Bond films. He loved Friday the Thirteen, Big
Speaker 1: Jason fan. Yeah. Also he loved any film that starred
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Taylor. He went nuts for her lavender eyes. Right.
Speaker 1: So now since dude that can have whatever job he wants,
Speaker 1: he becomes the head of the North Korean film industry. Right,
Speaker 1: so he has bustling exactly. He's got him cooking sixty
Speaker 1: films a year, which is not bad. I mean, like
Speaker 1: Disney only puts out like fifteen films in here now,
Speaker 1: So they were cooking, right, it was like Golden Age
Speaker 1: Hollywood era. Now anywhere, Oh, I'll lists off something for
Speaker 1: you to go and here, get your pen out, you're ready.
Speaker 1: So the films are all mostly blatant propaganda, right, the
Speaker 1: original ones like so the ones like of his father's era,
Speaker 1: they're just all propagandiam me, generally under communism is kind
Speaker 1: of hard to make good films. I mean, yes, there's Tartakovsky.
Speaker 1: They're good filmmakers, but generally under communism you get some
Speaker 1: pretty questionable films. Right. Kim Jong Ill he knew this,
Speaker 1: so he studies Western film. He writes the books so
Speaker 1: that these communist movies can get better. His book is
Speaker 1: called On the Art of Cinema. It was his attempt
Speaker 1: to guide this film industry, right, So he gives him
Speaker 1: the manifesto about how to make a good movie. Lars Montrier,
Speaker 1: he was not, but he did at USC Films. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like Dogma nine. And then also on the Artist
Speaker 1: Cinema and then some Willie Golden books on screenwriting. That's
Speaker 1: it right now. Mostly dude is just railing on the
Speaker 1: Korean film scene in his book, right, he's just like
Speaker 1: the angriest film history you've ever read. Now. His father,
Speaker 1: as I told you, created propaganda films. You asked about them.
Speaker 1: One of them was Sea of Blood. That was about
Speaker 1: Korea's fight against Japan in the nineteen thirties, a real
Speaker 1: tragic film. And I know, Elizabeth, you probably remember the
Speaker 1: hit song from that that movie, My Heart Will Remain Faithful.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, but is my go to it karaoke? I
Speaker 1: knew that that's what I thought. Okay, now, Kim Jong Il,
Speaker 1: I've never done karaoke really, yeah, have to correct that.
Speaker 1: I'll even embarrass myself to make sure you do it now,
Speaker 1: Kim Jong Il. He uh. He praised his father's era
Speaker 1: of films. He wrote in his book quote, films should
Speaker 1: contain musical masterpieces like these, the fusion of noble ideas
Speaker 1: and burning passion. Right. He's like very much about the
Speaker 1: grand themes. But he's a different man than his father.
Speaker 1: So when he gets his hands on the North Korean
Speaker 1: film industry, he wants to create great art. So and
Speaker 1: also the communist propaganda the same thing, same goals, right,
Speaker 1: But he know this wouldn't be easy, so he decided,
Speaker 1: you know what I need to do. I need to
Speaker 1: kidnap the most talented director in South Korea so I
Speaker 1: can make great art. I won't force him, so this
Speaker 1: poor unfortunate soul. His name was Shin Song oc Shin Song.
Speaker 1: He had a production company and he named after himself.
Speaker 1: It was called Shin Films, and he made a ton
Speaker 1: of films and they were mostly beloved. Some were challenging,
Speaker 1: but he mostly made crowd pleasers. He was like kind
Speaker 1: of like a James Cameron if you will right now.
Speaker 1: One of his big films is called The Eunuch. Now,
Speaker 1: can you guess what The Eunuch is about? Elizabeth? Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm having no testicles, but no, maybe it's beyond that.
Speaker 1: It's it's about unis and concubines. It's doubling up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's two of them. They fall in love a concubine
Speaker 1: me to Unich. In the court. They decide, oh, it
Speaker 1: would be great if we could consummate our love affair.
Speaker 1: Oh but you have no junk. And he's like, no, no, baby,
Speaker 1: don't worry. It still works. And she's like really, And
Speaker 1: they're about to consummate their love affair, and then tragic
Speaker 1: events happen and they don't and people die spoil Oh sorry,
Speaker 1: I totally I didn't mean to blow that for you anyway.
Speaker 1: For me, Shin's movies are mostly these for you too, Okay,
Speaker 1: let me let me get back together. Okay, So the
Speaker 1: Shin's movie they're mostly there's star women, and they're they're
Speaker 1: considered like provocative. At this time, there's Chinese movies, Japanese
Speaker 1: movies in Korea, and the Korea's movies and creas movies
Speaker 1: are often very conservative careers culture at the times conservative.
Speaker 1: It's under a dictatorship, so he's challenging societal roles for women.
Speaker 1: He's very much an avant garde artist but still making
Speaker 1: popular films. And he's also really good like director where
Speaker 1: he's his films are like a master class for young actors. Right.
Speaker 1: So the guys just killing it in the rolls around
Speaker 1: the Korean dictatorships, like you know what, Shin, you need
Speaker 1: to close up shops, and there's nothing he can do
Speaker 1: about it. So boom, he's out of business and he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: this sucks, and uh, you know, this is the moment
Speaker 1: Kim Jong ill was waiting for. He's like rubbing his
Speaker 1: hands together all sinister. Now the filmmaker made suddenly be
Speaker 1: amenable to this second chance to make great art. Kim
Speaker 1: Jong il knows he's gonna need the right enticements if
Speaker 1: he wants to get Shin to come over to North
Speaker 1: Korea and jump the d MZ. So he's like, what
Speaker 1: can I do? He's like, well, is he great art?
Speaker 1: That may not be enough? I know it. I'm I've
Speaker 1: got it. I know what I need to do. And
Speaker 1: he's like, I'll kidnap his wife. It's like this business
Speaker 1: always to the relationship of trust and need, so joy
Speaker 1: you and He. That was his wife's name. She was
Speaker 1: the biggest, most respected actress in South Korea and she's
Speaker 1: married to the hottest director. They were this ultra cool couple.
Speaker 1: They were like the jay Z and Beyonce of seventies Korea. Right.
Speaker 1: They met on a film set. And there's a documentary
Speaker 1: about this whole story. It's called The Lovers in the
Speaker 1: Despot and I recommend it great your coverage if you
Speaker 1: want to hear more about this story. In the film
Speaker 1: show You and He. She remembers meeting her future husband
Speaker 1: and she's like, I was asked to star in this film.
Speaker 1: Then we met and had black bean noodles. Shin wasn't
Speaker 1: only handsome, he was also stylish. Everyone thought he was
Speaker 1: cool and he was a brilliant filmmaker. He said that
Speaker 1: we should make films together forever, and that's how it
Speaker 1: all began. Now, storybook romance. That's awesome, right, but be
Speaker 1: careful what you wish for because there may be some
Speaker 1: North Korean dictator listening, and suddenly you're making movies together forever.
Speaker 1: In North Korea, which is pretty much what happened. Okay,
Speaker 1: we'll take a little break here and we'll get back
Speaker 1: to the North Korean Godzilla and I'm going to blow
Speaker 1: your mind, all right, Elizabeth Zaren, I like saying it
Speaker 1: in an accusatory way today, Saren. Yes, Elizabeth, I was
Speaker 1: telling you about the super couple, the director of My man,
Speaker 1: Shin and his wife the star You and he. Now
Speaker 1: they sounds super groovy, right they were. Well, I'll show
Speaker 1: you pictures of them and you can put them up
Speaker 1: and be like, oh man, look at these two that
Speaker 1: I'm going to sound Yeah, just like that. It feel
Speaker 1: like when you're looking at pictures of Elliott, are you
Speaker 1: going to hit me in the head? I got a
Speaker 1: head wound now and I'm looking at the pictures. So Shin,
Speaker 1: he's this dude is a wilful soul, right, You and he?
Speaker 1: She called him the wild Horse, which I think means
Speaker 1: like we would call him the mustang man mustand yeah,
Speaker 1: total cowboy, little band's man in terms of like going
Speaker 1: his own way, right, the super couple, they're a match
Speaker 1: set though, because you and he's she's just as willful
Speaker 1: as Shin, right, maybe even more so in some ways,
Speaker 1: because well, I'll get into that later. But she goes
Speaker 1: on to secretly record Kim Jong Ill by hiding a
Speaker 1: recorder in her purse. Getting caught would cost her, possibly
Speaker 1: her head and seven generations of her family, right, exactly
Speaker 1: the circles that emanate with blood. No, you have to
Speaker 1: understand thanks to this, you and he, Elizabeth, you know
Speaker 1: that I have now heard Kim Jong Ill's voice. You. Yes,
Speaker 1: I she recorded him, and before she recorded him, no
Speaker 1: Westerner had heard Kim Jong ULL's voice. Now I am
Speaker 1: in rare air. Yeah, and if you watch the documentary,
Speaker 1: you two can be in that same rare air. But
Speaker 1: for you, Elizabeth, I thought, I just read a couple
Speaker 1: of Kim Jong ules choice quotes from the secret tape
Speaker 1: that you and he recorded. You get a sense of
Speaker 1: the man's gonna sound like him. Well, this is gonna
Speaker 1: be Kim Jong Lem excited. Why do all of our
Speaker 1: films have the same ideological plots? There's nothing no about them?
Speaker 1: I mean, like, why are there so many crying scenes?
Speaker 1: All of her films have crying scenes. This isn't a funeral,
Speaker 1: is it? Okay? Elizabeth? No, wait a minute, you said
Speaker 1: the reason I gave the Dear Leader a comical Chicago accent,
Speaker 1: It's because I don't want to tread on any racist
Speaker 1: ground here by a mistake. Right, So my imitation is
Speaker 1: gonna be you know, I'm gonna stay away from me
Speaker 1: caricatures or stereotypes, and I'm gonna go with those pure
Speaker 1: Chicago Okay, Now, if you got a second, I got
Speaker 1: another one for you now, he said on tape, and
Speaker 1: I quote, we don't have any films they can get
Speaker 1: into film festivals. But I mean, like in South Korea,
Speaker 1: they have better technology. They are like college students. We
Speaker 1: are just in nursery school. People here are so close minded.
Speaker 1: I wonder why, yes, the irony could choke Godzilla. I
Speaker 1: mean it's just like, come on, Mane, You're the reason
Speaker 1: they're so close. Mind you and your daddy. I got
Speaker 1: one more for you. You're ready. This is uh Kim
Speaker 1: Jong Ill talking about South Korea's films versus the North
Speaker 1: Koreas films. Alright, I've looked at South Korea's films. I've
Speaker 1: asked my advisor who's the best director in the South.
Speaker 1: He said that his name is Shin. I said, how
Speaker 1: can we persuade him to come here. How could I
Speaker 1: lure this director Shin? So now that's the plot. He's
Speaker 1: like to get this man into North Korea. So I
Speaker 1: already told you the answer to this is he's gonna
Speaker 1: kidnap you and he. That's his plan. That's how he's
Speaker 1: gonna get him over and force to come and make
Speaker 1: great art Godzilla movies. Now his plan, perfect plan, grabbed
Speaker 1: the wife. Here's how it plays out. You're ready, you
Speaker 1: and he. She's an actress, so you know she has
Speaker 1: to go and talk to producers. She gotta go and
Speaker 1: do business a film. She's gotta have lunches, all that
Speaker 1: kind of right. Now, she gets flown over to Hong
Speaker 1: Kong to meet with this producer about a potential role
Speaker 1: in an upcoming Hong Kong movie. And Hong Kong guys
Speaker 1: a great film community, so she's like stoked. She's like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, I'm gonna go work with some you know,
Speaker 1: Jackie Chance Production company or whatever. Right, she stoked. She
Speaker 1: gets met at the airport by an executive she knows
Speaker 1: from the Hong Kong branch of her ex husband Shin's
Speaker 1: film company, because at this point they are divorced. Right,
Speaker 1: So She's like always from Shin's films. So with this dude,
Speaker 1: is this woman she doesn't know, the woman she doesn't know,
Speaker 1: she's told as a shopping guide for her while she's
Speaker 1: in Hong Kong. She's like, how thoughtful. That's dope. Now
Speaker 1: I'll let you and he tell the story. Alright ready,
Speaker 1: she says there was no reason to be suspicious. She
Speaker 1: came to the hotel with her daughter and we wandered around.
Speaker 1: She suggested we visit a summer house by the seaside.
Speaker 1: It was owned by the guy who wanted to start
Speaker 1: a business relationship. I was playing with her daughter and
Speaker 1: waiting for the to show up, and then she called out,
Speaker 1: come here quickly. There was a speedboat with three or
Speaker 1: four strong men. All of a sudden, a guy grabbed
Speaker 1: me by the arms. Before I knew it, I was
Speaker 1: on board. So that's how she gets grabbed, right. I
Speaker 1: love that there was a speedboat. Yes, yes, just like
Speaker 1: that the mid eighties. So yeah, it's Miami Vice era. Okay,
Speaker 1: so it makes sense that of course there's a speed
Speaker 1: you gotta have a speedboat. Everybody's like, no, I'm Crockett
Speaker 1: and tubs my way over there now, you and he
Speaker 1: She gets further into the story and she says, when
Speaker 1: I woke up, I was in the captain's cabin on
Speaker 1: a big cargo ship. I thought they are going to
Speaker 1: kill me. There was a doctor and he had a
Speaker 1: lot of equipment and he gave me injections. This went
Speaker 1: on for about eight days, me waking and then collapsing
Speaker 1: with no food. Now, when she arrives in North Korea
Speaker 1: and she's like, oh, you know, just completely out of sorts.
Speaker 1: It sounds terrifying totally right now. When she gets there though,
Speaker 1: there's this entourage of people up there to meet her
Speaker 1: at the wharf, and then she hears a deep voice
Speaker 1: call out her, Hey, thanks for coming to make Kim
Speaker 1: Jong ill. Alright, So he comes over to her and
Speaker 1: Kim Jong Hill. He acts just like he'd arrived on
Speaker 1: a movie set and she's there and he's the director
Speaker 1: and he's like, hey, well, we're gonna have a lot
Speaker 1: of fun on this account. And she's like, what are
Speaker 1: you just terrified? Right? She's been like repeatedly drugged, hasn't eaten,
Speaker 1: like she didn't know where she was going. She would
Speaker 1: just come to doesn't know if she's gonna be killed,
Speaker 1: and then she's got this clown and then that the
Speaker 1: first thing that she sees that makes sense is Kim
Speaker 1: Jong Ill coming at her. Yeah, I'd be like him.
Speaker 1: I having a hallucination. She says that she didn't know
Speaker 1: if she was a gift for him or his father.
Speaker 1: Just imagine that, dear right. Yeah. Meanwhile, her ex husband
Speaker 1: Shin he discovers you and he is missing from Hong Kong,
Speaker 1: and he goes wild with worry. He's like, he immediately
Speaker 1: fears the worst. He's faced with all the ideas of
Speaker 1: like what could go wrong, and he immediately thinks north Korea.
Speaker 1: It's got to be North Korea. And he's fearing, by
Speaker 1: the way, for both his wife and himself because if
Speaker 1: they grabbed his wife, he's like, oh, I could be next, right,
Speaker 1: So he traveled to Hong Kong to go find his
Speaker 1: missing wife, and while he's there he asked the police.
Speaker 1: He's like, hey, I'm gonna need protection because my wife
Speaker 1: got grabbed. They're like, oh, of course, of course. He's like,
Speaker 1: I don't want to get snatched off the street like
Speaker 1: my wife, Like of course, what we got you? Like
Speaker 1: this is under British protectorate at the time. So there's
Speaker 1: British investigators trying to figure this all out, and like
Speaker 1: we were going to take care of the foreign nationals
Speaker 1: and so it's like a whole thing. Right now, Shin
Speaker 1: has little to go on to find his wife, right
Speaker 1: and he's like, he's got little help other than the
Speaker 1: British authorities. But he does have one colleague in the city,
Speaker 1: an old friend and a former business partner, and this
Speaker 1: man offers him help to go find you and he
Speaker 1: and he's like, oh cool. But then come to find
Speaker 1: out his old friend and business partner was a North
Speaker 1: Korean spy. Chin never sees coming. So here's how Shin
Speaker 1: tells the story. There was a secret agent in Hong Kong.
Speaker 1: He was my colleague, so there was no reason to
Speaker 1: be suspicious, and he took me to Repulse Bay on
Speaker 1: Hong Kong Island. The car stopped and three or four
Speaker 1: people got in. Okay, wait, I have to pause the
Speaker 1: story for a second. I like them, both of these stories.
Speaker 1: It's always three or four people, Like they're just like hey,
Speaker 1: for both of them, they're just like, you know, sm
Speaker 1: it's good for supremely low numbers. It like like it
Speaker 1: was three ye stopped counting after three. I don't know
Speaker 1: what are one person? What does it matter? We are,
Speaker 1: we are we setting a table here. Why do I
Speaker 1: have to know how many people are in the car?
Speaker 1: But you know, he's like, look, you know me people
Speaker 1: was enough people exactly, So every time he goes, he's
Speaker 1: like three or four people. Anyway. He also reminds me
Speaker 1: of the David Sedaris story of like the sixty eight
Speaker 1: black Men. Yeah, you know this story. So he's like,
Speaker 1: just for anyone who doesn't. David Sai Darris is driving
Speaker 1: around Europe and he's talking to people, trying to get
Speaker 1: to know the areas, and it's a big thing to do.
Speaker 1: Was always asking him what's the local Christmas traditions? And
Speaker 1: in the Netherlands, he gets there and they start telling
Speaker 1: him that St. Nick shows up, and every time he
Speaker 1: shows up, it's always a six eight black men. And
Speaker 1: he keeps asking people and he can never get an
Speaker 1: exact number. At one point, I have a code here
Speaker 1: from him, he says, I asked several touch people to
Speaker 1: narrow it down, but none of them could give me
Speaker 1: an exact number. It was always six to eight, which
Speaker 1: seems strange. Things they've had hundreds of years to get
Speaker 1: a decent count. So anyway, that's what I kept picturing
Speaker 1: when I'm reading, three to four people get in the car.
Speaker 1: Three to four people were in the boat. Okay, so
Speaker 1: back to your abductions. Okay, So the director is in
Speaker 1: the car with his former colleague when three or four
Speaker 1: people get in. They were wearing long wigs. He says,
Speaker 1: they put a bag over my head. And I gotta
Speaker 1: stop again because I'm sorry, but they're wearing wigs. They
Speaker 1: put a bag over his head. Does seem incongruous to me.
Speaker 1: It's like, make up your minds. Do you want to
Speaker 1: be disguised or you're gonna like just put a bag
Speaker 1: over some of the wearing a bag, they put a
Speaker 1: wing on him, just exactly like okay, like you're driving
Speaker 1: around Hong Kong with a man with a bag on
Speaker 1: his head. What are the wigs for, like or the Beatles?
Speaker 1: It's okay, I mean I can see they probably like
Speaker 1: put the bag on his head and then shove them
Speaker 1: down into the footwell and then they're wearing wigs and
Speaker 1: they're like, I don't know, these like three to four
Speaker 1: guys with really beautiful long tresses flowing in the open
Speaker 1: air windows. Yes, I don't know what it doesn't look
Speaker 1: like me. You're probably right if exactly that. So at
Speaker 1: this point, I'll pick back up the abduction. So he
Speaker 1: since says they were wearing long wigs. They put a
Speaker 1: bag over my head and made me in halee chloroform.
Speaker 1: So poom, he's out. Now he's captured too. Boom, Just
Speaker 1: like that, the North Korean film industry just got a
Speaker 1: whole lot more talents. So meanwhile, back in South Korea,
Speaker 1: people start to assume terrible things. And I don't mean
Speaker 1: terrible things like oh they're dead. I mean like terrible
Speaker 1: things like I don't know about this abduction. First the
Speaker 1: wife gets abducted, and now Shin gets abducted. I think
Speaker 1: they defected. I think they just faked their kidnappings. So
Speaker 1: people still not looking for them or killing they're gone. Yes. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Smash cut to Shin in a North Korean prison camp
Speaker 1: because that's where he was taken by his abductors. So
Speaker 1: he's seriously sitting in a North Korean prison camp. His
Speaker 1: wife you and he she's being treated well. She's in
Speaker 1: Kim Jong's palaces. She's cared for pamper being taken to
Speaker 1: shows eating well, Shannon is also in North Korea, but
Speaker 1: she doesn't know that, right, so she's just like having
Speaker 1: her little life totally unaware. Now being my kind of guy,
Speaker 1: Shin was thinking the whole time he's in the prison camp.
Speaker 1: W W S M D. You know what that stands for?
Speaker 1: What would Steve McQueen do. That's a good thing all
Speaker 1: the time? Well, I mean not all the time. He
Speaker 1: was always there are some exceptions to exactly. So shin
Speaker 1: ch handles Steve McQueen in The Great Escape and he
Speaker 1: gets all inspired. He decides he's gonna bust out of
Speaker 1: this North Korean prison camp. So he starts to write
Speaker 1: and direct his own escape movie starring him. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: that's so perfect. And I got a quote for you
Speaker 1: from Shin You ready, He says, when put in extreme situations,
Speaker 1: people imitate what they see in movies. If I was
Speaker 1: going to make a movie about this situation, how would
Speaker 1: I film it? I thought, I'm gonna get out, even
Speaker 1: if I have to dig a tunnel under the floor.
Speaker 1: Then I tried scraping at the floorboards. Anyway, whatever it takes,
Speaker 1: I have to get out of here. So that's his plan, right,
Speaker 1: and we have a lot of cinematic This is not
Speaker 1: really his his part isn't a crime, but it's like
Speaker 1: what's his name with heat? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah completely
Speaker 1: And so my man Shin, he pulls it off. He
Speaker 1: escapes the prison camp. He's able to run off, and
Speaker 1: when he gets outside the fence, he finds a bike.
Speaker 1: I loved this park. He finds a bike. He steals
Speaker 1: a bike, and then he's like, you know what, each
Speaker 1: according to their needs, comrade, and takes off and he's
Speaker 1: gone right on his stolen bike. He's paddling away and
Speaker 1: like Fiona Apple, he's going as fast as he can.
Speaker 1: Right now, Shin sees a train and maybe he can
Speaker 1: catch this train get over the border to China. He's like,
Speaker 1: I've gotta catch that train. So he ditches the stolen bike,
Speaker 1: runs over the freight train, tries to hop like a
Speaker 1: hobo his way onto the train. Makes it. But it
Speaker 1: turns out that train just goes in one big circle.
Speaker 1: It just loop. It doesn't go anywhere. It's such a
Speaker 1: North Korean train. It's like I just go in the circle.
Speaker 1: What I'm just supposed to run? So it is feeded.
Speaker 1: He is, but he's so tired and worn out he
Speaker 1: cannot muster another like escape attempts, So he just goes
Speaker 1: to sleep on top of the train car. Somebody sees
Speaker 1: his foot dangling on the side. They called the police,
Speaker 1: so the police call come, they arrest him. They take
Speaker 1: him back to the prison camp, and he's like I was,
Speaker 1: so he gots he gets up, but then he's taken
Speaker 1: to prison number six. Now, Prison number six is the
Speaker 1: hardcore prison reform camp where political prisoners are sent for
Speaker 1: re education North Korean style re education. Again, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: so it shouldn't put it anyway. It's a horrible place anyway.
Speaker 1: This is from his memory. He's telling a story and
Speaker 1: he goes anyway, it's a horrible place. So to survive
Speaker 1: he has to subsist on rice, handfuls of grass and salt. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's his nutrient account. He said, I quote, I
Speaker 1: experienced the limits of human beings. So yeah, he learns
Speaker 1: the one all important lesson from his time in North
Speaker 1: Korea's re education prison. He learns the idea that if
Speaker 1: he wants to ever escape the country, he's going to
Speaker 1: need an actual plan. He can't just run out. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna catch a train or steal a bike. And so
Speaker 1: the first step of his new path is he writes
Speaker 1: a letter to the dear Leader Kim Jong Ill. He's like, hey,
Speaker 1: dear leader, and he promises him, I will make you
Speaker 1: glorious films. I will make you great, beautiful films, movies
Speaker 1: that will exalt North Korea on the world stage. This
Speaker 1: is everything Kim Jong Ill has been waiting to hear.
Speaker 1: So Kim Jong Ill is like, as my girl Renee
Speaker 1: Zala Baker, Well, one day come to say you had
Speaker 1: me at hello? So what Shin wins over Kim Jong Ill?
Speaker 1: He has the baby dictator. Hey, what about my kidnapped wife?
Speaker 1: She's still alive now. At this point, Shin has been
Speaker 1: in North Korea for five years, five years, and he
Speaker 1: hasn't seen it yet, hasn't seen it. She doesn't know
Speaker 1: that he's been there for five years. And they had
Speaker 1: two adopted children. They've they've been told by everybody they've defected,
Speaker 1: so their children don't even they think they've been abandoned
Speaker 1: by their parents. So he's just like going through it. Right.
Speaker 1: So February three, Kim Jong Il's birthday. You know, Johnny
Speaker 1: big hair, don't care is going to show out for
Speaker 1: his birthday. So he does and you and he tells
Speaker 1: the story. She's like, one day, out of the blue,
Speaker 1: there was a car waiting to take me to Kim
Speaker 1: Jong Iill's house. You have to understand she knows that
Speaker 1: when a car is sent for her, it just means
Speaker 1: something big is going to happen. You could mean, oh,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get murdered today, or it could being like, oh,
Speaker 1: I want to show you this this ballerina from Swan
Speaker 1: Lake I abducted. You never know, right, So when she arrives,
Speaker 1: Kim john Ill is in a good mood. He's like,
Speaker 1: you know, like Rick James in a room full of cocaine.
Speaker 1: He's like, he's like to give Drake, could go to
Speaker 1: a Drake concert. He's just like and be in the
Speaker 1: front row. He's just beaming. Right. So Kim john Ill
Speaker 1: sees her and he's like, miss Joy, it's my birthday party.
Speaker 1: It's a family affair, right, And she's like, oh god right.
Speaker 1: So one of the party guests guides her attention. He's like,
Speaker 1: look over there, you and he she turns and she
Speaker 1: sees her husband, Shin standing in the room, and she's like,
Speaker 1: what the hell. They've dozens of film together, raised two children.
Speaker 1: They have the storybook love affair. They are the ben Affleck.
Speaker 1: He's the ben Affleck to her j Lo. You know, yeah,
Speaker 1: but weren't they divorced? They broke up and then now
Speaker 1: fate has brought them back together. Just in this case,
Speaker 1: you know, Fate is you know, Kim jong Ill just
Speaker 1: like a little less Dunkin Donuts and exactly less cold
Speaker 1: coffee and less dunk now and you and he sees Shin.
Speaker 1: She says, I froze on the spot. Was I dreaming?
Speaker 1: This can't be real. I kept staring at him. All
Speaker 1: I could say is what happened to you? Shin was quiet.
Speaker 1: He just looked at me and smiled. Even then, I
Speaker 1: was thinking if this was a film, there'd be a
Speaker 1: lot of tears. But she's like filming herself. Yeah, they're
Speaker 1: living this out and instead of being like how we
Speaker 1: can get out of here? So Kim Jong Ill is like,
Speaker 1: I think everybody forgot whose birthday party it is. So
Speaker 1: he's like, comrades, let me introduce you. This is director
Speaker 1: shan Are, no film advisor. This is miss Joy mother
Speaker 1: of Korea. So he's like telling him, like, these are
Speaker 1: my new people, right. He orders the reunited couple to
Speaker 1: embrace because the thing you were worried about, he say,
Speaker 1: hug up, alright, So they do, and he tells him
Speaker 1: like you're getting You're getting remarried. This is great and
Speaker 1: they're like oh. And eventually the couple is remarried. And
Speaker 1: while they're in North Korea. So at his birthday party,
Speaker 1: Kim John guilt explains to Shin about, oh, by the way,
Speaker 1: about tossing him in prison, that whole rigor morale. He's like, no, sorry,
Speaker 1: it was a misunderstanding. He blames his people, like exactly,
Speaker 1: he just got lost in the translations of paperwork. Sorry.
Speaker 1: So you know, he's like, hey, you try running a
Speaker 1: country without a reliable power grid, you know. So Shin
Speaker 1: said about this time, he's like, I hated communism, but
Speaker 1: I had to pretend to be devoted to it to
Speaker 1: escape from this barren republic. It was lunacy. Now, speaking
Speaker 1: of lunacy, I promised you a North Korean Godzilla, and oh,
Speaker 1: you're ready for it, because we're gonna be getting into
Speaker 1: it now, all right. So now we have our free director,
Speaker 1: and all the film ideas, the scripts, the casting whatever,
Speaker 1: all that stuff has to run through Kim Jong Ill.
Speaker 1: Now can you imagine being in the writer's room with
Speaker 1: Kim Jong Illazing, terrifying and amazing. It's ten am. He's
Speaker 1: already had two of your co writers sent to the gulag.
Speaker 1: They weren't laughing at his jokes. Is that just a
Speaker 1: funny pat? Why aren't you laughing? He's he's had like
Speaker 1: a like a delivery person executed for bringing him cold black,
Speaker 1: being the little that's doing this show with you exactly.
Speaker 1: So one Shin is out of prison and Kim Jong
Speaker 1: Il he's like, hey, I'm gonna give you free rein
Speaker 1: And they're allowed. The couples are to go all around
Speaker 1: the country and look for locations for all the movies
Speaker 1: he wants them to make, and they do. It's small
Speaker 1: taste of freedom. They're stoked. They're even allowed to travel internationally.
Speaker 1: One of the trips, the couple goes to Berlin for
Speaker 1: location shoots, but this time it's East Berlin. It's still
Speaker 1: part of the Eastern Block, right, so they're in a
Speaker 1: communist country still, right, but they're outside North Korea. And
Speaker 1: so while they're in East Berlin. Shin and you and
Speaker 1: he are walking around. They see the US embassy and
Speaker 1: you and he his Shin's arm of squeeze. He's like,
Speaker 1: let's run for it, try to make it to the embassy,
Speaker 1: and Shin was like against it. He tells his wife,
Speaker 1: what's the matter with you. I will not make an
Speaker 1: attempt unless it is certain if they caught us, we'd
Speaker 1: be dead right now. Plus shins about his make of
Speaker 1: North Korean masterpiece Polga. Sorry, that's the name of North
Speaker 1: Korean godzilla, Pulga. Sorry, Pulga. Sorry, So he wants to
Speaker 1: get into his masterpieces. Like, I ain't going anywhere now.
Speaker 1: After this little break, I will tell you all about Bulga.
Speaker 1: Sorry alright, Elizabeth. While our couple, Shin and you and
Speaker 1: he were being detained in North Korea, they were able
Speaker 1: to shoot seventeen feature films. And they did this in
Speaker 1: a span of two years three months. Yeah, they were
Speaker 1: cranking them out. They said they were like barely sleeping
Speaker 1: to three hours a night. Anyway, there was one unexpected
Speaker 1: side effect they had encountered on, which is the couple
Speaker 1: became a walking, talking propaganda film because their lives became content,
Speaker 1: and Kim Jong Hill was able to use it. He
Speaker 1: took photos of them, he put them on North Korean papers,
Speaker 1: those go over to South Korea's borders. Suddenly it looks
Speaker 1: like they're having this great time in North Korea, which
Speaker 1: plays into the story that they voluntarily defected. So and
Speaker 1: they don't know this because they don't know that these
Speaker 1: stories anyway, so it's a whole problem. Anyway, this is
Speaker 1: far from the truth because you and he and Shin
Speaker 1: they even though yes they were like the COMI, ben
Speaker 1: affleckt In j Lo, the People's jay Z and Beyonce,
Speaker 1: they were still in their minds South Korean artists, right.
Speaker 1: So they're like, how do we get out of here?
Speaker 1: And Shin's like, Pulga sorry, So he gives Kim Jong
Speaker 1: Hill what he wants his Godzilla Monster movie. Now. To
Speaker 1: make this North Korean Godzilla truly epic, Shin decides they're
Speaker 1: gonna need to hire the original team from Japan that
Speaker 1: made the original Godzilla back in nineteen fifty four. So
Speaker 1: Shin tells Kim Jong Il's planned and the Dictator to
Speaker 1: be is like, that's so crazy. I freaking love it.
Speaker 1: We got it through this, So this time Kim Jong Il.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have the film crew kidnapped like them. Instead,
Speaker 1: he has this Japanese VFX crew invited to go to
Speaker 1: China to shoot a film. They get on a plane
Speaker 1: and when the plane lands there in North Korea, surprise,
Speaker 1: welcome the pe Yeah so boom. Now one of the
Speaker 1: the abductive members of this Japanese VFX crew, it's Elizabeth
Speaker 1: is Ken Pachiro Satsuma. Now, if you don't know the
Speaker 1: name Kim Paturo Satsuma, he's the man who was Godzilla.
Speaker 1: He's the one inside the Rubber Monster. So really yeah, well,
Speaker 1: technically he was the second man to ever wear the
Speaker 1: Godzilla suit because it was a long stretch between fifty
Speaker 1: four and he's he's tall, he's a big boy. He's
Speaker 1: I love that. I've I've introduced long Daddy andlexicon, a
Speaker 1: lexicon of strange phrases, tall boys and long days. Well,
Speaker 1: tall boys still reserve for bears, but cemented. So when
Speaker 1: SMA gets to North Korea, he gets to be the
Speaker 1: first to wear the new Pulgasari suit. So he's got
Speaker 1: his own record. Oh my god, So no Polka Sari
Speaker 1: is a lot like Godzilla. I want you to be
Speaker 1: able to picture him. He has a giant lizard beast monster.
Speaker 1: He destroys everything. But he wasn't born from nuclear energy
Speaker 1: from the West. You know that would be too much
Speaker 1: of a flex for the West. So pulga sorry, he
Speaker 1: was made by an elderly farmer and uh he was
Speaker 1: created and shaped out of rice. And Pulgasari came to
Speaker 1: life when a drop of the farmer's daughter's blood landed
Speaker 1: on his rice mold body. I don't want to know
Speaker 1: how that happen. So Kim Jong ill he think he
Speaker 1: wants his film to be a powerful attack on Western
Speaker 1: values and a love song to the people struggle against greed,
Speaker 1: private wealth and oppression. Did Pulgasari have to wear like that,
Speaker 1: like drab, gray North Korean utilitarian sheet clothes. That's the
Speaker 1: other question I have just said. I'm sorry to side
Speaker 1: track you, but I keep wondering in my mind when
Speaker 1: you describe the couple like they're super fashionable and like
Speaker 1: wearing all these designer duds. But did they have to
Speaker 1: pick from like the approved haircuts you know about in
Speaker 1: the Communism under Like most of these times, the party
Speaker 1: leaders have all the best Western stuff but if they're
Speaker 1: going to know, they don't. They are not supposed to
Speaker 1: be emblems of the revolution. The revolution has been from
Speaker 1: like a handful of haircuts if you're like a person
Speaker 1: like on the regular, Like, yeah, they don't touch streets,
Speaker 1: so they do whatever they want. Did they cut her
Speaker 1: hair to look like no, Kim John Ill you know
Speaker 1: he has like the helmet hair he's got that. They
Speaker 1: got the papadoor. Sorry, it's fine. So yeah, though they
Speaker 1: had the best of everything. They're eating like, you know,
Speaker 1: wild boar for dinner, running their fingers over pearl necklaces,
Speaker 1: like running their fingers through just like hell, yes, I
Speaker 1: sit here, I run my fingers over pearls and I
Speaker 1: eat deep bore like anyway, they're living locks. Right. So
Speaker 1: in the film Polga Sorry the Monster, there's this wicked
Speaker 1: king because it takes place in the past, and the
Speaker 1: wicked king is starving the people. So the monster attacks
Speaker 1: the king. Right, Godzilla goes after Pulga. Sorry, he goes
Speaker 1: after the king. Now, this plot line gets intercut with
Speaker 1: folk dances of the people because it's a communist movie, Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: and that's what they do in communist movies. In case
Speaker 1: you didn't notice. Yeah, it's it's part of the whole deal.
Speaker 1: It's like their version of a car chase. Instead of
Speaker 1: like cut to the chase, it's cut to the harvest dancers.
Speaker 1: So you know. Anyway, Eventually, our monster, Pulgasari, he squares
Speaker 1: off with the king. King fires a missile at him.
Speaker 1: Paulgasari eats the missile. He kills the king right. He's like,
Speaker 1: he eats him right, and the King's like oh. Then,
Speaker 1: surprising everyone, Pulgasari starts attacking the people. They're like, no,
Speaker 1: we didn't see this coming. Pulga sorry, and Paulga sorry
Speaker 1: because he doesn't know any better. He's just, you know,
Speaker 1: a rice mold monster who wants to eat iron. I
Speaker 1: forgot to tell you that he eats iron. So he's
Speaker 1: hungry for delicious, delicious iron. So he's always like eating like,
Speaker 1: you know, gates or sections of fence, or like munching
Speaker 1: on like a farmer's tools, nibbling on a shovel, whatever
Speaker 1: you can get, right. So the farmer's daughter she goes
Speaker 1: and she pleads with Paulga Sari, so leave the people alone, Paulkasari,
Speaker 1: and Polkasari' is like oh and then like, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know why he explodes, right, he's just like her,
Speaker 1: please are so strong? He explodes, and why would he explode?
Speaker 1: For the people, Elizabeth, it's communism and he's communist Godzilla.
Speaker 1: So he gives his body forth like Jesus and he's
Speaker 1: like each of my Pulga Sari and this sounds beautiful. Anyway.
Speaker 1: At the end of the movie, a baby Polga Sari
Speaker 1: is seen walking out of the sea. Because you always
Speaker 1: got to think of the sequel seeds. Now, surprisingly this
Speaker 1: movie when he gets dropped in North Korean theaters, it's
Speaker 1: a huge hit. People love it. Kim Joyo stoked. He's like,
Speaker 1: it's a masterpiece. It's a work of pure cinema. I'm
Speaker 1: telling you, it's amazing. Now in North Korea, he's a
Speaker 1: really only critic that matters. So this is like if
Speaker 1: Roger Ebert and Cisco and like every other film critic
Speaker 1: you can name, Jean Shallot, there you go. They all
Speaker 1: loved it, right, just all one big person. Now next
Speaker 1: up a voltron. Yeah, but film critics, I am getting
Speaker 1: I am hitting you with some eighties references. You're cheaping
Speaker 1: it on tame like thank you. Next step the North
Speaker 1: Korean film industry. There he decided to take on the
Speaker 1: bloody legacy of Genghis Khan, but not the historic Gengis Khan.
Speaker 1: You're thinking of Jenison Jengis Kon. No. No, they want
Speaker 1: to do the one inspired by John Wayne's version The Conqueror.
Speaker 1: That's the movie where John Wayne plays Genkison everyone got
Speaker 1: cancer And if you're wondering, well, Zaron, did he do
Speaker 1: that in Yellow Face? You damn Yeah. So the movie
Speaker 1: Racist Is All Hell was something that Kim Jong Ill
Speaker 1: loved and he's like, I want to rebote it. We
Speaker 1: gotta remote it. So they decided to reboot The Conqueror.
Speaker 1: So Chen tells the dictator, I know the perfect person
Speaker 1: for this. If we're doing historical epic, we gotta get
Speaker 1: it on board. And he's like, oh okay, yeah, who
Speaker 1: who you got mined? And he's like, oh, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go talk to him. He's an Austrian producer. I'll get
Speaker 1: a co production deal going. He starts working on the
Speaker 1: co production deal. The producer friend agrees to a co
Speaker 1: production deal with North Korea, which is pretty rare new
Speaker 1: at the time. Things are looking up for the North
Speaker 1: Korean film industry like maybe Polka. Sorry, he's finally giving
Speaker 1: us a little bit of respect. But turns out that
Speaker 1: the whole Austrian co production deal, that's what we in
Speaker 1: the smoke blowing industry. It's like we call a lie.
Speaker 1: So it was just a cover for Shinn and you
Speaker 1: and he to finally escape smart yes, right, because Shin
Speaker 1: wrote in his memoir to be in Korea living a
Speaker 1: good life ourselves and enjoying movies while everyone else was
Speaker 1: not free was not happiness but agony. So he's like,
Speaker 1: I gotta get out of this. So he ties he's
Speaker 1: gonna end the agony. I'm flying to Vienna, so and
Speaker 1: he hoped his bravery would catch up to him when
Speaker 1: he got there. So the date is March thirteenth, nineteen six.
Speaker 1: The ultracool couple arrives in Vienna. They check into a
Speaker 1: hotel there with their North Korean minders, the agents, intelligence agents,
Speaker 1: Shinn and you and he. They're chilling in the hotel
Speaker 1: room across the hall or other North Korea intelligent handlers.
Speaker 1: They're smoking with the door open, playing cards, you know,
Speaker 1: playing poker or whatever. She and you he They look
Speaker 1: at each other decide this is our moment. So they
Speaker 1: start packing their bags. They pack like one piece of
Speaker 1: luggage each and they make a break for it. If
Speaker 1: you rush out of the room, they sneak down the hallway.
Speaker 1: Each of them told you carrying a small piece of luggage.
Speaker 1: Are trying to be super quiet. If they get caught,
Speaker 1: they'll lose everything, everything, their freedom, they're possibly their lives.
Speaker 1: He'll be sent back to a re education camp, maybe worse.
Speaker 1: So they're like, we cannot blow this. And remember she
Speaker 1: said it has to be a guarantee. He's going for it.
Speaker 1: His bravery is caught up to him. They make it.
Speaker 1: They run for it down the hallway, they make it
Speaker 1: to the elevator, down to the lobby, and the elevator,
Speaker 1: they make it across the hotel lobby. Outside, they flag
Speaker 1: down a taxi cab. They may get inside of the cab,
Speaker 1: they shut the door. Elizabeth, at this point, I'd like
Speaker 1: you to close your eyes, yes and picture it. You've
Speaker 1: been driving a cab in Austria for about two weeks now.
Speaker 1: You'd love to be able to get people where they
Speaker 1: want to go. You love to see the city. Vienna
Speaker 1: is a terribly beautiful city to walk through or to
Speaker 1: drive through. You really take into your new job as
Speaker 1: a Viennese cabby. You just love it. But there's one problem.
Speaker 1: You don't know your way around the city, like at all,
Speaker 1: like just at all, not yet got you got a
Speaker 1: lot of maps, but whatever. So you're always telling your
Speaker 1: passengers to be patient with you. You're like, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: new in town. And sometimes they laugh, sometimes they do
Speaker 1: not laugh. So the door to your cab swam shut
Speaker 1: and you spot the two fresh passengers you just climbed
Speaker 1: to the back seat. It's a middle aged Korean couple,
Speaker 1: both well dressed. They look like movie stars. You turn
Speaker 1: on the meter and you ask in French, then in Austrian, German,
Speaker 1: and finally in English, where are you headed? You're surprised
Speaker 1: when you hear the answer. The woman you and he
Speaker 1: she shouts at you just drive. You're like okay, Well,
Speaker 1: you think okay. You put your Mercedes Sedan taxi in
Speaker 1: to drive and you ease away from the curb. You
Speaker 1: gently pull away from the hotel's front door, and the
Speaker 1: man the back said, can you can you drive faster?
Speaker 1: You're like, sure, buddy, once you were on the street,
Speaker 1: you haven't noticed We're kind of in a driveway. Okay,
Speaker 1: but you sit tight, Buttercup, don't you worry? And these
Speaker 1: ponies like to run. So at this point you check
Speaker 1: both your side mirrors, your rear view mirror for some reason,
Speaker 1: then your side of your mirrors again, just to be certain.
Speaker 1: Once you're satisfied it's safe, you ease your Mercedes Sedan
Speaker 1: taxicab out into traffic. Can you please drive faster now?
Speaker 1: The woman in the back asked you, and you're like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's like, please drive faster. Like you guys were so cute.
Speaker 1: You haven't even told me where we're going, but you're like, hey,
Speaker 1: can we speed to get there? So like, maybe you
Speaker 1: want to tell me where we're going. And you pull
Speaker 1: up to a red light and then you stop and
Speaker 1: you hum to yourself and you're looking in the rear
Speaker 1: view waiting for them to tell you where you're going,
Speaker 1: and you're like, well, do you guys have a radio
Speaker 1: station you want to hear do anything you like? They
Speaker 1: don't answer. You've you noticed that they have spun around.
Speaker 1: They're looking behind you and traffic to see if anyone's
Speaker 1: following your car. You're like, I said, our favorite radio
Speaker 1: stations you guys like you like the tunes, You're like
Speaker 1: rock music. What do you want to hear? You're asking
Speaker 1: and no answer. Again, You're these people are kind of
Speaker 1: rude anyway, light changes, so you get back to driving
Speaker 1: and your eaves dropping on your passengers there while they're
Speaker 1: just focused on the traffic behind you, and you hear
Speaker 1: the woman saying, there the cap, it's suspicious, right, you
Speaker 1: see it? And the guys like, tchwe she's like the
Speaker 1: black and white cap. There, it's them. They're following us.
Speaker 1: They both spin back around and now you see that
Speaker 1: they're holding hands and trembling like autumn leaves in a
Speaker 1: stiff breeze. And you're like, oh my goodness. You ask
Speaker 1: him again, Hey, you guys know where you side? Where
Speaker 1: we're going? And the woman says, the US embassy, take
Speaker 1: us to the U. S Embassy. You tell her with
Speaker 1: a smile and your voice, oh, I'm only too happy
Speaker 1: to help the US embassy. Great idea. Oh that's a
Speaker 1: great choice. One thing, do you know where it is? Like?
Speaker 1: Are you kidding with us? Is she kidding? What? What
Speaker 1: do the guys that go left? And you're like, okay,
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's it, but the light's about
Speaker 1: it change, so you're like, huh, but you remember you're
Speaker 1: being followed. They probably want you to make the light.
Speaker 1: So you hit the gas and you roar through the
Speaker 1: intersection and you make it. You hug a tight right
Speaker 1: turn and you make it, and the taxi game behind
Speaker 1: you get stuck behind a bread truck, so they're stoked,
Speaker 1: and you're like saying, don't you guys worry so American embassy.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure I can find this embassy. And you're
Speaker 1: just bouncing along in your cap. You're like, but hey,
Speaker 1: please be patient with me. I'm new here, I'm new
Speaker 1: in town. Doesn't get a laugh. Again, doesn't get a laugh.
Speaker 1: You're like, whatever, shinnon you and he they're just holding hands,
Speaker 1: shaking in the back seat, and you're like, I don't
Speaker 1: I'm not that scary of a driver. I don't know
Speaker 1: why they're just so tight, but whatever. They keep checking
Speaker 1: behind them, and you're like, no, US embassy. All that's right.
Speaker 1: All the nice hotels are by that big park. I'll
Speaker 1: go over there. So you're just driving over towards this
Speaker 1: one big park you know about where you think there's
Speaker 1: nice hotels. You keep your eyes on the road because
Speaker 1: getting in an accident that sure wouldn't help Elizabeth. And
Speaker 1: always safety first, the Elizabeth Dutton Guarantee. So when you
Speaker 1: turn and you gently speed down a side road which
Speaker 1: parallels the main major boulevard, and you're headed to where
Speaker 1: you remember seeing a bunch of the big houses and
Speaker 1: hotels and flags, and you're like, I bet that's Embassy Row.
Speaker 1: So you're driving over there and you drive towards this
Speaker 1: green expanse of oh Stod Park. You see this signs.
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, I know this is right. You drive
Speaker 1: past the fancy hotels, You're like, I think this is it.
Speaker 1: You're getting all excited. They're still super nervous. You're like, okay,
Speaker 1: make a high speed right turn, and you imagine to
Speaker 1: sneak through a yellow light. Make it. Finally, your taxi
Speaker 1: cab slides to us up fifty yards from the U. S. Embassy.
Speaker 1: You turned your passengers and tell them U. S. Embassy
Speaker 1: is the one with the American flags, I think, and
Speaker 1: then they like, I am the worst just right over there. Hey,
Speaker 1: by the way, this rides on me. Looks like you
Speaker 1: kids could use some black huh. So they're like, okay, thanks, sorry,
Speaker 1: and they hop out of the car. You and he smiles.
Speaker 1: She's like, you drive better than Robert Mitchum and you're like,
Speaker 1: oh thanks. The man just waves and nods and they
Speaker 1: both run after this sumps. They closed the doors. They're
Speaker 1: running right, just fast as their feet hit pavement, and
Speaker 1: they were like cartoon running right. You're like, oh man,
Speaker 1: it's like they're running as fast as Feon Apple moves
Speaker 1: again again. I'm I'm driving at home, baby. So they're
Speaker 1: run as fast as they can and towards the front
Speaker 1: gid of the U. S. Embassy. Forty yards left to go,
Speaker 1: thirty yards left to go, twenty yards left to go,
Speaker 1: ten yards left to go the goal line. There at
Speaker 1: the goal I touched down. They make it. They make
Speaker 1: it across the line, Elizabeth, And you watched them go,
Speaker 1: and you say to yourself, I remember when I first
Speaker 1: ran to the U. S. Embassy. And then you drive
Speaker 1: away now being who they are, you and he and
Speaker 1: Shin they both compared their daring escape as you've noticed,
Speaker 1: to what they know best. You and he said, even
Speaker 1: though I ran fast like this, and she doesn't minds it.
Speaker 1: It felt like slow motion in a movie. Slow motion
Speaker 1: was all I could think about. I love that she's
Speaker 1: like in a good Dard New way of French film,
Speaker 1: like making her escape. But you know this is all,
Speaker 1: by the way, a huge embarrassment to Kim Jong Ill,
Speaker 1: huge embarrassment. So what does he do? What does what
Speaker 1: does the little dictator do? The only thing he can do.
Speaker 1: He kills Paul Gasary. He takes the film out of
Speaker 1: the theaters, destroys the movie, takes all of their films
Speaker 1: out of any theater, doesn't allow their films never to
Speaker 1: be shown again in North Korea. And this is his
Speaker 1: hope to erase their memory, right, but they're free. The
Speaker 1: movie Polo Sorry re emerges from the depths of cultural memory.
Speaker 1: There's this Japanese film critic who remembers it. He launches
Speaker 1: a one man campaign to kreem the film in Korea
Speaker 1: and South Korea so that he gets a copy of
Speaker 1: the North Korean Godzilla film and he and he starts
Speaker 1: showing it in South Korean theaters, multiple theaters, and the
Speaker 1: movie bombs at bombs a thousand, one thousand people paid
Speaker 1: actual money to see it. One thousand people has now
Speaker 1: in two thousand one. An American company they tried the
Speaker 1: same stunt, and they're like, hey, we need to bring
Speaker 1: that Pulgasari over to American shores, maybe to be a
Speaker 1: hit like Godzilla. No theatrical release this time instead, there
Speaker 1: just like, what's you gonna go straight to videos? So
Speaker 1: then you go straight to video. There are VHS copies
Speaker 1: of this monster movie and ever since then, for the
Speaker 1: last twenty years or so, it occasionally pops up. You'll
Speaker 1: see North Korean Godzilla in the wild. It's just out
Speaker 1: there in America, wandering in the dark. Pops up like
Speaker 1: in New York at a theater, maybe in l A,
Speaker 1: maybe done in Austin. It's been shown in Canada, over
Speaker 1: in Bristol in the UK. It pops up in places
Speaker 1: you would never expect. But if you're really curious, you
Speaker 1: can find it on YouTube. Just look up Paulgasari. Now,
Speaker 1: after making his Godzilla remake, John Ill went in a
Speaker 1: very different direction politics. He became the monster of North
Speaker 1: Korea after his father died. But one of his last
Speaker 1: great acts, when he was still not quite the leader,
Speaker 1: he had this giant sign erected outside the Ministry of
Speaker 1: Culture that said make more cartoons. He decided movies were
Speaker 1: not it so killed his love of movies. So, Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: what is our ridiculous takeaway here? Oh? Man, I don't know.
Speaker 1: You know, something that I'm like still kind of hung
Speaker 1: up on is them escaping the hotel in Vienna and
Speaker 1: they packed bags. Why buy underpants? I assumed that it
Speaker 1: was they had some tapes that they had recorded. So
Speaker 1: they have this bag of tapes that they need to
Speaker 1: get because they need to prove to people that they
Speaker 1: were abducted and they have secretly recorded him. They have records.
Speaker 1: They also have other documents, and then they're they're artists,
Speaker 1: so they have like mementos that they apparently wanted to
Speaker 1: keep of their time making movies. I don't know, I'm
Speaker 1: just imagining like a little like weekend bag and they're
Speaker 1: shoving swim trunks in there. I'm like, there's no time
Speaker 1: from that. No. My takeaway, it's interesting how film has
Speaker 1: such a grasp on people that it's like such an
Speaker 1: incredible medium because you have the sound, you have the
Speaker 1: site and everything and all this emotion. It's like the
Speaker 1: most cathartic immediate thing aside from live theater. Right, But
Speaker 1: then but it pulls people in and completely see it
Speaker 1: was just intoxicating to them. It's amazing and intoxic is
Speaker 1: the right word. Because like a like a film junkie,
Speaker 1: Kim Jong Il had to come back around to it,
Speaker 1: and in two thousand he had North Korea make another
Speaker 1: remake of a classic Western movie, this time Titanic. He's like,
Speaker 1: let's try one more time to see if we can
Speaker 1: get respect from the Western audiences. So he made a
Speaker 1: North three and Titanic, and I've watched some of it.
Speaker 1: It is horrendous. So that's my ridiculous take away. Thank
Speaker 1: you for asking Elizabeth welcome, You're welcome. Well. You can
Speaker 1: find us online at Ridiculous Crime on both Twitter and Instagram.
Speaker 1: The words are on the bird, the images are on
Speaker 1: the Graham, and you get sneak peeks at new Epps
Speaker 1: on both emails. If you like Ridiculous Crime at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com, or just shout into the wind and maybe
Speaker 1: we'll hear it. Thanks for listening. Ridiculous Crime is hosted
Speaker 1: by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaron Burnett, produced and edited by
Speaker 1: our man Inside the Raider Nation suit Dave Couston. Researches
Speaker 1: by j Low historian Rissa Brown and Ben Affleck, Truther
Speaker 1: Andrea Song Sharp and tier. Our theme song is by
Speaker 1: Dear bandleader Thomas Lee and Minister of the Groove Travis Dutton.
Speaker 1: Executive producers are Ben Gorilla, Porpois Bowland and No Guerrilla
Speaker 1: Dolphin Brown Say It One More Time. We Diculous Crew.
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of my Heart Radio. Four
Speaker 1: more pot casts to my Heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.