An Emissary of No Return

An Emissary of No Return (1984)

돌아오지 않은 밀사

An Emissary of No Return retells the story of a real historical event in 1907 known as the Hague Secret Emissary Affair. Korea had been colonized by Japan. In order to protest to the international community, the Korean emperor king Gojong sent three secret emissaries to the talks of the Hague Convention of 1907, to get the great powers to overturn the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905.

Date of release
1984-01-01
TMDB
7.5 / 10 (2)
Runtime
2h 12m
Genres
History, Drama
Director
Choi Eun-hee, Shin Sang-ok

Casting

Interesting facts

An Emissary of No Return is a 1984 North Korean historical drama film directed by Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee. Shin also wrote the script. It was the first of four films Shin and Choi made during their abduction to North Korea under the orders of Kim Jong Il. Adapted from Bloody Conference, a play allegedly written by Kim Il Sung during his guerrilla years, the film retells the dramatized story of the Hague Secret Emissary Affair. The affair ensued when the Korean Emperor Gojong sent three unauthorized emissaries to the talks of the Hague Convention of 1907.

Production

Shin Sang-ok was abducted to North Korea on the orders of Kim Jong Il to make films for the country, whose own film industry had fallen out of times. Shin was initially uncooperative and was imprisoned for years. Then, after Kim Jong Il had him released, Shin decided to agree to his proposal. Shin had two motives. He could return to his career of film making that had become impossible abroad due to financial difficulties.

Kim Jong Il ordered Shin to set up a production company for his film projects in North Korea. The company was called Shin Film, adopting the name of Shin's old company he had run in South Korea.

After discussing with Kim Jong Il, Shin had chosen the Hague Secret Emissary Affair as the theme of the film. Shin had, again, a dual motivation. He wanted to play it safe and create a film that was not too different from previous North Korean films, but not overtly propagandist. To achieve this, he suggested to Kim that he could adapt one of the plays allegedly written by Kim Il Sung during his guerrilla years on film.

After having discussed his film ideas with Kim Jong Il on 19 October 1983, Shin had decided that Shin Film's first film should be ready by 15 April the next year, the birthday of Kim Il Sung.

Shin first traveled to East Berlin for three days to scout for filming locations. He was accompanied by his wife, Choi Eun-hee, who was also abducted by Kim Jong Il. Choi, an actress, had no role in the film, so she would help Shin as the co-director. After Berlin, they traveled to Prague. They were minded by Kim's film tutor, Choe Ik-gyu during all their trips. In directing, Shin would employ aesthetic theories developed by Kim Jong Il.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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