{"id":30730,"date":"2024-10-17T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2024-10-17T08:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=30730"},"modified":"2024-10-16T17:27:41","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T17:27:41","slug":"madame-choi-and-the-monsters-a-true-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/10\/17\/madame-choi-and-the-monsters-a-true-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Madame Choi and the Monsters – A True Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Sheree Domingo<\/strong> & Patrick Sp\u00e4t<\/strong> translated by Michael Waaler<\/strong> (SelfMadeHero)
\nISBN: 978-1-91422-422-5 (PB\/Digital editions) 1-5389-469-6 (softcover)<\/p>\n

Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Miss at Your Peril\u2026 9\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Throughout the entire post-WWII Cold War era, the arena of drama and fiction was packed with tales of espionage, abduction and impossible love blossoming amidst and against totalitarian odds and opposition. It was a potent life-enhancing trope expressing the hope of better days to come and an undying symbol of how the human spirit will always overcome. There were countless movies made about it…<\/p>\n

And then one day, the whole wide world discovered that this had happened…<\/p>\n

Freelance writer\/editor Dr. Patrick Sp\u00e4t studied philosophy, sociology and literary history in some of Germany\u2019s finest educational establishments, subsequently specialising in socio-political and historical fare. He lives in Berlin – itself no stranger to this kind of yarn – and in 2019 won great acclaim with his graphic novel Der K\u00f6nig der Vagabunden<\/em><\/strong> (The King of the Vagabonds<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

His collaborator on this award winning slice of graphics reportage is Sheree Domingo. After studying at the Kunsthochschule<\/em> in Kassel and Luca School of Arts in Brussels she began working life as a cartoonist. With impressive graphic novels such as Ferngespr\u00e4ch<\/em><\/strong> (Long Distance Call<\/strong>) under her belt, she joined Dr. Sp\u00e4t for this sublime slice of secret history and delivered Madame Choi und die Monster<\/em><\/strong>: a masterpiece of modern German expressionist unreal politik…<\/p>\n

Employing wild and compellingly emphatic illustration, a limited but vivid colour palette and by dividing events into short scenes across multiple levels of storytelling, Madame Choi and the Monsters – A True Story <\/strong>details the appallingly eventful life of Korean (I\u2019m deliberately not saying North or South here) film star and screen legend Choi Eun-hee.<\/p>\n

An abused woman and mother who rose to national stardom despite the men in her life, she fell foul of draconian censorship in the anti-Communist South and was, in 1978, abducted by film fanatic\/totalitarian dictator Kim Jong-il. Kidnapped to make wonderful movies for the personal edification of \u201cThe Dear Leader\u201d and uplifting of the North Korean people, Madame Choi survived re-education and was eventually joined by the least abusive of her husbands, producer\/director\/filmmaker Shin Sang-ok. Although divorced from Choi, he had immediately started investigating her disappearance… until the North Koreans snapped him up too. Transported, tortured, exploited and ultimately and reteamed with his muse, he feels old emotions stirring…<\/p>\n

Before long the legendary cinema duo are making more movies… but with the right budget, message, and motivation…<\/p>\n

How that happened, what the result was and how the couple dramatically made it back from behind the bamboo curtain is interspersed with a comics adaptation (or at least an estimated interpretation built from notes and accounts) of the cinema\u2019s couple\u2019s greatest achievement – a no-holds-barred remake of feudal rebellion\/monster epic Pulsagari<\/strong>. The flick is reputed to be a lost classic, but we\u2019ll never probably know as no copies remain in existence… except apparently for those reels confiscated and treasured by the Dear Leader in his private film hoard.<\/p>\n

Smart witty, shocking, compelling, romantic and, to be frank, just a bit terrifying, Madame Choi and the Monsters<\/strong> is augmented by a fully detailed \u2018Chronology\u2019<\/em> of events capping off a brilliant tale of how strange life, love and obsession can be. This is a treat no thinking funnybook fan should miss.
\n\u00a9 Edition Moderne \/ Sheree Domingo & Patrick Sp\u00e4t 2022. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sheree Domingo & Patrick Sp\u00e4t translated by Michael Waaler (SelfMadeHero) ISBN: 978-1-91422-422-5 (PB\/Digital editions) 1-5389-469-6 (softcover) Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Miss at Your Peril\u2026 9\/10 Throughout the entire post-WWII Cold War era, the arena of drama and fiction was packed with tales of espionage, abduction and impossible love blossoming amidst and against totalitarian odds … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Madame Choi and the Monsters – A True Story”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[115,299,122,105,148,111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography","category-feminism-sexual-politics","category-historical","category-mature-reading","category-romance","category-satirepolitics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7ZE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30732,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30730\/revisions\/30732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}