Madame Choi and the Monsters: A True Story

A stranger-than-fiction true story of kidnapping, creativity, survival, and escape.

In Madame Choi and the Monsters, writer Patrick Spät and illustrator Sheree Domingo bring to life the astonishing real events surrounding legendary South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee and filmmaker Shin Sang-ok—a former power couple whose fates were upended when they were abducted by North Korean agents under orders from the future dictator Kim Jong-il.

In 1978, Choi is kidnapped and taken to North Korea, where Kim—obsessed with cinema and determined to elevate his nation’s film industry—holds her captive. Six months later, her ex-husband Shin is abducted as well. For years, neither knows the other is alive until a surreal reunion orchestrated by Kim himself in 1983.

Forced into service as the country’s star director-actor duo, Choi and Shin are compelled to make films for the regime, including the notorious kaiju cult classic Pulgasari (1985). All the while, Kim Jong-il works to convince the outside world that the pair has defected willingly. Under constant surveillance and unimaginable pressure, the two slowly rekindle their bond as they secretly plot their freedom.

Their chance finally arrives at the 1986 Vienna Film Festival, where they make a daring break for the American embassy—launching into a high-stakes escape worthy of the dramatic films they were coerced to create.

Told with gripping visual storytelling and meticulous historical detail, this graphic narrative lays bare one of modern history’s wildest and least believable true tales, blending political thriller, human drama, romance, and dark absurdity. Critics have hailed it as “smart, witty, shocking, compelling, romantic and… just a bit terrifying” and “one of the wildest historical stories you’re liable to hear.”

A riveting chronicle of art under duress, propaganda, resilience, and defiance, Madame Choi and the Monsters is a must-read for fans of true crime, graphic nonfiction, Korean cinema, and Cold War history.