Choi Eun-hee

Acting

Choi Eun-hee

Born 1926-11-20 · Gwangju, South Korea

Choi Eun-hee (November 20, 1926 – April 16, 2018) was a South Korean actress, who was one of the country's most popular stars of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1978, Choi and her then ex-husband, movie director Shin Sang-ok, were abducted to North Korea, where they were forced to make films until they sought asylum at the US Embassy in Vienna in 1986. They returned to South Korea in 1999 after spending a decade in the United States.

Acting credits

The Last Woman of Shang poster
7.0

In order to exact revenge upon him, a young woman (Lin Dai) marries the Emperor Chou (Shin Young-kyun), who killed her father.

The Last Woman of Shang

1964

The Flower in Hell poster
6.2

In post-Korean War Seoul, a young man from the countryside discovers that his older brother has become romantically involved in a prostitute and has no intentions of returning home.

The Flower in Hell

1958

The Monkey Goes West poster
8.0

THE MONKEY GOES WEST is the first entry in the studio’s epic, four-part screen adaptation of “Journey to the West,” a 16th-century novel recounting the efforts of a Buddhist monk and his magical companions to travel to India and bring back Buddhist sutras.

The Monkey Goes West

1966

A Country Girl poster
NR

Jang Gyeong Ho visits fellow student Kim Dong Hwan's hometown, and falls in love with his sister, Kim Ok Gyeong. Despite Dong Hwan's objections, Ok Gyeong follows Gyeong Ho to Seoul. With his help she finds a job at Dong Il where she works as a secretary for the president, Mr. Oh.

A Country Girl

1958

The Youth poster
6.7

In the latter years of the Korean Empire, Lee In Hwa, disguises herself as a man so she can join a group of young men determined to overthrow the colonial government. They fight together with young national activists presided by Hwal Min and supported by Daewon-gun, the Prince Regent, against Min Gyeom Ho and his peers. But Min and his team perform a surprise attack on Hwal Min and his peers.

The Youth

1955

Red Scarf poster
7.5

South Korean Air Force pilots engage in perilous missions against Communist North Koreans during the Korean War.

Red Scarf

1964

Iljimae the Chivalrous Robber poster
7.0

Iljimae's parents were killed due to a conspiracy when he was young. Many years later he became a chivalrous robber, robbing corrupt officials and helping the poor. He eventually manages in taking revenge for his parents' deaths. But the police start to chase him, and he hides himself at a gisaeng's house. The gisaeng was his ex-fiancee. She also lost her parents to a conspiracy. She begs Iljimae to stay with her, but he leaves to do what he has to.

Iljimae the Chivalrous Robber

1961

Runaway poster
6.0

Song Ryul returns to the countryside to see his ill father. After his cousin conspires with the Japanese occupiers to sell their crop, Song Ryul is forced to emigrate to Kando (Jiandao) in Manchuria. His family faces numerous adversities there and after a row with a local pharmacist, he is imprisoned. The prison is raided by Kim Il-sung and his guerrillas, who free the inmates, who take revenge on the Japanese by blowing up a railway.

Runaway

1984

Women of Yi-Dynasty poster
9.0

Four short stories examing the lives of women in the last 18th and 19th century Story 1: 'Wives Should Be Submissive'--A father tries to marry his daughter into a wealthy family. Story 2: 'A Daughter-In-Law Is No Better Than A Stranger'--A woman thinks that her daughter-in-law has turned her son against her so she tries to kill the younger woman. Story 3: '7 Grounds For Divorce'--A wife begins an affair with her servant because of her husband's impotency Story 4: 'Prohibit Sex In Court'--A concubine's life is at risk when it is revealed that her infant child is not the king's.

Women of Yi-Dynasty

1969

Mother and a Guest poster
6.9

Six-year-old Ok Hee is glad when Mr. Han comes to board at her house full of women. She plays messenger for Mr. Han and her widowed mother as they quietly fall in love, but is her support enough to guard their love?

Mother and a Guest

1961

The Story of Sim Cheong poster
8.0

Based on the traditional story of a girl who makes her blind father see by donating 300 bags of rice to Bongwon Temple.

The Story of Sim Cheong

1962

A Reluctant Prince poster
9.0

When King Heon-kong falls ill, a power struggle erupts over who will inherit the throne. Tired of all the infighting, the ministers arrange for a branch of the king's family, which had lost all its wealth and was living on remote Ganghwa Island, to inherit. But the heir to the throne is reluctant to leave his island home.

A Reluctant Prince

1963

To the Last Day poster
6.5

Captain Kim is grievously wounded in the first days of the war. When the northern troops continue their advance, his wife and small daughters flee south to Taegu, dragging him along in a two-wheel handcart. His wife struggles to keep herself and their surviving daughter alive. Working as a market trader, she meets a kind young man -- who happens to be tall, dark and handsome.

To the Last Day

1960

The Lovers and the Despot poster
6.9

Hong Kong, 1978. South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee is kidnapped by North Korean operatives following orders from dictator Kim Jong-il.

The Lovers and the Despot

2016

When Night Falls at Myeongdong poster
7.0

A beautiful nightclub owner finds herself desired by many men, but she is saving herself for the one man she cannot have .

When Night Falls at Myeongdong

1964

Mounted Bandits poster
9.0

During the Japanese occupation of Korea, the daughter of a British diplomat is kidnapped by bandits. A Japanese commander offers to free some Korean prisoners of war if the Korean Independence Army rescues the woman.

Mounted Bandits

1967

Bound by Chastity Rule poster
7.1

The widow of a nobleman bears a son after having an affair with her servant. The servant and the baby are driven from the home by the woman's irate in-laws when the truth is discovered. Even after the child is grown, no contact is allowed between he and his mother who now denies the events of her past.

Bound by Chastity Rule

1962

Cinema in the Land of Comrade Kim poster
10.0

The love of Kim Jong Il, the former dictator of North Korea, for cinema and his adventures, including the kidnapping of a director.

Cinema in the Land of Comrade Kim

2024

A Hometown in Heart poster
7.4

An orphan left in the care of a Buddhist temple becomes attached to a young widow who arrives there to mourn her recently deceased son.

A Hometown in Heart

1949

I'll Be Seeing Her poster
NR

"I'll Be Seeing HER" is an approach to images of women in Korean cinema with a new genre, ‘Fanta Docu’, which shows beautiful and adventurous Korean actresses in the 1950s. The director, Kim Soyoung stated that “studying and teaching Korean cinema history, I felt sorry that most documentaries on Korean cinema had been made from the male perspective,” which led her to make a documentary on Korean cinema through women’s eyes. Kim So young directed ‘Women's History Trilogy’ (Koryu: Southern Women, South Korea, I'll Be Seeing Her: Women in Korean Cinema, New Woman: Her First Song) which was screened at many international film festivals including Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival.

I'll Be Seeing Her

2002

A Sister's Garden poster
6.0

Dr. Nam, in his will, requests that his eldest daughter, Jeong-hui(Choe Eun-hui), marry a painter named Dong-su (Nam Gung-won). Jeong-hui is at risk of losing her house due to her father's debt, and a young physician Sun-cheol (Kim Seok-hun) who received his college education with the financial support of Dr. Nam, helps her by selling his own house. Despite his love for her, Sun-cheol cannot express his feelings because he knows of the request in her father's will. When Jeong-hui looks for a job to support her family, Bang, whom Dr. Nam once cured, offers her a position of saloon madam. Meanwhile, her younger sister Myeong-hui (Choe Ji-hui) promises Dong-su her hand in marriage. Jeong-hui, now running the saloon, wishes them happiness. It is only when she gets a proposal from Bang and decides to accept it that Sun-cheol confesses his love for her. Moved by Sun-cheol's true affection for her, Bang gives her up, and Sun-cheol and Jeong-hui exchange vows of marriage.

A Sister's Garden

1959

Seong Chun-hyang poster
7.7

Chun-hyang, the only daughter of an old gisaeng named Wolmae, falls in love with Lee Mong-nyong and promises to marry him. But Lee leaves for Seoul with his father who's an aristocrat, and the new governor, Byeon Hakdo, covets Chun-hyang because she is the most beautiful girl in town. When Chun-hyang rejects his order to serve him at night, Governor Byeon sends her to jail. In the mean time, Lee passes the state exam and becomes a special undercover agent of the king. He comes back to where Chun-hyang lives to save her and punishes Governor Byeon.

Seong Chun-hyang

1961

Prince Yeonsan poster
8.6

A historical drama about Prince Yeon-san of Joseon as a prince trying to restore the status of his mother, the deposed and executed Queen Yun.

Prince Yeonsan

1961

The Evergreen poster
7.4

Yeong-shin and Dong-hyuk graduate from college with a cause. They plan to bring education and modernization to farmers living in the rural area of their hometown. When they arrive, the pair immediately get to work, Dong-hyuk builds a village hall and starts aiding the farmers while Yeong-shin tries to gather the children to form a school. However, the villagers at first resent and resist the pair. It is not until one child, Ok-bun, takes the initiative and and learns to read under Yeong-shin’s care that the villages trust the pair and allow their children to be taken from the fields and taught reading, writing and math.

The Evergreen

1961

Behind the camera

The Country I Saw poster
5.2

While serving as a journalist in World War 2 for the Imperial Army of Japan, "Takahashi Minoru" (Pak Ki Ju) sees first-hand the impact on Koreans who have had their national identity forcibly taken from them by the Japanese occupation of their country. It's at this time that he adopts a mantra of viewing an incident before writing a newspaper editorial on it. Several years later he once again visits Korea as a war correspondent during the Korean War and takes home with him several more memories that have a great effect upon him as well. Years later he becomes a respected writer and while giving a speech on the Juche system has his perspective challenged by a young man in the auditorium. Having never seen North Korea he realizes that in order to meet his own high standard of journalism he must travel there and see for himself whether his opinion is valid or not.

The Country I Saw

1987

An Unmarried Teacher poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

An Unmarried Teacher

1973

A Traffic Controller on Crossroads poster
5.0

A woman has just been newly christened in her job as a Pyongyang traffic supervisor. On her first assignment, she encounters a man who is using his work truck for personal use, along with driving unsafely. She detains him before eventually finding out that he was delivering the washing machine to her house. She attempts to hide in another room, but the man sees her. She immediately feels guilty for her actions.

A Traffic Controller on Crossroads

1986

The Girl Raised as a Future Daughter-in-law poster
6.0

Choi Eun-hee’s directorial debut The Girl Raised as a Future Daughter-In-Law is the story of ups and downs of a future daughter-in-law who, due to poverty, married an infant rich groom. A ruined widow’s daughter Jum-soon has no time to rest, as her mother-in-law treats her like a maid, leaving her with all the kitchen chores, house cleaning, grinding grain, and sewing, while the mother-in-law smokes a pipe and nitpicks on her. What allows Jum-soon to endure is her ‘duty as a woman’ taught to her since young and her child husband’s lovable yammering.

The Girl Raised as a Future Daughter-in-law

1965

One-sided Love of Princess poster
NR

Sook-kyung, the youngest tomboy princess, loves playing hide and seek with her same-aged court ladies and is extremely curious about the life outside the palace. An opportunity comes for her on queen mother’s birthday celebration. Princess Sook-kyung gets to explore the outside world with the help of her older sister princesses and falls in love with a Seonggyungwan scholar she meets coincidentally. The variety of character twists in this film which is reminiscent of romantic comedies such as Roman Holiday and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The queen mother with a fancy royal costume but wears glasses because of her poor vision, and the court ladies who protect the princess day and night are usually slow and doze off but have the strength to push against male henchmen. The princes outside the palace walls seem like that of a naïve country girl who eats a rice cake at the marketplace because she thinks it’s free.

One-sided Love of Princess

1967

An Emissary of No Return poster
7.5

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.

An Emissary of No Return

1984

The Country I Saw, Part 2 poster
NR

Forty years after her father's return from North Korea a Japanese university professor is subject to harassment for advancing his views on this country. Just like her father, however, her commitment to the truth remain unwavering even though all around her fear for her health and safety.

The Country I Saw, Part 2

2009

The Country I Saw, Part 3 poster
NR

Having already added to the tensions between North Korea and Japan, a university professor finds that her views are considered even more dangerous now. Things quickly take a turn for the worse when missiles are launched from North Korea directly over Japanese air space.

The Country I Saw, Part 3

2009