A KIM JONG IL PRODUCTION.(The Talk of the Town)(Shin Sang Ok)(Interview)

When the South Korean director Shin Sang Ok was told recently about the upcoming New York premiere of his 1985 film, "Pulgasari," he was as perplexed as he was pleased. He didn't seem to mind that no one had thought to invite him; rather, he was delighted that someone had managed to find a print. "Pulgasari" was the last movie Shin directed before he escaped from North Korea, where he lived for eight years after being kidnapped by Kim Jong Il, who wanted to try his hand at producing movies. Aside from brief runs in Seoul and Tokyo, "Pulgasari" has seldom been seen, except by the kind of people who troll the Web for bootleg copies of any movie remotely associated with "Godzilla," from which "Pulgasari" draws inspiration. So it is that "Pulgasari" 's New York debut comes at the end of a yearlong "Godzilla" festival organized by the Japanese culture center at Columbia.

Shin is seventy-nine and lives in Inchon. Over the telephone the other day, he was happy to talk about his time in North Korea and his collaborations with the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il, a legendary movie buff. Shin was regarded as one of the finest filmmakers in South Korea when, in 1978, North Korean agents kidnapped his wife, the actress Choi Un Hui, and then, when he went searching for her, Shin himself. Kim Jong Il viewed Shin as a key part of his plan to become the Irving Thalberg of the East. He wanted Shin to make movies for him. Shin refused and was jailed. When at last, after five years, Shin was freed, Kim Jong Il told him that he could make any movies he liked.

Kim was eager to broaden North Korean cinema beyond such titles as "The County Party Chief Secretary" and "The Fate of a Self-Defense Corps Man." He gave Shin a studio that, in time, employed seven hundred people. "I never had to worry about money when it came to moviemaking," said Shin, who made seven movies under Kim's patronage. Better still, Kim Jong Il didn't meddle or give notes, as Hollywood producers are wont to do. And Shin always had final cut. "Kim Jong Il was very ...