SEOUL (AFP) — A South Korean movie director has offered his "blockbuster" film to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il for free as a gift to mark an impending summit -- if children in the Stalinist state can see it too.
Shim Hyung-Rae, director of "Dragon Wars: D-War," said he was willing to make the fantasy film one of the gifts to be taken by South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun to Pyongyang next month for a summit with reported cinema buff Kim.
"I will send the film to the North for free but I hope Chairman Kim Jong-Il should not have it to himself but allow North Korean children to see it as well," Shim was quoted as saying in Moneytoday, an Internet news portal.
"Dragon Wars" has attracted more than eight million viewers in South Korea since its release several weeks ago.
It has also been screened in the United States, sparking controversy over its allegedly poor script, hollow acting and a loose plot.
News reports have said South Korea was mulling a cutting-edge home theatre system and DVDs of South Korean hit movies as summit gifts for the reclusive Kim.
The North Korean leader is reportedly a movie fanatic. He is said to have a collection of over 20,000 foreign films in his private library and reportedly produced several films himself, mostly depicting revolutionary heroes.
His obsession with developing North Korea's film industry was so great that in 1978 he reportedly ordered North Korean agents to abduct a famous South Korean movie director, Shin Sang-Ok, and his ex-wife, actress Che Eun Hui.
The couple stayed in the Communist state for eight years while making propaganda films. They escaped in 1986 and wrote a memoir about their saga.
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