She began her film career in 1947 in the film A New Oath. For the next 20 years, she was one of the biggest stars in Korean film and led the Shin Film company along with her husband, the director Shin Sang Ok.
In 1978, Choi and Shin, whom she had recently divorced due to Shin having committed adultery, were kidnapped to North Korea by order of Kim Jong Il. Kim's plan was to have Shin work as his propagandist and for Choi to be the star. Shortly after agreeing to the demands of Kim, they were remarried at his recommendation. The couple finally staged their escape in 1986 while on a trip to Vienna, fleeing to the United States embassy and requesting political asylum. Choi appeared in eighty-one films. She received the award for best actress at the 14th Moscow International Film Festival in 1985, for her part in the film Sogum.
With Shin, she wrote an account of their years in Pyongyang. Shin also wrote his autobiography shortly before his death.
In 2015, an English-language biography of her life, along with Shin Sang Ok, was published by Paul Fischer titled A Kim Jong Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker. Edit Biography