Pulgasari

I like to watch Kaiju films and this Korean monster movie it's a funny monster movie with great battle scenes. In the beginning I supposed that will be other bad movie, but after some scenes you'll be invited to appreciate the story about poor villain people that fight against a bad king and his cruelty governor. Besides the poor special effects, most of them inside the atmosphere behind the Pulgarasi monster, other great battle scenes with hundred extras acting and fighting, You'll like all the crew efforth to create power and big scenes. This movie was produced by Jong-il Kim and directed by Sang-OK Shin. This is the first movie that I watch directed by Sang-OK Shin, but I felt interested in watch other movies directed by him.

PULGASARI is a North Korean film, directed by an abducted South Korean. It's plot concerns villagers forced by their Overlord to turn all of their iron tools into weapons for the war effort. Instead, the villagers hide their tools, causing their oppressors to round them up.

Through supernatural means, the titular creature is conjured. To be honest, the story of the monster is interesting, as is its way of enlarging itself. The motive for the monster's arrival is completely different than in the original, lost film, BULGASARI. Here, instead of simple revenge, the monster arises in order to conquer the devilish king and his minions, for their oppression of the masses.

Fans of giant rubber monster movies should enjoy this one. There are also some big, human battle sequences. As with all such films, it takes quite a while before the monster really gets going.

This movie is also worth seeing for its historic and political value...

PULGASARI is a hoot for lovers of demented, low budget cinema. It's the one and only North Korean kaiju movie out there, a film that's been inspired by the likes of GODZILLA and YONGGARY, although I think plot-wise it has most in common with the Japanese DAIMAJIN trilogy.

The story is a straightforward one in which the poor are presented as a righteous, oppressed people and an evil general and his army are the out-and-out villains. A humble blacksmith is captured and starved to death by the villains, but not before he's created Pulgasari, a tiny humanoid creature who eventually grows into a lovably, Baby Godzilla type beastie.

After a time, Pulgasari becomes the city-stomping giant monster that kaiju cinema loves, although given the budget there's little destruction on offer here and the effects are lacking to say the least. But the story with its uniquely North Korean slant is a solid one and the novelty value alone is enough to keep you watching. It's good fun!

Since I began living in South Korea several years ago, I have always been curious about what life and art would be like in the isolated North. The educational channel in South Korea (EBS) has a weekly show that gives us clips of North Korean newscasts, movies, music, dramas and animation.

When South Korean president, Kim Dae-jung visited North Korea last year in the first step toward normalizing relations and possible (albeit future) unification, we learned that the North Korean supreme leader is something of a movie fanatic. He has been secretly receiving western movies and monitoring South Korean tv dramas. It is not surprising to learn that he apparently ordered Pulgasari be made. Like every other artform from the North it can only be broadcast or shown if it matches the philosophy of the state. Pulgasari is a metaphor. The evil king represents the feudal government of the Chosun Dynasty which ended at the beginning of the 1900's. The monster, Pulgasari represents capitalism. It arrives apparently to help the people, but soon grows out of control. The heroes in the movie are the peasantry, the common people who must fix everything that people with power have wrought.

Nobody can claim that Pulgasari is state-of-the-art. Even by rubber monster standards, this movies special effects are poor. It does help to consider that the budget for this movie was probably around what we spend on lunch in a year. But for me, the true fascination of a movie like this is the chance to see how another culture, living under a completely different philosophy, sees the world.

In the days of feudal Asia, the crops are not so good, and farmers are facing a takeover by Jong-Un Kim ... oops the self-proclaimed king (Yong-hok Pak.)

The farm Jugend becomes rebels and with the help of the local blacksmith physically challenges the king.

The king offers the blacksmith employment by supplying his army with weapons. Naturally, the blacksmith refuses. While he is imprisoned his last dying, wish is to make a revengeful "iron eating" Pulgasari.

Eventually, the king may meet the same fate as Bambi Meets Godzilla .

The big question is will any of the good guys survive?

Or will the world go to the peasants?

The film was loosely based on the legend of the Bulgasari.

The value in the movie is not the movie it is self but the historical value.

On the orders of Kim Jong-il, the South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok (1926-2006) and his wife, famous actor Choi Eun-hee, was kidnapped to North Korea.

After three years in prison, Shin was united with Choi, and the two were instructed by Kim Jong-Il to make films for him to gain global recognition in the film industry. After making various films for Kim Jong-Il, including Pulgasari in 1985, in 1986 Choi and Shin escaped from North Korean caretakers to a US embassy while in Vienna.

The Lovers and The Despot.