Pulgasari

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!

As the workers have a hard time rebelling against the oppressive (pre colonized) Chosen regime they get unexpected help from the gods. Bulgasari awakens to life from a figure of clay and rice with the drop of blood from Ami and is thereby under her authority. This secret weapon was exactly what they needed in order to kill the king, but it grows out of control. Whether this monster represents capitalism or not is anyones guess, I didn't notice anything that pointed towards that conclusion in the movie, but there's always the juche discourse to look it in the light of. After all Kim Jong-il is listed as a producer. With that in mind, I got a little bit anxious by the ending.

As a movie it is OK. The script is very simple and the characters are, like the weapons, like cardboard cutouts. Some of the berserker smashing the temples (cultural revolution style?) however, were quite impressive. All the shouting and wailing were not. I wonder if there's a movie were the title of it is repeated more often than in this.

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.

The backstory to this movie is pretty darn incredible - made in North Korea by the country's dictator - the director and two lead performers were actually kidnapped from S. Korea after they refused to work on this movie with the dictator. Seriously - not kidding. As for the movie itself - it is pretty good in many ways. The story itself works as an old village myth - an iron eating monster comes to life to save poor farmers and villagers from a cruel warlord. The effects are cheesy and silly but some of the battle sequences are impressive for no other reasons then you can tell there are literally thousands of people fighting in these scenes. After all the CGI effects of recent time - it was refreshing and stunning to see so many actual people being used in a big battle. Then again, they probably didn't have much choice. I guess if the dictator of a country tells you to be in his movie, you are in the movie!!

Filmed in 1985 by a director (Sang OK Shin) who had been kidnapped by North Korea, this movie is about a monster who is created by a blacksmith just prior to his death to help his village against an evil king. Now from what I understand Kim Jong Il (the eventual leader of North Korea) was an avid movie buff and wanted Sang OK Shin to produce a film along the lines of "Godzilla". This movie is the final product. Unfortunately, this movie doesn't translate as well to world-wide audiences as its famous predecessor did. That's not to say that this movie is necessarily bad but it clearly had some weaknesses. For starters, the special effects were quite poor and the movie had some scenes which could have definitely been trimmed here and there. Along with that the movie I saw was filmed in Korean but had English subtitles. I only mention this because this is a film that is probably best suited for young children and subtitles simply won't suffice for that particular audience. Be that as it may I rate the movie as slightly below average.