Now let’s go from a classic to a “classic.” Pulgasari is the only monster movie ever made with the full force of a government behind it. Future North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il fancied himself a major movie producer and went so far as to kidnap South Korean director Shin Sang-Ok to make a movie with a North Korean kaiju to compete with Godzilla.
Tagline: “The Monster More Mighty Than Godzilla”
WTF Factor: ***** [an extra star for the backstory]
Notable monologue:
Blacksmith’s prayer [gathering rice and mud in his cell to sculpt a figurine]: “I created you from the rice that would have allowed me to live and I offer my life to God in return for your help in saving my people. God, I beg you to hear my plea. I ask you to please breathe life into this token that I have created for you. Because I made you with the last of my true heart, please save humanity in my place.”
Note: Sorry for the mediocre screen caps; I actually have a DVD copy but it isn’t significantly better in quality than the YouTube version. They do have somewhat different captions, though. The dialogue in the YouTube copy is more poetic, but the DVD version I have is more thorough. I have mostly used the DVD captions for the quotes.
Synopsis: In feudal times, Ami (Chang Son Hui) draws water for her father, the blacksmith (Gwon Ri), and her cousin Inde (Ham Gi Sop), who hides weapons for rebels/bandits on Mount Maru. The blacksmith tells Inde he knows that he is actually the leader of the rebels, but he wants Inde to marry Ami and to settle down at the forge. [Pretty music.] However, Inde is heading to the mountains with many young men, to help the people escape economic hardship and tyrannical rule; Ami is not pleased.
The men barely get away before government officials arrive at the village and go to the blacksmith, demanding weapons. The blacksmith says there is not enough iron available. The soldiers have gathered the farm tools and brutally steal everything made of metal.
The men come back and attack but they are overpowered by the soldiers. Inde and most of the others are captured. The blacksmith secretly gives the iron back to the people; the officials are not pleased. The blacksmith literally gets his ass whupped and is sent to a jail cell to starve. The rebels refuse to eat in solidarity with him. Ami and her brother Ana (Jong-uk Ri) throw food to their father, who uses the rice and clay to sculpt a small figurine of a beast. The father prays and then dies. We see a spark go into the figurine. [The music is turning electronic.]
Ami claims the figure but while sewing, she pricks herself and blood falls on the adorable figurine, which comes to life. [Wah wah synthesizer.] Pulgasari eats the sewing needles. He’s a cute little guy, and sounds just like a squeaky toy. There is much merriment in Ami and Ana’s hut.
That night Pulgasari climbs out of bed where they tucked him in, eats the door lock, and takes off. Ami and Ana (after yelling for “Mister Doll”) find him pigging out at the forge and he’s bigger now. Ami believes he may be the legendary Pulgasari.
The rebels are taken for execution, but toddler-sized Pulgasari attacks the beheading sword and the chains while Inde and the others escape. [Wacky music.] Pulgasari is impervious to weapons. The governor has an amazingly evil laugh, and disbelieves the story of the beast until his guards see it munching the contents of the armory. Meanwhile, Pulgasari has also been eating all the pots and pans, so the villagers have run him out of town. He’s still adorable, though.
Because of Inde’s escape, the army is whacking his mother in the shins. The rebels storm the government outpost to save Inde’s mother and brother, but they are both dead. The rebels then attack the compound. The battle ends when Inde kills the local governor. The King is not pleased and appoints undefeated General Fan to wipe out the rebellion, but the rebels escape to Mount Maru along with the villagers. They rain down logs and styrofoam boulders on the army. Luckily there is no lack of extras in this film. The army lays siege to the mountain and the rebels have no food except their horses and tree bark.
Soldiers chase Ami but Pulgasari shows up, bigger than a person now and somewhat less cute. He stomps into battle the next day and eats the enemy’s iron. At the end of the battle montage, he is now a giant rear projection giant and he’s not exactly cute anymore.
The General sends soldiers to capture Ami because Pulgasari must obey her. They use Ami to force Pulgasari to walk into a cage, lighting a fire underneath it. Pulgasari don’t care and emerges volcanic.
Pulgasari is mad now and the army runs away; the General is not pleased. He forces the locals to build a deep pit as a trap. Meanwhile the army attacks the rebels with flying spears that look like modern rockets. Pulgasari don’t care, even after he takes one in the eye. There is a colorful exorcism/magical ceremony, which seems to weaken Pulgasari, who falls into the pit. The army buries him with boulders.
This seems to be effective and the army attacks the rebels. [There are weird, piercing electronic sounds during the battle.] Inde is captured again and rather abruptly hanged. The army celebrates. Ami takes wine to the soldiers on guard and then calls to Pulgasari. Pulgasari pushes up from the pit after Ami shares a little more blood with him.
Pulgasari is headed to the capital and the King is not pleased (he’s quite the drama king). The army breaks out a new weapon that shoots flaming cannonball bombs. Pulgasari is ridiculously huge now and Pulgasari don’t care. He sucks in one bomb and then spits it back, even hotter, at the army.
He reaches the palace, knocks down some walls and buildings, and crushes the General and stomps the king real good.
The rebels and the villagers are very happy, but Pulgasari is hungry. They take all the weapons to him and then the farming tools. Everyone wonders how they will survive.
Ami: “You’ve done enough, Pulgasari. I can’t allow you to fight anymore. I see it now.”
Ami summons Pulgasari with a giant bell and then climbs inside. Pulgasari eats the bell with Ami in it, as she prays that Pulgasari will disappear.
Pulgasari turns to stone and crumbles; we see an adorable, squeaky baby Pulgasari and then his spirit goes into Ami’s body. The End.
Thoughts: Bottom line, Pulgasari is a decent Fifties kaiju movie, but made in the Eighties. It’s hard to judge the cinematography from the rough prints, but the movie moves along at a reasonable pace and the lead characters, at least, are well-differentiated. The feudal setting is maintained throughout and the costumes are colorful. In short, it’s competently made.
The fact that I noted the music in multiple places indicates that it was somewhat intrusive, particularly the use of synthesizer, which did not fit a movie about feudal times. The beginning, when Pulgasari comes to life, seems very much like a goofy children’s movie. I wonder if Pulgasari action figures were a thing in North Korea (they had them in Japan when the movie was released there in 1998).
The rear projection shots of Pulgasari are generally abysmal, but let’s face it, the benchmark for a man-in-a-suit kaiju is the suit itself. Here Pulgasari redeems itself quite well. The Toho effects studio made a suit for the adult monster that moves well (and no visible zippers, although the chest sometimes wrinkles). It looks sufficiently different from Godzilla to be distinctive; it’s more like a giant bull. There are many close-ups of Pulgasari’s eyes, which are impressively bloodshot and mobile, along with his ears and mouth. The little Pulgasari suit is not great, though; it looks like a small person in a barely flexible rubber suit.
What truly stands out about this movie is the backstory. In a nutshell, (granted, it’s a big nutshell, but this is a complex story)… Kim Jong-il, son and heir apparent of the North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung, was obsessed with Hollywood movies and wanted to make something comparable in North Korea. However, he didn’t feel that North Korea had the cinematic resources. He therefore arranged to kidnap famed South Korean director Shin Sang-Ok in 1978, luring him to Hong Kong by first kidnapping the director’s ex-wife, actress Choi Eun-Hee. Shin was uncooperative and after two attempted escapes, he spent several years in prison, while Choi played along with communist party line. Once Shin was believed to be sufficiently indoctrinated, he was reunited with Choi, and the couple was placed in charge of the North Korean film industry, with virtually unlimited budgets and resources at their disposal.
Shin directed several popular North Korean propaganda films; Pulgasari was his last. In 1986, on a well-guarded junket in Vienna, Shin and Choi made a daring escape to the U.S. embassy, where they were granted asylum. For more information about this real-life melodrama and its aftermath, I recommend two sources:
- The 2016 documentary The Lovers and the Despot, by Robert Cannan and Ross Adam (it used to stream on Netflix).
- The 2015 book A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story Of A Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, And A Young Dictator’s Rise To Power, by Paul Fischer.
If you made up this story, people would tell you it was unbelievable.
Pulgasari was based on the Korean legend Bulgasari and the movie version was developed by Shin and Kim Jong-il as communist propaganda. You have the contrasting factions of the farmers, the rebels, and the monarchy, coupled with Pulgasari. It is believed that Kim Jong-il intended Pulgasari to represent capitalism; attractive at first, but then turning into the enemy of the people. However there are many ways of reading the political message within the film. Could Pulgasari reflect industrialism? The Soviet Union or Japan? Some people believe that Shin secretly intended for the monster to represent dictator Kim Il-sung. Shin encouraged that view in interviews before his death in 2006, but whether that truly was his original intention is unknown.
Pulgasari is well worth a look for its unique flourishes and mostly decent special effects. It starts out goofy, but later it does herald back to the golden age of kaiju, so if you like that type of film, you will enjoy this one. It’s different enough to provide a novel experience.
Quick bits:
- Toho Studios did the special effects with the belief that they were working on an actual Hollywood production.
- The movie got its first showing outside of North Korea in 1998 in Japan.
- Shin later wrote an English-language children’s version of Pulgasari, called The Legend Of Galgameth (1996).
Suggested double feature: I might match this up with Mothra (1961), another “good guy” kaiju with unfortunate collateral damage. The eccentric element of the tiny twin singing sisters in Mothra would complement Baby Pulgasari nicely.
Tagline for Coming Attraction: “Even on her wedding night she must share the man she loved with the “female thing” that lived in the Tomb of the Cat!”
