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. | Pulgasari
(1985) |
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14th century Korea… a land where a mass of honest peasants eke out a living under the exploitative gaze of a wicked king. When the king hears of a growing revolt against his rule his army snatch the farmer’s working tools and utensils in order to melt them down to make more weapons for use against the rebels. The soldiers also imprison an elderly blacksmith for attempting to assist the rebels. Starved and tortured the blacksmith moulds a figure from the rice given to him by his daughter and as his dying wish he implores the heavens to bring the doll to life so that it may deliver the peasants from evil. Soon after his death, the blacksmith’s daughter accidentally cuts her finger and the blood drops on the figure…. Pulgasari - the legendary monster comes to life.
At this point, no larger than 6 inches, a surprisingly sprightly Pulgasari shows a voracious appetite for all things metal. Chewing his way through various implements the mini Pulgasari soon grows to the height of a man although even at this stage he is happy to splash playfully in a nearby stream. Days later, however, he is towering over trees and looking suitably menacing. The creature becomes the leader of the revolt against the king, destroying the king’s army (thousands of North Korean soldiers were drafted to play extras) at every battle. The peasants draw strength from their mighty friend and despite the king’s generals trying nefarious plan after plan (you can’t fault their efforts – at one point they dig a trench the size of a mountain in an hour or so), the monster is unstoppable. Defeat is imminent and promptly comes as Pulgasari destroys the royal city and its feudal lords in spectacular battle sequence. But victory has its own price for the peasants. Pulgasari has grown bigger and bigger on the iron that he consumes but once the battle is won he must continue to satisfy his craving. Will that lead him to turn on the very peasants that saw him as their salvation? Therein lies the philosophical root of the movie. Pulgasari is clearly a monster movie with bite. It has romance, tragedy, sacrifice, action, memorable special effects and on top of all that – a powerful political message. The political message is not particularly subtly presented but this is hardly surprising when one realises that Kim Jong-il, the present day leader of North Korea, was the man that insisted that Pulgasari be made. Furthermore, so committed to producing ‘good’ films was Kim Jong-il that he kidnapped director Shin and his actress wife Choi from South Korea. Kim was adamant that Shin would be his main propagandist and Choi the star of his films and that the North Korean industry would produce the kind of films that would allow him to sway a world audience to the righteousness of the Korea Workers’ Party. Pulgasari was a result of that effort. I should add that Kim-Jong-il, clearly a man with an eye for cinema, was so thrilled at the way Pulgasari turned out that he sent truckloads of pheasants, geese and deer for the movie crew to feast on. It is therefore, no surprise that Pulgasari concentrates on the struggle of the worker against the privileged feudal elite of the time. Pulgasari the monster represents capitalism. A force that emerges, wipes away the old order and then must wither away itself before communism takes root. But despite the propaganda angle, Pulgasari does offer some insights – the monster has to grow and to feed that appetite, the heroin of the film states at one point that Pulgasari will have to invade other lands and go to war with them. It is a scenario that must be halted. The theory was always sound. But moving away from the propaganda driven political underpinnings of the film to the far more enjoyable ‘monster movie’ aspects of the film the most important point to start with is the fact that much of the film crew was ‘imported’ from the Japanese studio that worked on the Godzilla series. Prominent amongst this crew was Kempachiro Satsuma, the second actor to wear the legendary Godzilla rubber suit. As with Godzilla, Satsuma fits the role like a glove. Admittedly, Pulgasari lacks Godzilla’s good looks and personality and Satsuma struggles to bring the same range of expressions that he did with Godzilla but then Pulgasari is a more dour and serious type altogether. On the other hand the baby Pulgasari is the cutest critter that you are likely to come across… and he sleeps tucked in with the humans in their bed. But that doesn’t stop him from baring his fangs and attacking the king’s men and their swords. The other performances are adequate but unsurprisingly over shadowed by the towering Pulgasari. But do look out for the King’s general. There are several memorable sequences in the film… the initial few scenes of the baby Pulgasari, the first attack on a sword-wielding soldier (terrifying), Pulgasari eating missiles and then ‘spitting’ them back at twice the speed, (I could go on and on…) However, the film does sag when the monster is off screen and in its place we are treated to long sequences of singing and dancing peasants (Kim Jong-il writes in his book On the Art of Cinema that Films should contain musical masterpieces). A shockingly awful (though thoroughly entertaining) film lacking the gloss and budget of the Japanese Godzilla’s (!!) but one that nevertheless has character. Certainly better than the Hollywood remake of Godzilla it should keep the viewer in stitches right to its baffling end (can’t reveal the shock ending). A must see for all monster movie aficionados. Sadly, Pulgasari has not received the appreciation it deserves outside North Korea. It was released in Japan where it sank without a trace and then released in South Korea (2000) where it was seen by less than 1000 people. The producers clearly also missed out on the marketing bonanza that could have been Pulgasari. It seems Pulgasari and baby Pulgasari dolls were made but didn’t shift in any quantity at all. A poor marketing campaign must have been the cause… I mean I would love my own Pulgasari doll. I should
also add that the director Shin Sang-ok and his wife Choi made
a dramatic escape from North Korea in 1986.
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