The picture is iconic only because it came out on the screen. Just imagine the creation of this movie worked perhaps the most influential producer of North Korea and the world Kim Jong-il. But not only the talented hands of the once leader of the DPRK were attached to this film, the director of the film was a truly talented representative of Asian cinema and South Korea Shin Sang-ok. It's hard to imagine that.
But this creative tandem, with an admixture of Stockholm syndrome, has changed the face of cinema in North Korea beyond recognition. And this is not about this particular film, but about all those films shot by Shin Sang-ok under the patronage of the Great and respected Leader comrade Kim Jong-il.
Pulgasori is a mixture of Godzilla, ancient myths, with a pinch of King Kong, without blondes and skyscrapers. And William Wallace's "Braveheart" (who is gay, it's about a historical character, Mel Gibson certainly not him). Passed through the meat grinder of Juche philosophical ideas. In general, this North Korean summer blockbuster, set out to mythologize the great struggle of the Korean people (read as Kim Il-sung) with tyranny for their freedom. Pulgasari is a kind of Marxism Leninism from the creation of the world to the present day, but without Marxism and Leninism, but with a giant horned lizard!
The plot of the film is simple, the struggle of the oppressed majority with the oppressive minority. All the twists and turns of the plot to tell and trials that will fall on the head of the poor lizard I will not need to see it, the bonus is also the scene where "Godzilla" cheerfully splashes water into people.
Of course, in the film, if you want, you can find a large number of blunders and because of them, it sometimes seems that Nevsky sat behind the director's chair (the one you thought about), or he picked up props, and not in truth a talented director, for whom the opportunity to shoot was more expensive than life.
The film seems to be deliberately shot in a broken style, then it looks like a Soviet fairy tale, sham swords, a hungry and cute Pulgasari ... it is a tragedy of the scale of ancient times, torture, blood, cruelty ...
And most battles where Pulgasari participates are more like a solemn May Day procession, but there is a certain symbolism in this. As in the fact that without Pulgasari it is impossible to defeat tyranny and, of course, in the birth of Pulgasari. Yes, the film turned out not to be as good as the creators wanted, but the blame lies here not only on the director in the DPRK this is the first film of such scale and with such a complex technical performance here they are, it was made of what was, that's why this film is so feverish, and it's a pity.
As almost everyone knows, one of the most important and most profitable brands of the Land of the Rising Sun is the notorious cute monster of a variety of stegosaurs or any other “saurs”. Godzilla, created by the impressive imagination of Tomoyuki Tanaka and other colorful personalities from Toho Studios. “And should we not invent our brand with the nature of a destructive lizard to the envy of ideological enemies?” thought the Great Leader, the Sun of the Nation, the Generalissimo and the All Ruler of the DPRK Kim Jong Il, summoned to his rendezvous the main filmmakers of the country and its propaganda screenwriter Se Ryun Kim and for some period of time proclaimed peace with the southern brothers, because local film directors did not finish (and ordinary schools finished in half, having passed the glorious labor camps). However, the truce was fake and the Great Leader Kim was insignificantly hesitant and without any moral obstacles abducted the South Korean director Shin Sang-ok, and from Japan, an enemy to our Honorable Leader (but for the sake of great creativity you can endure), a whole horde of unideologized intimidated pre-death masters in special effects from the same memorable studio Toho or similar to her was discharged. Kaiju in North Korean has begun.
In approximately such a tense situation to the socialist world of the DPRK, Pulgasari appeared - a monster from ancient Korean legends, who grew up to a yearzillo-like size, a toothy, caries-suffering cutie, the creation of a group sexual connection of a bear, a buffalo, an elephant and a tiger, and, perhaps, a person (these animals clearly celebrated the satanic sabbat under the rumble of the Communist Party meetings led by the living and dead Kims), suffering from weak immunity due to a lack of iron, and therefore devouring numerous warriors, like a buffooned in his body, they also met with a severe iron.
By order of the Great Leader and the Chief Producer, Pulgasari was to be not only an all-consuming machine of death and revenge for all the humiliated and offended, but also to carry with his deeds the idea of Juche and communicate with his teeth all the enemies of our dear and beloved rulers, the three-headed eternal suns over North Korea from the 38th parallel and up to the coast of California. Watch out, USA! Pulgasari is coming...
Mind Pulgasari came out in Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein, the ideology of Juche immediately accepted and began to carry it from the screens of cinemas. Kaiju and action reigned in the cinema of North Korea, Pulgasari as if the Great Leader instructed and inserted the unjust, leading them to the true path. And the filmmakers, innocent victims of the bloody regime, prayed for one thing and not aloud, of course: “May Pulgasari tear this bonza to pieces and we will be free.” Their prayers, however, were not destined to come true and it remained only to cherish hopes for the midnight express, which is an extremely rare guest in the DPRK, because illegal trains did not travel further south, and barbed wire, embroidered with a giant web over the territory of the country, hurt the current of all revanchists. And prone to allergies to bullets creators led by Shin San Ok only gave an opportunity to escape without looking back.
The fate of the joint brainchild of South Korea, North Korea and Japan, the film Pulgasari in 1985, was no less fascinating than the fate of its unfortunate creators. When the 90s broke out and the fashionable hobbies of the new decade were sex, smoothly flowing into the murder of a sex beggar of shaggy rock macho, and walking in dresses on barefoot breasts and other organs, Pulgasari became an anachronism of the world box office, an exotic vignette created in unknown North Korea, almost a blockbuster and almost a masterpiece. Now the film is even more exotic than twenty years ago, and only for true cinephiles this tape is of any interest. The rest of the audience is better to immerse themselves in the colorful legacy of Tanaka-san and not to fool themselves with this ideological heresy, albeit filmed very effectively.
About the sad history of the creation of this tape is not worth talking, it has long been said. About the Juche regime, the ambitions of the Kim family and what they turned out to be, too. There are many sources where you can read about it. So, if you distract from the behind-the-scenes horrors and look as if detached, then this will turn out...
I watched this film for the first time as a fan of Daikaiju and especially Godzilla. I heard that Pulgasari is called “North Korean Godzilla”, so I wanted to look at such exoticism. The result was unexpected.
I think Pulgasari has nothing in common with Godzilla except his height and teeth. Here we see the film adaptation of a Korean folk tale (or legend, as you like). And fairy tales were born long before all Kims (whether they are wrong), and they were written not by parents for children, but as a rule, adults for adults. And in these stories they expressed their dreams. Therefore, there are so many recurring (in all the peoples of the world) plots: a simple man leads greedy nobles, officials, princes around his finger and finds his happiness, a hungry peasant gets magical devices - millstones, coins, a tablecloth - which are trying to kidnap the rich, but suffer a fiasco ... Or they may have a powerful protector. And so on. That's about the patron - and it is said in the "Pulgasari", which to compare with Godzilla is like calling Godzilla the Japanese Man-from-a-jug - thanks to the lazy man, this clay freak became a giant to the sky, but as soon as the guy began to work, the man shrunk into a dwarf.
So, a fairy tale. And embodied in the same spiritual and poetic. It should not be compared with Kaiju, rather with traditional fairy tale films. And everything develops according to the canons: a dying old man sculpts a figure from the remains of rice cake. The girl pricked her finger with a needle, dripped a drop of blood on the figure, and she came to life. It turned out to be a beast that ate only iron, and the more it ate, the more it grew. He grew up a terrifying giant, and gave a decisive battle to the princely troops. To prevent Pulgasari from leaving the common people, everyone bowed and wore to him everything that was iron, and he ate and ate, grew and grew, until the peasants realized that a little more and he would devastate the whole land. . .
In addition to Pulgasari, there are many other characters in the film: a proud prince who looks like oil, a heroic old blacksmith, a beautiful young man and a girl. Templates in many ways, yes. But what can we expect from a fairy tale? If it becomes too realistic, then there will be no fantasy. In short, do not judge so harshly.
I always watch this film with pleasure and consider not as a propaganda product of the DPRK, but as a work of filmmakers of different countries, ultimately, universal.
I would like to give you a clear assessment -
Cinema of the Socialist Realism: North Korea of the Great Leaders. Chapter II or Godzilla in North Korean
As almost everyone knows, one of the most important and most profitable brands of the Land of the Rising Sun is the famous cute monster of the Stegosaurus species or any other Godzilla “saurs”, created by the impressive imagination of Tomoyuki Tanaka and other colorful personalities from Toho Studio. “And should we not invent our brand with the nature of a destructive lizard to the envy of ideological enemies?” thought the Great Leader, the Sun of the Nation, the Generalissimo and the All Ruler of the DPRK Kim Jong Il, summoned to his rendezvous the main filmmakers of the country and its propaganda screenwriter Se Ryun Kim and for some period of time proclaimed peace with the southern brothers, because local film directors did not finish (and ordinary schools with grief finished, having passed the glorious labor camps). However, the truce was fake and the Great Leader Kim was insignificantly hesitant and without any moral obstacles abducted the South Korean director Shin Sang-ok, and from Japan, an enemy to our Honorable Leader (but for the sake of great creativity you can endure), a whole horde of unideologized intimidated pre-death masters in special effects from the same memorable studio Toho or similar to her was discharged. Kaiju in North Korean began. . .
In approximately such a tense situation to the socialist world of the DPRK, Pulgasari appeared - a monster from ancient Korean legends, who grew to a gozillo-like size, a toothy, caries-suffering cutie, the creation of a group sexual connection of a bear, a buffalo, an elephant and a tiger, and, perhaps, a person (these animals clearly celebrated the satanic sabbath under the rumble of the Communist Party meetings led by the living and dead Kims), suffering from weak immunity due to a lack of iron, and therefore devouring numerous warriors, like the ones who are not so heavily armed in the way of the barbing iron.
By order of the Great Leader and the Chief Producer, Pulgasari was to be not only an all-consuming machine of death and revenge for all the humiliated and offended, but also to carry with his deeds the idea of Juche and communicate with his teeth all the enemies of our dear and beloved rulers, the three-headed eternal suns over North Korea from the 38th parallel and up to the coast of California. Watch out, USA! Pulgasari's coming. . .
Mind Pulgasari came out in Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein, the ideology of Juche immediately accepted and began to carry it from the screens of cinemas. Kaiju and action reigned in the cinema of North Korea, Pulgasari as if the Great Leader instructed and inserted the unjust, leading them to the true path. And the filmmakers, innocent victims of the bloody regime, prayed for one thing and not aloud, of course: "Let Pulgasari tear this bunza to pieces and we will be free." Their prayers, however, were not destined to come true and it remained only to cherish hopes for the midnight express, which is an extremely rare guest in the DPRK, because illegal trains did not travel further south, and barbed wire, embroidered with a giant web over the territory of the country, hurt the current of all revanchists. And prone to allergies to bullets creators led by Shin San Ok only gave an opportunity to escape without looking back.
The fate of the joint brainchild of South Korea, North Korea and Japan, the film Pulgasari in 1985, was no less fascinating than the fate of its unfortunate creators. When the 90s broke out and the fashionable hobbies of the new decade were sex, smoothly flowing into the murder of a sex beggar of a rachnosti rachnosti rock macho, and walking in dresses on barefoot breasts and other organs, Pulgasari became an anachronism of the world box office, an exotic vignette created in unknown North Korea, almost a blockbuster and almost a masterpiece. Now the film is even more exotic than twenty years ago, and only for true cinephiles this tape is of any interest. The rest of the audience is better to immerse themselves in the colorful legacy of Tanaka-san and not to fool themselves with this ideological heresy, albeit filmed very effectively.
10 out of 10