While monster movie fans are waiting with a combination of hope and dread for the release of the new Godzilla film this May, I thought I’d offer-up this strange little snack to tide us all over as we await the return of the Great One.
Pulgasari is a 1985, North Korean, Godzilla-style giant monster film with an origin story that’s more terrifying than the one it tells. The film is posted on the Open Culture site. Here’s their take…
Let’s give you more on this story: In 1978, Shin Sang-ok, South Korea’s famous director, went to Hong Kong to figure out why his ex-wife, actress Choi Eun-hee, went missing. When he arrived, North Korean agents pulled him into a car, threw a bag over his head, then shipped him to Pyongyang wrapped in plastic. (The BBC has more on this.) And so began his eight year imprisonment in North Korea, where the filmmaker had to satisfy the whims of Kim Jong-il, then a young “cinephile” who wrote On the Art of the Cinema in 1973, and The Cinema and Directing in 1987 (read the free PDF here). Shin shot eight films during his “NK period,” the best-known being Pulgasari, a 1985 Godzilla-style movie that played to the tastes of the little dictator. We’re adding it to the Horror section of our big collection of Free Movies Online.
And here is the IMDB on the iron-eating monster, Pulgasari…
In feudal Korea, the evil King becomes aware that there is a peasant rebellion being planned in the country. He steals all the iron farming tools and cooking pots from the people so that he may make weapons to fend off the peasant army. After he returns the property to the people, an old blacksmith is imprisoned and starved to death. His last creation is a tiny figurine of a monster- Pulgasari, a Godzilla-like creature that eats iron. The blood of his daughter brings the creature to life, and fights with the poor, starving peasants to overthrow the corrupt monarchy.
As you can see, Pulgasari celebrates a peasant revolution. No doubt this pleased Kim Jong-il, but the overthrow of a corrupt government might have hit a little to close to home. I guess, Kim didn’t notice. He was probably too busy enjoying the film.
Here’s Pulgasari…
