It’s easy to get caught up in the circumstances that surround Pulgasari, a North Korean Monster Movie. Circumstances which understandably threaten to outweigh the film itself.
The story goes that South Korean director Shin Sang-ok and his estranged actress wife Choi Eun-hee were kidnapped in 1978 by agents of Kim Jong Il with the director co-erced into making a communist Kaiju movie of sorts. When the pair were finally able to escape the evil empire, Kim Jong Il, or rather, the ”Shining Star of Paektu Mountain”, the ”Beloved Father, Dear Leader, who is a perfect incarnation of the appearance that a leader should have”, promptly banned the film, presumably as an enemy of the state – which is a shame. Because for all the trivia rich distractions one might attach to it, Pulgasari remains a delightfully odd though thoroughly engaging film.
The people of 14th century North Korea endure the oppression of a tyrannical King. When they are ordered to hand over their agricultural and industrial tools, so that they may be used to make weapons, the people, led by peasant Inde, resist and are promptly punished, with Inde and elderly ironmonger Taksi thrown into prison. Starving to death, Taksi makes a small figurine from rice and when blood from his daughter Ami comes in contact with it, the Pulgasari – an iron consuming creature that grows at an alarming rate, comes to life. Pulgsari joins the people in an increasingly epic set of battles and despite their best efforts to stop him, the King and his general Fuan are ultimately defeated.
For those keen to plunder the political sub text, there is plenty to pick at. The oppressed people rise up together and, supported by the spiritual embodiment of their plight, overcome the selfish dichotomy of class and control. But there is a caveat. Be careful not to enjoy the excesses of freedom (manifested in the exhaustive demand of resources, and also known as the destructive urges of capitalism), for it will ultimately consume you…
In reality, the propaganda of Pulgasari is pleasingly vague, and subsumed to a narrative inclination. There is no more political discourse here than in, say, the Rambo series (of which, film nut Kim was allegedly fond of) and Pulgasari becomes less a case of pro autocracy than an epic period adventure piece. Albeit one in which monsters enjoy chewing on cannons…
The Pulgasari beast, based on a popular myth, is played by rubber suit loving Kenpachiro Satsuma who had donned Toho’s Godzilla suit since 1984 and would continue to do so until 1995. Teruyoshi Nakano directed the film’s special effects, bringing with him a wealth of experience from his work with the gargantuan Japanese Kaiju factory since the 60s. There is no question that Pulgasari seeks to tell a North Korean story, but what makes it so interesting is that it chooses to do so by using foreign tools.
Whether enforced or not, Pulgasari seems to want to ingratiate itself within the conventional story telling community. In fact, the references to western film making in particular, are both plentiful and perhaps surprisingly respectful. There is, for instance, the people’s physical leader Inde, who leads the revolt like Patrick Swayze might in Red Dawn, all the while sporting a fetching John Rambo style headband that compliments his vague resemblance to Sylvester Stallone.
The Pulgasari creature itself, grows from a super cute squeaky sprite to an uncontrollable all devouring monster and recalls the same principles of the Mogwai’s transformation in Joe Dante’s Gremlins. Even the films score, a super lo fi, casio synth freak out, borrows from the sound banks across the water, with Mark Lindsay’s work on the US edit of Shogun Assassin an obvious inspiration.
Best of all, there is the large scale battle sequences that pepper the film (including some excessively enthusiastic – and obviously dangerous, pyrotechnics), which are clearly lifted directly from the same school of action attended by Sergey Bondarchuk’s Waterloo. Frequent roaming long shots across vast landscapes filled with an extraordinary amount of extras are used in both films in very similar ways – chiefly to emphasise scale and authenticity.
Regardless of how or why it was made, Pulgasari, then proves to be an incredibly accessible production. Highly enjoyable, exciting, and above all fun. The circumstances in which it came about become, quite frankly, circumstantial and irrespective of its political leanings, Shin Sang-ok’s weirdo monster movie is definitely worth a look.
