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Pulgasari (1986)

★★ — Pulgasari (1986)

Pulgasari arrived in 1986 under circumstances that remain one of cinema's stranger footnotes. The South Korean director Shin Sang-ok, a prolific and respected filmmaker in his home country during the 1960s and 70s, was kidnapped along with his ex-wife, actress Choi Eun-hee, on the orders of Kim Jong-il, who wanted to revitalise the North Korean film industry. Shin was held for years before eventually being put to work, and Pulgasari, a kaiju picture drawing obvious comparisons to Toho's Godzilla series (Toho's special effects team were brought in to handle the creature work), was the most visible result of that forced collaboration. Shin eventually escaped to the West in 1986, the same year the film was released.

A-Z World Movie Tour North Korea Pulgasari is a film shrouded in infamy. A North Korean kaiju movie made under bizarre political circumstances, reportedly with help from a kidnapped South Korean director and crew. Shot in Japanese (which adds to the confusion of its origins), it feels less like a proper film and more like a strange cultural artefact, a mix of revolutionary propaganda, monster mayhem, and outright camp. The story follows a tiny metal-eating creature born from the curse of a dying old man, brought to life by the blood of a young girl, which grows into a giant beast meant to liberate the oppressed from a tyrannical feudal regime. In theory, a potent metaphor. In practice, a mess. The creature itself, Pulgasari, is actually quite well-realised for a low-budget suitmation and stop-motion hybrid. Its design is eerie and memorable (a spiky, rat-like beast with glowing eyes and a gaping maw) and some of the destruction sequences have a crude charm. But everything around it is painfully unconvincing. The sets are obviously miniature, the villages look like cardboard, and the constant close-ups of screaming peasants can’t hide the fact that most of the action takes place indoors, under flat lighting. The acting is wildly over-the-top, with every line delivered like a revolutionary rallying cry, even when no one’s listening. It’s clear the film is meant to be taken seriously. A tale of people’s power rising against oppression, with the monster as both saviour and eventual threat. But the tone veers wildly between solemn propaganda and laughable spectacle. Once Pulgasari turns on the people who created it, there’s a moment of potential tragedy, but it’s drowned out by repetitive battle scenes and increasingly absurd destruction. It’s not without historical curiosity or a certain so-bad-it’s-fascinating appeal. But as a film it’s poorly paced, poorly acted, and weighed down by ideology and technical limitations. The monster is cool. The rest is just noise. A bizarre footnote in cinema history, worth watching once for the story behind it, but not for the film itself.

Rating: ★★ | Year: 1986 | Watched: 2025-08-05

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