PULGASARI (Celludroid Festival)

ABOUT

PULGASARI is a 1985 North Korean Kaiju film (in the vein of Godzilla), produced by dictator Kim Jong-il !!!  Directed by Shin Sang-ok (whom the Kims had kidnapped in 1978 along with his actress wife to make propaganda movies!)  You can't make this up! 
(Trailer & more details below)


 

Kim was a lifelong admirer of the director, as well as Godzilla and other Kaiju films. He kidnapped the former director and his wife, famous actress Choi Eun-hee, with the specific purpose of making fantasy / propaganda for the North Korean government. (Sang-ok and Choi managed to escape from their minders while on tour in Austria).
(Kim Jong-il played filmmaker just like his son, the current dictator Kim Jong-un plays military with growing nuclear capabilities...)

Teruyoshi Nakano and Japan's Toho studios (the creators of Godzilla), participated in creating the film's special effects. Kenpachiro Satsuma (the stunt performer who played Godzilla from 1984 to 1995) portrayed Pulgasari, and when the Godzilla remake was released in Japan in 1998, he was quoted as saying he preferred Pulgasari to Roland Emmerich's new version! 

In feudal Korea, during the Goryeo Dynasty, a king controls the land with an iron fist, subjecting the peasantry to misery and starvation. An old blacksmith who was sent to prison creates a tiny figurine of a monster by making a doll of rice. When it comes into contact with the blood of the blacksmith's daughter, the creature springs to life, becoming a giant metal-eating monster named Pulgasari.

The evil King becomes aware that there is a rebellion being planned in the country, which he intends to crush, but he runs into Pulgasari, who fights with the peasant army to overthrow the corrupt monarchy.
 

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