Review of Pulgasari

A tiny figure made from a starving prisoner's rice and empowered by a drop of his daughter's blood grows into a towering metal-eating creature that aids a group of desperate farmers who are rebelling against a tyrannical king. The film was produced in North Korea by future 'Dear Leader' and movie-buff Kim Jong Il, and directed by prominent South Korean director Shin Sang-ok, who had been abducted out of Hong Kong and into the Hermit Kingdom by the North Korean secret police. As kaiju films go, 'Pulgasari' is not too bad. The 'suit-mation' costume is as good as those in most of the later Showa-era Godzilla films (and better than those in the rival Gamera canon) and, although the optical special effects integrating the creature and the 'real world' are weak (especially when its catching cannonballs in its mouth), the battle scenes are epic (apparently the North Korean army provided a host of extras), and the scenes in which the monster tears down palaces and fortresses are quite well done (the miniature work is on par with the better Showa-era Japanese kaiju films). The story, acting and script are pretty typical for the genre but the ending is quite good. It's interesting to speculate what exactly the 'message' was, but as a political metaphor, the transition of the monster from saviour to threat could easily be taken as an indictment of Kim Il Sung (Kim Jong Il's father and North Korea's supreme leader at the time the film was made). The film was rarely seen outside North Korea but now, like so many cinematic obscurities, it's available on-line (and with English sub-titles). Worth watching for both itself (for kaiju fans) and for its provenance (for anyone).