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Somewhere and somewhen in fairytale-country: Evil gouvernment forces
shamelessly exploit a small village of poor farmers, and they are
especially cruel to a blacksmith (Ri Gwon) whom they suspect to be in
league with the rebel forces, and whom they incarcerate eventually without
giving him any food. His daughter Ami (Hui Chang Son) is half-dying from
worries, so she makes her father some rice and throws it into his cell
through the window. Daddy though does not eat the rice but makes a small
statue from it, held together by his tears, and when he dies, his soul
seems to be transferred into the statue. After her dad's death, the statue
is given to Ami, who one evening cuts herself sowing, and a drop of blood
hits the statue - which mysteriously comes to life and has an insatiable
hunger for anything iron. The living statue, which is possibly the
legendary monster Pulgasari, grows in size rather quickly ... A few days
later, the leader of the rebel forces Inde (Sop Ham Gi) is to be
decapitated be executed by the king's (Pak Yong-hok), which would be bad
enough as it is but worse still because Inde is Ami's fiancé. But at the
very last moment right before the decapitation, Pulgasari intervenes,
eating up the executor's sword, and fighting off the gouvernment forces,
invincible as he is. The farmers of Ami's village and the rebel forces
soon realize they have a mighty ally in Pulgasari and have him join them
in going against the king's army. They are not only successful, Pulgasari
also grows with each attack, from child-size to man-size to giant
monster-size. The king's menm try to stop the monster with missiles and
special cannons and whatnot, but to no avail, they try to make it their
ally by capturing Ami who has power over the monster, cage it and set it
on fire, but nothing helps. They even exorcise it and bury it, but another
drop of blood from Ami sets it free again, and ultimately, the king and
his men are defeated by the rebels, with the king dying when Pulgasari
destroys his palace. It's only when peace returns to the region that the
villagers realize that Pulgasari might be a threat himself, since he eats
all the metal and eats and eats, until the farmers have no farming tools
no more. He has now become a threat as big as the king was, so Ami decides
to hide in an iron bucket and trick Pulgasari into eat it, and this way,
she, who has given him life, destroys him from the inside ... Now
there's something you don't see every day, a giant monster flick from
North Korea (made with a bit of help from the monster-experienced Japanese
though). But while the mere premise sounds great, the film itself is
almost a bit of a disappointment, a rather sub-average monster flick based
on a propaganda-free story starring a monster that could have originated
from anywhere in the world. That's not to say the film isn't fun though in
a trashy sort of way, because it really is - a child-sized monster taking
a bite out of a sword during a decapitation is a winner in itself, so is a
man-sized monster leading an army of farmers and a giant-sized monster
chopping wood -, the film just fails to satisfy those looking for the
North Korean angle in the whole thing. By the way, rumour has it that
later North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il was instrumental in
kidnapping this film's (co-)director Shin Sang-ok from South Korea in the
late 1970's to make North Korean propaganda movies. Why then Mr Shin's
talent was wasted on trash like this is beyond me ... and I'm not accusing
Mr Shin of not putting his heart into this film as I'm sure he had other
worries at the time, but it makes little sense to kidnap someone and then
force him to make giant monster films, right?
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find Pulgasari at adultvideouniverse.com
