Movielogr

Pulgasari (1985)

Directed by Shin Sang-ok

Action | Fantasy | War

Most recently watched by lolareels

Overview

In feudal Korea, a group of starving villagers grow weary of the orders handed down to them by their controlling king and set out to use a deadly monster under their control to push his armies back.

Length 95 minutes

Actors

Kenpachirô Satsuma | Chang Son Hui | Ham Gi Sop | Jong-uk Ri | Gwon Ri | Gyong-ae Yu | Hye-chol Ro | Riyonun Ri

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Date ViewedDeviceFormatSourceRating
03/18/2020TVStreamingVideo on Demand5 stars
 

Viewing Notes

Since KaijuPod is covering this movie on their next episode I figured I should give it a spin. Surprised I haven’t seen it given its notoriety (and I own it on VHS). The transfer on YT is the pits but at least it’s the Korean language version w/subtitles. But yeah it looks rather muddy at times esp. with all the action scenes and battle sequences. I turned on the TruMotion to smooth it out a bit and make it watchable on my tv.

Pretty sure they didn’t have any on-set safety organization monitoring this b/c it looks dangerous AF with hundreds of peasant warriors getting fireballs dropped on them. It’s bananas how many people/actors they used in this movie for both the peasant army and the emperor’s army.

I actually like the Pulgasari monster and his origin (baby Pulgasari is super cute!). Had this not been so violent it could be a kids flick similar to the Showa Godzilla films. Pulgasari is the hero for the peasants and fights with them as he grows bigger. Overall this is a *good* story saddled with some poor production values. And if a good quality print existed I’d definitely watch it again.

Given its wild history it’s rather shocking it was made. I know only a little about it but I’d love to read more as I’ve heard different interpretations of what Pulgasari symbolizes (ex. the Soviet Union).

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