불가사리 (Pulgasari)
Occassionally there is a movie, album, television show, book, or other piece of artwork produced where the story behind the creation of the item is far more interesting than the actual work itself. This is the case with 불가사리. The story goes a little something like this…
North Korean ruler 김정일 (Kim Jong-Il) is something of a movie fanatic. Back in the days when his pops was still running the show, Kim Jong-Il was the head of the state run movie house (among other things). The story goes something like this, in the late 1970s Kim Jong-Il had South Korean director, 신상옥 (Shin Sang-Ok), and his actress wife, Choi Eun-hee, kidnapped and brought to the North to jumpstart the North Korean film industry.
After making several films, Shin began work on 불가사리, a giant monster movie in the same vain as Godzilla in the early 1980s. Shin was given use of the North Korean army, and the people at Toho Studios in Japan were responsible for the monster. Kim Jung-Il envisioned plastic 불가사리 toys being sold the world over, but things were not to be.
While in Vienna, Shin and his wife were able to escape from their North Korean keepers and after a taxi chase, fled to the American embassy. For ten years, 불가사리 remained unreleased, in the world at least…who knows what happens north of the 38th parallel. It was released in Japan where it did decently, and later released in South Korea, where it was met with little fanfare.
So what of the actual film? To be totally honest, it’s not anywhere near as interesting as the backstory behind this film. But with a back story like that, and my love of horrible movies, this was a film I’ve been wanting to check out for quite sometime…and I finally have.
After the ending credits (shown at the begining) we get right into the action…kind of. The movie is set sometime during the 고려 period (I’m guessing here), and as the film begins in a small village where we see a woman named, 아미 (Ami) bringing water to some sort of iron workers.
Among the iron workers is an old man (아미’s father) that, due to honorifics in the Korean language, I only knew as 아버지 (”Father”), and a swarthy, headband equipped lad known as 인댁 (Indaek), who I’m pretty sure was getting some from 아미. Early in the film it is revealed that 인댁 is the leader of a resistance movement.
Final a North Korean woman the gives some clout to the 남남북녀 (南男北女) concept…though this movie was made 20 years ago so more likely than not she’s an ajumma now…or dead.
Indek rockin’ it 80’s style. I can’t really mock this Loverboy headband / mullet combo since this movie was made in the 80’s at the height of Loverboy headbands and mullets.
Very early in the film we see why 인댁 would join a group opposed to the government…the government in this film consists of a bunch of assholes. Within the first ten minutes of the film they stroll into town demending all iron in town be handed over in the name of national defense.
“Father” explains that a creature named 불가사리 (Pulgasari) had eaten all of the iron (in reality 인댁 and his posse were hiding it under some straw). The jerkass government officals weren’t buying it.
“We need your iron fool!”
A huge fight breaks out in which 인댁, “Father”, and the other iron workers / rebels are taken into custody. For his outlandish tale, “Father” gets beat down.
Random violence on an old man.
While in prison the guards refuse to give any food to “Father,” while handing over bowls of chow to 인댁 and his homeboys. Since 인댁 is such a filial lad, he refuses to eat unless the old man gets food too, which he does not.
Meanwhile 아미 and her brother, 아나 (Ana…that’s Ah-na not Anna) arrive at the prison with some food for their father, but are manhandled by the guards and ultimately turned away.
“DAD!!!!”
Somehow they are able to throw chunks of rice into their father’s jail cell, but he does not chow down on it. Nope, instead he decides to use the rice to do some sort of arts and crafts project with it. That’s right instead of eating, he uses the rice (and dirt) to craft a crazy looking doll. After a monologue directed to the gods the old man dies.
As the corpse of the old man is being taken out of the prison, 아미 discovers the doll and takes it. Nothing like a rice doll to ease the pain of a dead father. Back home 아미 is engaged in some mending. While sewing she pricks her finger with a needle. The blood from her finger drips onto the doll, who like Frosty the Snowman springs to life. Unlike Frosty, he promptly begins chowing down on sewing needles.
“Ouch…my finger!”
The “blood” from her finger hit the doll her father created…
and it sprang to life, a lot like Frosty the Snowman!
아미 and 아나 think nothing of this and are enamoured with the tiny bizarre creature, which they think is rediculously cute. During the night, 불가사리 escapes the house by chewing through the lock. Outside, the beast continues to chow down on metal, growing in the process.
As the pair stand there admiring the awesomeness that is mini 불가사리, the government officals return to put 인댁 to death by beheading.
인댁’s gonna catch it when Mom gets home. Off with his head!
불가사리 returns to the scene and eats a sword before they can slay 인댁. He then eats shackles…and a face.
PUPPET ATTACK!!!
The governor hears of these antics and is very amused. He then send troops to go investigate. They discover 불가사리, now roughly midget sized, chowing down on a weapons stronghold. The soldiers are unable to do anything against this unstoppable beast. 불가사리 flees of into the woods with some tools and is not seen from again.
At some point after this, the government officals capture an old woman known throughout the film as “Mother.” She is beaten, as is a small child. This does not sit well with 인댁 and his homeboys, so they head over to the prison to break some people out. When they discover “Mother” is dead things turn into a battle. During this battle, 인댁 slays the governor.
A king.
A king is not pleased with this turn of events and wants the rebels crushed. A general with a super low voice (you can tell he’s evil by this fact alone) offers his services to the king.
Evil general enemy with super low voice.
From here we are treated to a battle scene in which the peasant army partakes in some Ewok-esque tactics. A lot of boulders and logs are pushed down hills into oncoming soldiers. The battle scenes in the movie are fairly well done, if one is willing to overlook the obvious styrofoam boulders and logs, and the cheesey toy sword sound effect noise.
Styrofoam boulder assault.
After the battle we get to see how bad the peasants have it. While the king and his men are living the highlife, the peasants are shown eating horses, grass, and bark (not to much of a stretch from what is happening there now).
Eating horse.
During this period, the army returns and is about to capture 아미 is about to be captured but 불가사리 returns and makes the save. He is now man sized, though not for long.
The other rebels are shocked to see the creature, but 아미 delivers some of the greatest dialogue ever uttered: “He got this big by eating iron. Don’t worry, Pulgasari is kind!”
And he is kind! We are then treated to a montage from hell. There are battles, 불가사리 eating weapons, and some of the worst use of blue screen ever.
Worst use of blue screen ever…
The rebels now have the advantage, so the evil general hatches an evil plan with his evil cronies (one of whom has an evil eyepatch). The plan goes something like this: if they are able to capture 아미, they will have 불가사리 in the palm of their hands.
This plan works out perfectly, and the evil forces are able to capture 아미 as she is getting water. I find this unbeliveable, since while all the other rebels are having party time, the woman who controls 불가사리 is made to fetch water….damn you Confucius! Damn you! But I digress.
Come on! You think that can hold 불가사리?! Get real!
The evil general has 아미 and a big cage (pictured above). He tells 불가사리 to get in the cage, or 아미 will get it. 불가사리 goes into the cage, which is set on fire. But these dudes are mad stupid since apparently 불가사리 not only find metal extremely delicious, but is apparently made out of it as well. So instead of dying in this inferno, 불가사리 just turns red, hot, and really pissed off. The general and his men realize that they made a huge mistake and attempt to haul ass in some boats. 불가사리 jumps into the water, which boils due to his intense heat.
Shortly after this rebel victory, there is another battle. During this battle, the evil general has ballistas that are a lot more like rockets that huge crossbows. During the rocket attack, 불가사리 catches one in the eye.
It’s all fun and games until someone gets a ballista in the eye.
This does little to stop the fury that is 불가사리, and we are finally treated to the one thing people look for in giant monster movies (aside from an Asian kid in really short shorts), buildings getting smashed! This time it’s not Tokyo being destroyed, but a Korean style palace, which is pretty awesome.
The general has had enough of the rebels and their man in a rubber suit monster, so he comes to the conclusion that the only thing left to do is call in some 무당 (mudang). For those of you that did not study Korean history and culture, 무당 are for lack of a better word a shaman. These women were traditionally involved in exorcisms, fortune telling and other spiritual needs in traditional Korean society…but again I digress.
Bring in the 무당!
The general has a huge pit dug, and then using 무당, causes 불가사리 fall into this pit. The pit is quickly covered with rocks, and it appears that 불가사리 is done (the monster, not the movie). To make matters worse, 인댁 is captured and hanged for his crimes. Things seem pretty dire for the rebels.
아미 is not going to let the rebellion end like this, so she sneaks into some off the hook party being held on the site where 불가사리 was trapped. Plying some guards with alcohol, she goes onto the rock pile and slashes her arm. When her blood hits the rocks, 불가사리 is released from his rocky prison for more ass kicking action.
The general builds some cannons to end things once and for all. The cannons really rock the peasant army, but have little effect of 불가사리. The shots that get in his mouth just seem to piss him off more. 불가사리 then partakes in some more Korean palace clobbering time, and during this rampage, the king gets stepped on.
Godzilla style wreckage.
The rebels have won, but things are not right in the world. 불가사리 still needs to eat. There is a shot of towns people loading up a cart of iron goods (very similar to the beginning of the film) in order to feed the monster. 아미 realizes that unless something is done, 불가사리 will lead to more suffering and war.
아미 summons 불가사리 to a remote mountain area by ringing a temple bell, a bell she then hides in. 불가사리 then proceeds to eat the bell, and in the process eats 아미. He the (for some reason that was lost on me) turns to stone and explodes. A tiny 불가사리 is shown turning into a ball of blue light and flying into the corpse of 아미…the end!
The end.
The movie was kind of all over the place. For starters it was kind of odd that a North Korean film had the government portrayed as the enemies. I know in “real” communism this would fly, but the perverted form of communism the North Koreans have is all about respecting their leaders. The other thing was what exactly 불가사리 was supposed to represent. First he was good and then he was an unstoppable fury that needed to be destroyed, but when destroyed he came back to life…or did he? I’m not really sure.
Anyhow if you are a fan of giant monster movies, or Korean cinema check out 불가사리 for sheer kitsch value alone.
