Pulgasari

Pulgasari (1986)

불가사리

The monster movie masterpiece that the whole world has been waiting for.

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.

Date of release
1986-02-28
TMDB
5.5 / 10 (57)
Runtime
1h 35m
Genres
Horror, Drama, Fantasy
Director
Shin Sang-ok, Chong Gon Jo

Casting

Interesting facts

Pulgasari is a 1986 monster film directed and produced by Shin Sang-ok during his North Korean abduction. A co-production between North Korea, Japan, and China, it is supposedly a remake of Bulgasari, a 1962 South Korean film that also depicts Bulgasari/Pulgasari, a creature from Korean folklore. The ensemble cast includes Chang Sŏnhŭi, Ham Kisŏp, Ri Chongguk, Ri Ingwŏn, and Yu Kyŏngae, with Kenpachiro Satsuma in the title role. Set during the Goryeo dynasty, Pulgasari follows a blacksmith's daughter who brings to life a metal-eating monster her late father created to defeat the monarchy.

Production

Kim Jong Il, the heir apparent to his father Kim Il Sung, the ruler of North Korea, was an admirer of cinema and of South Korean filmmaker Shin Sang-ok. Kim was reported to have a collection of around 15,000 to 20,000 film titles in his possession. Major new releases from around the globe were typically added to his collection shortly after opening in theaters.

The script of Pulgasari was written by Kim Seryun (김세륜) in collaboration with Ri Chun-gu (이춘구); the duo were regarded as the best screenwriters in North Korea at the time. The film's story is based around Bulgasari or Pulgasari, a creature from Korean folklore. Furthermore, according to retrospective sources, Pulgasari is a remake of Kim Myeong-je's 1962 South Korean film Bulgasari.

Pulgasari would become a collaboration between the Korean Art Film Studio and Shin Films of North Korea, Toho of Japan, and Beijing Film Studio of China. Special-effects art director Yoshio Suzuki flew to North Korea on April 20, 1985, to attend the first meeting between the film's Japanese and North Korean crews, with the help of an interpreter.

The suit actor Kenpachiro Satsuma stated that Pulgasari was put forward in mid-February 1985, and location scouting started in Pyongyang and Beijing that April. The planning of Pulgasari was credited to Shin, but according to author Paul Fischer, Shin showed no interest in the Japanese kaiju genre and never said who originally conceived the project.

Twenty-one-year-old Chang Sŏnhŭi, who had previously starred in Love, Love, My Love, played the lead in Pulgasari. Chang was a trainee flight attendant who met Shin at Pyongyang International Airport, and was immediately asked to become a full-time employee at Shin Films. Through his Japanese office, Shin invited 15 of Toho's special-effects-sector staff, including Satsuma and Nakano, to work on the film.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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