From Dear Leader with Love...and Famine...and Kidnap...

 Pulgasari

        This film has a lot of baggage. First, it was produced by Kim Jong II, future dictator of North Korea. It was made during the great famine of the 1990s, where anywhere up to 1 million people died due to starvation. The director was kidnapped from South Korea so he could make films for Kim Jong...like I said, a LOT of baggage

        The film is based on the legend of Bulgasari, a metal eating giant chimera. It's also based on an earlier film of the same name made in South Korea. I can only assume the name change was to separate the two. There's no way Dear Leader would give South Korea credit for anything.

        This take place in a much earlier time when kung-fu bandits ruled the countryside. The daughter of the village blacksmith is tending to her chores when she learns her cousin is actually one of those bandits! Her father, the cousin's only real father figure, disapproves and shows great disappointment that he can no longer let him marry his daughter...as a reminder, they are FIRST cousins. Yeah, I know...things were different back then but this movie was written in the 90s and it's a dumb monster movie. We don't need that kind of realism. Because the bandits are so good, the local government is forcing the blacksmith make weapons out of all the farming tools, pots, pans, and other items made of metal. The blacksmith steals it back and is thrown in jail and starved. People starving in North Korea because a merciless dimwitted leader chose weapons over food? How'd that get by the censors.

        Anyhoo, Starvin' Marvin creates Pulgasari totem and blesses it with his death and his daughter bleeds on it, awakning our Kaiju star. Game. On.

        It's no surprise that rampages are pretty benign. It's feudal times and there's not much in line of tall buildings to smash or miniature tanks to stomp. As it starts eating metal, it starts growing and growing. Since the country folk are tired of the provincial government, they decidei to kill the local leader with the help of our metal munching friend. Then it dies, then it's rewakend, then the villagers have to kill it because its diet requires a LOT of iron. Our damsel in distress, who has a blood link with the monster, sacrifices herself by hiding in a bell that Puli-G eats. She dies, he dies and everything turns to dust. The End.

        There are theory's that this was a jaded attempt to exemplify the pitfalls of capitalisms, but there's just too many parallels to DPK's own government history to really believe that. It really works against Sung's, Jong's, and Un's ideals. Those ideas being take food from your people to build better weapons.

Thursday: Sequel time!!!