Pulgasari, North Korea’s anti-imperialist GodzillaDuring the 1950’s and 1960’s San

Pulgasari, North Korea’s anti-imperialist GodzillaDuring the 1950’s and 1960’s Sang-ok Shin was one of the most popular and prolific movie directors and producers in South Korea, being credited for directing 70 films and producing another 100. One of Shin’s biggest fans was Kim Jong-il, who would someday inherit his fathers repressive dictatorship over North Korea.  Kim Jong-il, an avid fan of Hollywood films, saw himself as a great movie producer and more than anything wanted to have the great Shin to direct his movies. In 1978 Kim Jong-il arranged to have Shin’s recently divorced wife, actress Choi Eun-Hee, to be kidnapped from Hong Kong.  When Shin traveled to Hong Kong to investigate his ex-wife’s disappearance, he too was abducted by North Korean agents.  The couple were smuggled in captivity to North Korea.  Kim Jong-il’s plan was for Shin to direct his great films and propaganda pieces, with Choi being his star actress. Five years later the couple were brought to Pyongyang for a dinner party, hosted by Kim Jong-il himself. It was there that the Great Leader’s intentions were revealed.  Shin would be forced, pretty much at gunpoint, to produce and direct movies for North Korea’s new upstart film industry.  Kim Jong-Il hoped that by making North Korea a movie mecca, the world might change its opinion about his little police state.  Shin and Choi were also forced to remarry.From 1983 - 1986 Shin directed 7 North Korean films, with Kim Jong-il as executive producer.  The best known of these films was Pulgasari, a monster movie similar to Godzilla.  The plot of Pulgasari was simple and direct; in medieval Korea an evil king brutally puts down a peasant rebellion.  One of the oppressed peasants is a blacksmith who made a metal figurine of Pulgasari, a mythical Korean monster.  The blood of his slain daughter brings the figurine to life, who fights with the beleaguered peasant forces and overthrows the kingdom by smashing and bashing all kinds of stuff.  Yeah, basically your typical Godzilla type flick with some “Communism bringing down Imperialism” themes mixed in. Pulgasari was not an incredibly successful film, no one outside of North Korea wanted to show it, and everyone inside of North Korea were too busy slaving and starving for the state to really give a damn.  It would take ten years before a Japanese company would produce the film, marketing it as “Banned for a Decade!”, which is humorous because you can’t ban something that nobody wants.  The film saw little success, and is most popular as a novelty item, much like Saddam Hussein’s romance novel “Zabibah and the King”.Meanwhile Shin and Choi were ordered to attend a film festival in Vienna.  While in Vienna they escaped from their North Korean handlers to the United States embassy, where they were granted asylum.  They moved back to South Korea in 1994.  Sang ok-Shin died of complications due to hepatitis he contracted from a liver transplant in 2006.Today North Korea still denies the claim they abducted Shin, insisting he moved to North Korea willingly.  It’s their word against his.Pulgasari is rated 5.3/10 by IMDB and 25% by Rotten Tomatoes. -- source link

More pics about