#pulgasari

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

[chernobog13]

North versus South (Korea, that is): Yongary battles Pulgasari in this painting by Larry Quach.

[radmoonlover]

[shin-thalia]

Genuinely the most unbelievable cameo in MV history

Bonus: The Lee/Bill/Keiko polycule is real and true to me

[rhetthammersmithhorror]

Pulgasari | 1985

[mymoviehistory]

Pulgasari

April 11, 2026

[jcw3-protectorate-enthusiast]

I watched Pulgasari (1985). 6/10, D-. An incredibly dull movie saved by the incredibly ballsy ending.

(Yes, I'm aware of the kidnapping of the director and his wife and their escape, that's the only thing anyone who hasn't seen this movie knows about it.)

'The voice and personified power of the revolution no longer serves the people and only serves to gorge itself at the expense of the people, and must be removed from power before it kills everyone it once served.'

The plot: A wicked king and his wicked governors and generals oppress the common folk in medieval Korea. A village blacksmith, starved to death by the wicked governor, uses his last drops of food to carve an image of Pulgasari, and with his dying gasps and the blood of his daughter, Pulgasari, an iron-eating spirit who grows the more iron he eats, is born.

The blacksmith's daughter, Ami, commands him to join the Farmer's Army, a rebellion of villagers turned mountain bandits who resist the wicked king. The wicked king and the wicked generals try increasingly cartoonish means of defeating Pulgasari before being eventually defeated, and then the last ten minutes of the movie are devoted to Pulgasari being a massive problem for the rebellious Farmer's Army.

The movie feels badly edited, there's a lot of stuff that happens offscreen that probably shouldn't have, the acting quality leaves a lot to be desired. It's very dull. I was mostly bored and waiting for it to be over. I was only really impressed a couple times by the effects.

The human stuntwork and armies clashing were always dull and fairly badly choreographed - there were, however, a few cool bits with flaming trebuchets and falling logs where I was honestly wondering 'did the North Koreans actually kill people making this.'

There are a lot of scenes in this where I think it's supposed to be at night, but it's clearly day with a terrible filter. It's got such inconsistent effects - because a lot of the scenes where Pulgasari is just stomping around look very good.

I like Pulgasari himself - definitely not opposed to him being reused, especially since he's public domain. By kaiju standards, he's fairly weak - I think non-Godzilla Kong is the only kaiju he could take in a fight, so you'd have to buff him like they do Kong for crossovers.

(I'm aware he appeared in Monarch season 2, and I will probably get around to Monarch's new season at some point - I want to do a Monsterverse rewatch once I've seen a lot more classic kaiju stuff and have that new frame of reference.)

The movie is mostly just exactly the same as a bad 50s-60s kaiju movie - it reminded me the most of Varan while watching it. But I was so impressed by the ending that I can't give it a failing grade. 6/10, D-. Only worth watching for kaiju fans that are fine with 'nerd homework', and that might be stretching it - this is a curiosity, but it's not massively influential. Nerd homework tends to be a term I use for otherwise bad or boring things that left a mark on the zeitgeist - I'm not so sure that this meets that criteria.

[enlightened-crystal]

What's your guy's favorite kaiju rip-off monster that clearly only existed to cash in on the genre?

Yonggary (South Korea)

Gorgo (UK)

Reptilicus (Denmark)

Pulgasari (North Korea)

Gappa (Japan, Nikkatsu)

Agon (Also Japan, canceled via Lawsuit™️)

Voting ended onJun 3, 2025