Pulgasari - Tyranny In The System
Thoughts On: Pulgasari (불가사리, 1985)
Made by Shin Sang-ok, this is the North Korean film of the series.
Pulgasari is an epic war/monster movie and one of the most famous North Korean films. Not too much is known about the North Korean film industry because most of the films produced by the nation are not exported. Reports from within come from mouths of the North Korean regime, meaning they are absurdly self-aggrandising - propaganda that masks a tyrannical system. The industry is thought to have heavy links to the government and so many of the films are supposed to embody a Juche mode of thinking, Juche being the official state ideology developed by Kin Ill-sung (the first Korean Supreme Leader), an ideology based upon self-reliance and collective interior strength that only seems to trap the country in isolation and tyranny. Very few films make it out of the country, but there are a selection available to international audiences and even some co-productions between North and South Korea (South Korea and its film industry being a world apart from North Korea and its).
It is worthwhile to emphasise the place of cinema in North Korean via Kim Jong-il (second Supreme Leader), who was apparently a great fan of movies, a great filmmaker and a great theorist. Not only was Kim Jong-il an admirer of Japanese films such as Godzilla, but he produced some films and wrote a book on film theory that is immersed in the North Korean ideology. From this we can infer the place in North Korean culture that film has had carved out for it. Alas, it is most important to note that Kim Jong-il is said to have produced Pulgasari himself.
Pulgasari is somewhat infamous as it was directed by Shin Sang-ok. Shin Sang-ok is one of the foremost director's from South Korea's cinematic Golden Age - the 50s and 60s. A prolific filmmaker, he worked continuously through the 50s and 60s, but, due to changes in South Korea which saw its government take greater hold of the nation with authoritarian politics in the 70s, his production slowed down. The new government's regime controlled and closely censored the film industry in the 70s and early 80s, essentially squandering its development. Shin Sang-ok, whose films were not doing very well, lost his studio in the late-70s having fallen out of favour with the South Korean government. Shortly thereafter he was kidnapped (after his wife - who was a very popular actress) when in Hong Kong and held captive in North Korea. The couple were separated and 're-educated' in North Korea before eventually being taken before Kim Ill-sung, who revealed that they had been kidnapped so that they could make films to bolster the North Korean industry as presided over by the government and its ideology.
Pulgasari is the eighth and last film that Shin Sang-ok made before escaping with his wife to America, where they received asylum. This is important to note as, though Pulgasari was made to appear to be in support of the government and its ideology, it seems to be project a rather precise, defamatory allegory about the North Korean regime. However, we shall come to discuss this later.
The quality of Pulgasari is not very impressive, however, its scale and story are. The worst element of the film is its acting and dialogue, which is extremely repetitive and inane. The huge, rather constant, war set-pieces are not helmmed technically well, but the camera's ability to capture scale and movement on a battlefield is not bad - though, at many times it seems as if the camera person is inches away from being burned to death or brutalised by falling wood and rocks. The worth of this film lies in its story, which is based upon the Chinese/Korean legend of the Bulgasari, an iron-eating monster that destroys an oppressive system and protects its people before eventually turning on them.
Pulgasari, at its heart, captures this very sentiment. It is set under an oppressive government that are stealing from the people, who are beginning to rebel by forming an army in the mountains. A blacksmith with sons and a daughter is imprisoned by the government after he is entrusted to build the government weapons with the local farmers' tools, but allows the farmers to take their property back. He is kept in a cell and not fed. On the brink of death, his son and daughter manage to give him some rice, but, instead of eating this, he moulds it finto a small figurine and asks the gods to turn it into a monster to defend the farming people. The rice totem, the pulgasari, comes to life when the daughter of the now deceased blacksmith bleeds on it. The creature grows as it eats iron fed to it by the daughter and son. Meanwhile rebels and government forces collide until the rebels are held up in the mountains, surrounded. The pulgasari, having grown with all that it has eaten, starts to defend them. There then ensues a back and forward between government forces who try to kill the pulgasari, kidnap the daughter, trap the monster, and the farmers who, supported by the monster, press forward and eventually capture the king and destroy his armies. Having won the war, the farmers have to continue to feed all their metal to the pulgasari. It grows larger, a threat to the existence of the people. The daughter decides to ring a large bell to call the monster and then crawl inside. The monster eats the iron bell, but, in doing so, consumes the daughter - who is his only weakness. Having killed the daughter, the pulgasari himself is smited. The soul of the blacksmith enters the dead body of the daughter and the now shrunk pulgasari flees.
This story has a very strong symbolic subtext. The blacksmith represents wisdom in being an archetypal father. The wisdom he holds is of sacrifice as it is he who refuses to make the oppressive government weapons, refuses to take from the farmers and contribute to evil; he knows that sacrificing himself is a virtue that preserves truth and strengthens the downtrodden. His sacrifice is entombed in the pulgasari, who becomes symbolic of the father's honourable death. However, this sacrifice may only come into effect when the life in the blacksmith's daughter (blood) comes into contact with it. The daughter is the archetypal feminine force in this narrative who essentially carries truth forward and guides others to do so also, a receptacle of a great, old flame of blistering light. The pulgasari is a child born of the guiding masculine and encompassing feminine, and so he also requires sacrifice - which is why he eats iron. However, in return, he defends the people. This covers the majority of the tale we are given: tyranny, the negative male and female archetypes, the government, the army and their priestesses, who are defined by selfish consumption, attempt to quash the forces of good. However, because the farmers are propelled forward by the pulgasari, who is virtuous sacrifice, they are inevitably going to win. This occurs. However, the palgasari now becomes a tyranny of its own; it continually wants sacrifice and, without defending the people who feed it, becomes a leech no different from the original government - albeit far more powerful. The daughter must then sacrifice herself to the pulgasari, the light's receptacle must fold in on the flame, and in turn, she receives her father's soul back without being able to use it. The daughter is now only an idol and an ideal, an object embodying positive male and female archetypes that those she left behind must attempt to live up to.
This archetypal story bears much truth: it maps out the proclivity of sacrifice to turn in on itself. Depending on how we frame this story, this tale becomes an allegory of a very specific nature. From the North Korean government's perspective, the pulgasari likely represents Western tyranny: capitalism of some form. We know this as it is defined by consumption much like the government that must be overthrown. The allegory this may form when framed as such concerns revolution, concerns the need for capitalistic surplus and growth (accumulated resources) to overcome a tyrannous bourgeois, but then sacrifice after the ruling class are defeated so that the remaining people may return to a more equal state of being where there is no great, powerful being. This is rather nonsensical when framed against actual history. As was seen in many revolutionary nations who transformed their governmental systems with socialism and communism in the 20th century, revolution so often leaves a vacuum for a new oppressive power to rise. This is what occurred in North Korea after Kim Il-sung, a communist backed by China, took power and enforced socialist ideals. It is then so much easier to see pulgasari's archetypal narrative backfire on itself. Instead of dramatising the evils of a capitalist system, this seems to outline exactly what is wrong with communist systems, all of which essentially turned into tyrannous dictatorships.
In these systems sacrifice used to overcome an already tyrannous ruling system fuels often necessary revolution. However, after the revolution, those who secure new power require further sacrifice until a people are betrayed and sapped of life. The only hope at this point is to find and commit to sacrifice that will balance order. This is the story of pulgasari, and it is more than telling that the North Korean government intuitively understood its archetypal underpinnings, but, blinded by their own ideology, could not see it as a narrative about, partly, themselves.
The truth in pulgasari's story is universal; it speaks about all systems of rule. All systems - whether they be capitalist, socialist, communist, fascist, etc. - require sacrifice. Because of this, there always lies within any system the potential for exploitation, for its values to turn in on itself and begin destroying what is within. The real meaning of pulgasari is that the feminine domain and the masculine light remaining in balance; if everyone within a given system does not ensure that the flame has good fuel and the lamp is well cared for, then the light will be extinguished, people left wandering in the dark, or the flame will leap out of its confines and destroy all.
With that, we shall conclude with a link to see the film:
Previous post:
Black Swan - Suffering Innocence
Next post:
Giuseppe Arcimboldo - Art In Association
More from me:
amazon.com/author/danielslack
Pulgasari is an epic war/monster movie and one of the most famous North Korean films. Not too much is known about the North Korean film industry because most of the films produced by the nation are not exported. Reports from within come from mouths of the North Korean regime, meaning they are absurdly self-aggrandising - propaganda that masks a tyrannical system. The industry is thought to have heavy links to the government and so many of the films are supposed to embody a Juche mode of thinking, Juche being the official state ideology developed by Kin Ill-sung (the first Korean Supreme Leader), an ideology based upon self-reliance and collective interior strength that only seems to trap the country in isolation and tyranny. Very few films make it out of the country, but there are a selection available to international audiences and even some co-productions between North and South Korea (South Korea and its film industry being a world apart from North Korea and its).
It is worthwhile to emphasise the place of cinema in North Korean via Kim Jong-il (second Supreme Leader), who was apparently a great fan of movies, a great filmmaker and a great theorist. Not only was Kim Jong-il an admirer of Japanese films such as Godzilla, but he produced some films and wrote a book on film theory that is immersed in the North Korean ideology. From this we can infer the place in North Korean culture that film has had carved out for it. Alas, it is most important to note that Kim Jong-il is said to have produced Pulgasari himself.
Pulgasari is somewhat infamous as it was directed by Shin Sang-ok. Shin Sang-ok is one of the foremost director's from South Korea's cinematic Golden Age - the 50s and 60s. A prolific filmmaker, he worked continuously through the 50s and 60s, but, due to changes in South Korea which saw its government take greater hold of the nation with authoritarian politics in the 70s, his production slowed down. The new government's regime controlled and closely censored the film industry in the 70s and early 80s, essentially squandering its development. Shin Sang-ok, whose films were not doing very well, lost his studio in the late-70s having fallen out of favour with the South Korean government. Shortly thereafter he was kidnapped (after his wife - who was a very popular actress) when in Hong Kong and held captive in North Korea. The couple were separated and 're-educated' in North Korea before eventually being taken before Kim Ill-sung, who revealed that they had been kidnapped so that they could make films to bolster the North Korean industry as presided over by the government and its ideology.
Pulgasari is the eighth and last film that Shin Sang-ok made before escaping with his wife to America, where they received asylum. This is important to note as, though Pulgasari was made to appear to be in support of the government and its ideology, it seems to be project a rather precise, defamatory allegory about the North Korean regime. However, we shall come to discuss this later.
The quality of Pulgasari is not very impressive, however, its scale and story are. The worst element of the film is its acting and dialogue, which is extremely repetitive and inane. The huge, rather constant, war set-pieces are not helmmed technically well, but the camera's ability to capture scale and movement on a battlefield is not bad - though, at many times it seems as if the camera person is inches away from being burned to death or brutalised by falling wood and rocks. The worth of this film lies in its story, which is based upon the Chinese/Korean legend of the Bulgasari, an iron-eating monster that destroys an oppressive system and protects its people before eventually turning on them.
Pulgasari, at its heart, captures this very sentiment. It is set under an oppressive government that are stealing from the people, who are beginning to rebel by forming an army in the mountains. A blacksmith with sons and a daughter is imprisoned by the government after he is entrusted to build the government weapons with the local farmers' tools, but allows the farmers to take their property back. He is kept in a cell and not fed. On the brink of death, his son and daughter manage to give him some rice, but, instead of eating this, he moulds it finto a small figurine and asks the gods to turn it into a monster to defend the farming people. The rice totem, the pulgasari, comes to life when the daughter of the now deceased blacksmith bleeds on it. The creature grows as it eats iron fed to it by the daughter and son. Meanwhile rebels and government forces collide until the rebels are held up in the mountains, surrounded. The pulgasari, having grown with all that it has eaten, starts to defend them. There then ensues a back and forward between government forces who try to kill the pulgasari, kidnap the daughter, trap the monster, and the farmers who, supported by the monster, press forward and eventually capture the king and destroy his armies. Having won the war, the farmers have to continue to feed all their metal to the pulgasari. It grows larger, a threat to the existence of the people. The daughter decides to ring a large bell to call the monster and then crawl inside. The monster eats the iron bell, but, in doing so, consumes the daughter - who is his only weakness. Having killed the daughter, the pulgasari himself is smited. The soul of the blacksmith enters the dead body of the daughter and the now shrunk pulgasari flees.
This story has a very strong symbolic subtext. The blacksmith represents wisdom in being an archetypal father. The wisdom he holds is of sacrifice as it is he who refuses to make the oppressive government weapons, refuses to take from the farmers and contribute to evil; he knows that sacrificing himself is a virtue that preserves truth and strengthens the downtrodden. His sacrifice is entombed in the pulgasari, who becomes symbolic of the father's honourable death. However, this sacrifice may only come into effect when the life in the blacksmith's daughter (blood) comes into contact with it. The daughter is the archetypal feminine force in this narrative who essentially carries truth forward and guides others to do so also, a receptacle of a great, old flame of blistering light. The pulgasari is a child born of the guiding masculine and encompassing feminine, and so he also requires sacrifice - which is why he eats iron. However, in return, he defends the people. This covers the majority of the tale we are given: tyranny, the negative male and female archetypes, the government, the army and their priestesses, who are defined by selfish consumption, attempt to quash the forces of good. However, because the farmers are propelled forward by the pulgasari, who is virtuous sacrifice, they are inevitably going to win. This occurs. However, the palgasari now becomes a tyranny of its own; it continually wants sacrifice and, without defending the people who feed it, becomes a leech no different from the original government - albeit far more powerful. The daughter must then sacrifice herself to the pulgasari, the light's receptacle must fold in on the flame, and in turn, she receives her father's soul back without being able to use it. The daughter is now only an idol and an ideal, an object embodying positive male and female archetypes that those she left behind must attempt to live up to.
This archetypal story bears much truth: it maps out the proclivity of sacrifice to turn in on itself. Depending on how we frame this story, this tale becomes an allegory of a very specific nature. From the North Korean government's perspective, the pulgasari likely represents Western tyranny: capitalism of some form. We know this as it is defined by consumption much like the government that must be overthrown. The allegory this may form when framed as such concerns revolution, concerns the need for capitalistic surplus and growth (accumulated resources) to overcome a tyrannous bourgeois, but then sacrifice after the ruling class are defeated so that the remaining people may return to a more equal state of being where there is no great, powerful being. This is rather nonsensical when framed against actual history. As was seen in many revolutionary nations who transformed their governmental systems with socialism and communism in the 20th century, revolution so often leaves a vacuum for a new oppressive power to rise. This is what occurred in North Korea after Kim Il-sung, a communist backed by China, took power and enforced socialist ideals. It is then so much easier to see pulgasari's archetypal narrative backfire on itself. Instead of dramatising the evils of a capitalist system, this seems to outline exactly what is wrong with communist systems, all of which essentially turned into tyrannous dictatorships.
In these systems sacrifice used to overcome an already tyrannous ruling system fuels often necessary revolution. However, after the revolution, those who secure new power require further sacrifice until a people are betrayed and sapped of life. The only hope at this point is to find and commit to sacrifice that will balance order. This is the story of pulgasari, and it is more than telling that the North Korean government intuitively understood its archetypal underpinnings, but, blinded by their own ideology, could not see it as a narrative about, partly, themselves.
The truth in pulgasari's story is universal; it speaks about all systems of rule. All systems - whether they be capitalist, socialist, communist, fascist, etc. - require sacrifice. Because of this, there always lies within any system the potential for exploitation, for its values to turn in on itself and begin destroying what is within. The real meaning of pulgasari is that the feminine domain and the masculine light remaining in balance; if everyone within a given system does not ensure that the flame has good fuel and the lamp is well cared for, then the light will be extinguished, people left wandering in the dark, or the flame will leap out of its confines and destroy all.
With that, we shall conclude with a link to see the film:
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Previous post:
Black Swan - Suffering Innocence
Next post:
Giuseppe Arcimboldo - Art In Association
More from me:
amazon.com/author/danielslack
