Product Details

• Actors: Chang Son Hui, Ham Gi Sop, Jong-uk Ri, Gwon Ri, Gyong-ae Yu
• Directors: Chong Gon Jo, Sang-ok Shin
• Writers: Se Ryun Kim
• Producers: Jong-il Kim
• Format: Color, Letterboxed, NTSC
• Subtitles: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Section 23
• VHS Release Date: February 20, 2001
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000055XTA
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #148,269 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Godzilla, North Korean style, September 27, 2003

By 

"industrialcommie" (London, ON, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pulgasari [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Okay, the existing comment completely misses the point of the movie. The film was made in NORTH KOREA under the direct supervision of Kim Jong Il, with part of the production team having been kidnapped at gunpoint from the South and forced to work on pain of death. Pulgasari, the iron-eating rubber-suit monster, is capitalism, who seems at first to side with the workers against the aristocracy but ultimately grows bigger and bigger and more exploitative, demanding more surplus value out of the proletariat... er, scrap iron out of the peasantry. And of course the dialectical class struggle turns to class warfare, and guess who wins. Actually a fairly good synopsis of the class struggle if you ask me.

OF COURSE it's an awful movie. It's even awful if you like the camp Godzilla-style blockbusters. Who cares? Any cheesy monster movie made by Kim Jong Il as North Korean propaganda is worth watching.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pulgasari -- a monster of capitalism, March 24, 2006

By 

David W. Ewing (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pulgasari [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This interesting film puts the lie to the claim that North Korean films are silly propaganda. This is GREAT propaganda. A dying peasant breathes life into a tiny Godzilla image he fashions from his prison rice ration. Pulgasari is born to feed on metal objects that spur his growth -- and his appetite -- to giant proportions. Pulgasari represents the coming of industrial capitalism to backward, peasant Korea. At first, his impact is to free the peasants and artisans from the control of the feudal lords. Like a reptillian Robespierre, he leads the peasant masses in victorious battle against the aristocracy. But his appetite spins out of control and he demands more steel and iron than the peasants can hope to secure for him. The crisis is resolved when a hero defeats Pulgasari. The people, now aroused and organized, are freed from his insatiable demands.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Reprehensible!, December 19, 2011

By 

dcs002 "DCS" (St Paul, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pulgasari [VHS] (VHS Tape)

An actress disappeared while in Hong Kong. Her husband, a South Korean director and producer, much admired by Kim Jong-Il (or Jong-Il Kim, as he's credited aboveas being the producer), visits Hong Kong to try and find her. He wakes up wrapped in plastic on a ship bound for North Korea. Five years later, he's allowed to leave prison and be with his wife only after agreeing to make this film for KIM JONG-IL!!! Even when the film is done, he's not released from custody. He and his wife escaped years later. This is profiting from an international kidnapping. How can that be right? SHAME on Amazon and its vendor-partners for making this available for profit! The only way it can be made right is for Amazon and its vendor-partners to donate all proceeds from sales of this (grossly overpriced) movie to an international human rights nonprofit organization.