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For other uses, see Bulgasari (disambiguation).
Pulgasari
An artwork depicting a horned creature in front of an inferno
Japanese VHS flyer
Directed by
Written by
  • Kim Se-ryun
  • Ri Chun-gu
    (uncredited)
Produced byShin Sang-ok
(uncredited)
Starring
Cinematography
  • Cho Myeong-hyeon
  • Park Seung-ho
Edited byKim Ryon-sun
Music bySeo Jeong-geon
Production
companies
Distributed byTwin (1995)
Raging Thunder (1998)
Release dates
  • January 21, 1995 (1995-01-21) (VHS)
  • July 4, 1998 (1998-07-04) (Tokyo)
Running time
95 minutes
Countries
LanguageKorean
Budget$2–3 million

Pulgasari[a] is an epic[5][6] kaiju film Shin Sang-ok directed and produced in 1985 during his abduction in North Korea. A co-production between North Korea, Japan, and China, it is considered a remake of Bulgasari, a lost 1962 South Korean film that also depicts an eponymous creature from Korean folklore. The ensemble cast includes Chang Son-hui, Ham Ki-seop, Ri Jong-kook, Ri In-kwon, and Yoo Kyung-ae, with Kenpachiro Satsuma in the title role. Set during the Goryeo Dynasty, the film follows a blacksmith's daughter who brings to life a metal-eating monster her late father envisioned to defeat the monarchy.

Shin and his wife had remained in North Korea since 1978, when their kidnapping was initiated by Kim Jong Il, the country's heir apparent. Pulgasari was submitted in February 1985, and became Shin's last film made under Kim's orders. Principal photography took place in Pyongyang from June to August 1985, with the Korean People's Army contributing roughly 13,000 extras. A team of 15 Toho employees handled special effects photography from September to December. With an estimated ¥200–300 million ($2–3 million) budget, Pulgasari was one of the most expensive films ever produced in North Korea.

Pulgasari was previewed at Toho Studios in January 1986 and scheduled for a worldwide release later that year. However, the film was banned in March after Shin and Choi escaped North Korean supervision and fled to the United States, where Shin later worked on a remake. Pulgasari eventually debuted on VHS in Japan on January 21, 1995, and had its official premiere in Tokyo on July 4, 1998, to commercial success. According to Cine21, it became the highest-grossing North Korean film of all time. Its Japanese critical reception was positive, with many favorable comparisons to Godzilla (1998). Pulgasari has since become the most-widely-seen North Korean film internationally and has gained a cult following.

Plot

[edit]

In feudal Korea, toward the end of the Goryeo Dynasty, a king strictly controls the land, subjecting the peasantry to misery and starvation. Takse, the finest blacksmith in the land, is imprisoned for defending his people. Shortly before his death, Takse makes a tiny rice figurine of a monster and asks the gods to make his creation into a living creature that protects the rebels and the oppressed. The blacksmith's daughter Ami soon receives the figurine, which springs to life upon contact with her blood after she accidentally wounds herself while sewing.[7] The figurine becomes a metal-eating monster Ami dubs Pulgasari, which is the name of the mythical monster her father used to mention as an eater of iron and steel. Pulgasari shares a special bond with Ami; after eating a farmer's tools, it turns into a powerful figure.

Fed up with being penurious and suffering, the peasants form an army, storm the palace of the region's Governor, and kill him. Soon after, the evil king becomes aware a rebellion is being planned in the country and he intends to crush it. The king runs into Pulgasari, who has now become gigantic and is fighting for the peasant army to overthrow the monarchy. The creature wins many battles against the king's army because of its unending hunger for all kinds of metal, which its enemies readily provide for hostilities. The king's army captures and executes In-dae, the rebellion's leader to whom Ami is betrothed, and threatens to kill Ami if she, the rebels, and Pulgasari do not surrender. Pulgasari lets itself become trapped to save Ami, and the royal army seemingly kills the creature by burying it under the ground. After escaping, Ami revives Pulgasari by pouring some of her blood on the burial site. Pulgasari again grows strong and attacks the king's palace, destroying it and killing the king.

After defeating the king, Pulgasari becomes problematic; it starts eating the rebels' weapons and farmers' tools, which are given to the creature without objection because the peasants still believe it is a benign savior. Ami realizes Pulgasari's hunger will never be sated and that the monster is inadvertently oppressing the people it fought for. Ami sacrifices herself by hiding inside a big bell that Pulgasari finds and quickly eats. The monster yells in anguish as Ami's presence in its body causes it to turn to stone and crumble into pieces, killing both of them but saving the people.

Cast

[edit]
  • Chang Son-hui as Ami, the blacksmith's daughter[7][8]
  • Ham Ki-seop as In-dae, Ami's boyfriend[8]
  • Ri Jong-kook as Ana[8]
  • Ri In-kwon as Takse, the blacksmith[7][8]
  • Park Yong-hok as the King[8][9]
  • Ri Riyonun as General Hwang, the King's disciplinary[8]
  • Park Pong-ilk as the Governor[9]
  • Yoo Kyung-ae as In-dae's mother[9]
  • Ro Hye-chol as In-dae's brother[9]
  • Tae Sang-hun as a member of the Rebel Forces[9]
  • Kim Gi-chon as a member of the Rebel Forces[9]
  • Ri In-chol as a member of the Rebel Forces[9]
  • Kenpachiro Satsuma as Pulgasari (uncredited)[i]
  • Masao Fukazawa [ja] as the baby Pulgasari (uncredited)[15]

Production

[edit]

Crew

[edit]

Development

[edit]
Further information: Abduction of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee
A photo of Shin Sang-ok
A photograph of Kim Jong Il
Shin Sang-ok (pictured in 1966) and Kim Jong Il (2000)

Kim Jong Il, the heir apparent of North Korea, was an admirer of cinema and of South Korean filmmaker Shin Sang-ok, who rose to fame during the 1960s.[25] A collection of around 15,000[25][26] to 20,000[7][27] titles was reported to be in Kim's possession. New releases from around the globe were typically added to his collection shortly after opening in theaters.[7] In 1978, Kim arranged the kidnapping of Shin and his wife, famed actress Choi Eun-hee, intending for them to make propaganda films to gain North Korean cinema international recognition.[28][29] Following incarceration for repeated attempts to flee North Korea, Shin was released from jail in 1983 but forced to work in the film industry there until he and Choi escaped in 1986.[29][30] Pulgasari became Shin's seventh collaboration with Kim,[26][28][31] his fifth of 1985 (following Love, Love, My Love, Salt, The Tale of Shim Chong, and Breakwater),[29][31] and his last North Korean production.[ii][c]

The script of Pulgasari was co-written by Kim Se-ryun and Ri Chun-gu, who were regarded as the greatest screenwriters in North Korea at the time.[36][37] Shin stated that the film's story is based around Pulgasari or Bulgasari, a legendary creature from Korean folklore.[31] Furthermore, according to retrospective sources, Pulgasari is a remake of Kim Myeong-je's 1962 South Korean film Bulgasari.[iii] The 1962 film, which is now considered lost, was the first-ever Korean kaiju film, predating Yongary, Monster from the Deep and Space Monster Wangmagwi by five years.[18][41]

Pulgasari would become a collaboration between Korean Art Film Studio[9] and Shin Films[7] of North Korea, Toho Eizo of Japan,[7] and Beijing Film Studio [zh] of China.[2] Special-effects art director Yoshio Suzuki flew to North Korea on April 20, 1985, to attend the first meeting between the film's Japanese and North Korean crews, with the help of an interpreter. The meeting was held at a studio near the Taedong River that produced films about Kim Il Sung and his family. The studio had been set up as a temporary office for Shin's production team while a larger studio was under construction for the film. The Japanese crew developed the Pulgasari suit at Toho from April 28 to late May. Nobuyuki Yasumaru was in charge of modeling it.[42][43]

Conception and pre-production

[edit]

The suit actor Kenpachiro Satsuma stated Pulgasari was pitched in mid-February 1985, and location scouting started in Pyongyang and Beijing that April.[42] The planning of Pulgasari was accredited to Shin,[22] but according to author Paul Fischer, Shin showed no apparent interest in the Japanese kaiju genre and never said who originally conceived the project.[44] Kim is said to have been a fan of Toho's Godzilla franchise and saw its 1984 reboot The Return of Godzilla because it was the first in the series to receive a Korean-dubbed release.[44] He reportedly loved the reboot so much he sought employees from Toho's Tokusatsu (Japanese special effects) department to work on North Korea's own monster movie.[15][26][44]

Shin told Suzuki of his plans to set the film in China during the Three Kingdoms period if the historical research and costumes made it match. He also said he would start filming on August 15, 1985, and, if this concept was successful, he would "ask the Chinese side to adjust it accordingly".[45] Pulgasari was ultimately set in Goryeo but the king's palace was based on the Forbidden City complex in Beijing and the special effects crew referred to it as the Hall of Supreme Harmony during production.[46]

Twenty-one-year-old Chang Son-hui, who previously starred in Love, Love, My Love,[47] played the lead in Pulgasari.[7] Chang was a trainee flight attendant who met Shin at Pyongyang International Airport, and was immediately asked to become a full-time employee at Shin Films.[29][47] Through his Japanese office, Shin invited 15 of Toho's special-effects-sector staff, including Satsuma and Nakano, to work on the film.[48][49] Kim had reportedly praised Satsuma's portrayal of Godzilla in The Return of Godzilla and demanded he play Pulgasari.[15] Satsuma accepted an invitation to work on the film in April 1985, having been deceived into believing it would be a Hollywood production.[34][42]

Filming and post-production

[edit]

Principal photography for Pulgasari took place in Pyongyang from June to August 1985 while special-effects photography was done from September to December.[7][42] Satsuma later said the film had a budget of ¥200–300 million (equivalent to $2–3 million), making it one of the largest and most-expensive North Korean productions to date.[50] Some sources described its production budget as "unlimited",[21][51][52] that it was supported by the Korean People's Army,[51] and featured 13,000 extras.[53] In regards to the extras and military, Satsuma commented:

I think, you can get any North Korean people to appear in a film for free. Shin Sang-ok told me that you can have as many people as you want for the extra scenes. The military would go and fetch the people and they would come. So, it wasn't a matter of money at all in that sense.[50]

According to Shin, Kim was "very supportive" of Pulgasari's production despite never being present during filming.[21][d] For Shin to create the film, Kim ordered the construction of Munsu Studio, an immense complex described by Satsuma as a "state of the art film studio", which covered approximately 20,000 pyeong (66,000 square meters (710,000 sq ft)). The facility had four studios—the largest two each covered 400 pyeong while the other two were 200 pyeong—six screening rooms, six recording studios, around 300 waiting rooms, and other spaces to store art equipment.[56] Munsu Studio was still in development when it was used for special effects photography.[7][56]

A photo of the entrance to Beijing Film Studio in China
The Beijing Film Studio [zh] in China (pictured in 2022) where the scene of Pulgasari destroying the king's palace was filmed.

In mid-September 1985, before departing Japan, the Japanese crew filmed the Pulgasari suit wandering around a miniature village in Studio 9 at Toho Studios, but this footage was omitted from the film's final cut.[42] Satsuma and an assistant director flew from Tokyo to Beijing via Shanghai on China Airlines Flight 930 on September 11, 1985. On September 14, they began working at Beijing Film Studio to prepare the miniature palace and set for the film's climax, which the Chinese crew had already been creating.[57] Conflict between the two crews soon arose; the Chinese believed the Japanese team "just walked in and started damaging the [Hall of Supreme Harmony] set that we put our heart and soul into building for three months".[46] Satsuma said about the destruction of the palace in the Pulgasari suit for the film, he was "impressed that the Chinese government could allow such an ambitious filming, even if it was just a movie".[2]

According to Satsuma, when they arrived in North Korea their passports were confiscated "for our own safety".[34] He and the other Japanese, while shooting the film, were kept for one-and-a-half months as guests at Kim's villa, where each of them had a large, well-ventilated room with a bed, a television, a bookshelf, and a radio.[58] One of the Japanese employees said their rooms were bugged; this was allegedly evident when one of them, while alone in his room, was talking to himself about how he missed drinking Japanese beer, only to discover the next day it had been added to his refrigerator.[15] Kim often visited the villa but refused to meet the Japanese guests and avoided them.[56]

The effects crew was working at Shin's studio around October 1985; Satsuma said it "felt like mid-winter" because the windows in the building had no glass.[58] They also filmed some scenes on a hill behind the Korean Art Film Studio rather than inside that facility.[59] Satsuma named a scene in which Pulgasari rises over a hill while the rebels and king's army fight below the "Marusan", which he said is the name of the mound at which they filmed the scene.[60]

According to Fischer, Satsuma only spoke to Shin once during production, and asked him whether he would ever return to South Korea, to which Shin replied: "It would be too complicated, politically, to go back".[61] During an interview with author Johannes Schönherr, Satsuma said Shin was present on set a few times and was "extremely busy and ... often absent".[50] According to Satsuma and some South Korean reports, Chong Gon-jo substituted for Shin towards the end of filming.[iv][b]

Post-production partly took place in Japan[7] and concluded in December 1985.[22][42] Kim Ryon-sun edited the film and Seo Jeong-geon composed the score.[9] Kim Jong Il was purportedly reluctant to publicize Shin was the director.[62] Accordingly, Chong received sole directorial credit.[v]

Release

[edit]

Distribution

[edit]
A poster featuring a monster and three Goryeo-period imperial generals. Credits are printed in English on the left; Shin Sang Ok is credited for "planning" and Chong Gon-jo is credited as the director, and Chang Son-hui and Ham Ki-seop are mentioned as cast members. The film's title is printed in English as "Pulgasary" in the top right corner.
An English-language poster published in the 1994 edition of Kenpachiro Satsuma's book Godzilla's View of North Korea.

Satsuma noted that Pulgasari was lauded upon its first screening at Toho Studios in January 1986.[42] On February 16, Shin, under the supervision of North Korean bodyguards, flew to Berlin to offer the film to several Western film distributors at the 36th Berlin International Film Festival.[64] The film's 1995 Japanese flyer stated an unidentified major enterprise had acquired Pulgasari for worldwide distribution.[7] The Japanese website Tocana said it was prepared for release in celebration of Kim Il Sung's birthday.[27] The film, however, was banned both in North Korea and overseas in the wake of Shin's and Choi's escape in Vienna on March 12.[vi] Contrarily, Fischer contended that the film was released in North Korea a few weeks after Shin's escape and achieved financial success.[66] Satsuma said of his knowledge of the initial cancellation of the film's release:

It was soon decided that the film would be released in Japan. However, in a sudden turn of events, the joyous mood took a turn, and our Pulgasari was caught up in a political vortex and disappeared from the public eye. And as we all know, 13 years later, the movie, which was thought to have been shelved, miraculously saw the light of day.[42]

Japan

[edit]

On January 21, 1995, Twin released Pulgasari on VHS in Japan;[10][67] according to its flyer, this release was the film's first public distribution in any format.[7] According to Associated Press, Twin's president Yoshimitsu Yoshitsuru claimed to have acquired permission from Shin for the release.[10] Kinema Junpo and Tocana later said this release was piracy.[8][52] In 1996, critic Takashi Monma [ja] reported several Japanese film festivals had attempted to screen Pulgasari but were all turned down.[68] The film's official debut[8] took place in Tokyo at the Kineca Ōmori theater on July 4, 1998; it remained playing there until September due to high demand,[69] and was released in several other Japanese cinemas and on home video later that year.[22][52][69]

South Korea

[edit]

In November 1998, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) announced it would broadcast Pulgasari on its television channel in 1999.[70] Shin later accused MBC of copyright infringement, filed a lawsuit against it, and petitioned for a ban on broadcasting Pulgasari and Love, Love, My Love in South Korea.[vii] The following year, Judge Shin Jeong-chi [ko] of Seoul High Court dismissed Shin's request to ban the film in two trails, and concluded that although Shin held the moral rights to the films, the North Korean production company owned the broadcasting rights.[71][73]

Park Jie-won of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said in May 2000 that Pulgasari had been approved for release in South Korea due to a cultural exchange agreement for the June 15th North–South Joint Declaration.[71] On July 22 that same year,[74][75] Pulgasari became the first North Korean film to be distributed in South Korean theaters.[viii] The same month, Sisa Journal reported its release was attracting controversy on whether films from North Korea should be handled as foreign or domestic distributions, and was under consideration to acquire screen quotas.[74]

Pulgasari was screened at the 22nd Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in July 2018.[17] On June 5 of the following year, it opened the seventh Muju Film Festival.[18]

Other territories

[edit]

In 2001, A.D. Vision distributed Pulgasari on VHS in the United States through its subsidiary Rubbersuit Productions.[26][76][78] It later received several screenings in the US, the United Kingdom, and Canada.[26] In 2006, the film had its New York premiere as part of Columbia University's year-long "Godzilla festival".[21] It was also shown in Paris at Jeu de Paume museum on April 11, 2015.[79]

Box office

[edit]

The film achieved several Japanese box-office records,[69][80] attracting around 18,000 attendees during its theatrical run at Kineca Ōmori.[53][74] In 2018, Joo Seong-cheol of Cine21 stated Pulgasari outperformed TriStar's Godzilla (1998) in Japan and held the record for the highest-grossing North Korean film of all time.[75]

In South Korea, Pulgasari opened in 50 theaters,[74] and was a box-office bomb, drawing under 1,000 theatergoers.[22][30][81] Due to its low number of initial attendees, many theaters decided to remove the film within the first week of its release.[76] Johannes Schönherr said contemporaneous publications cited many reasons for its failure in South Korea, including the unpopularity of Japanese kaiju films released there and the lack of interest from adolescents in low-budget special effects.[76]

Reception

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Critical response

[edit]

Japanese critics widely praised Pulgasari.[71][82] Jun Edoki [ja], one of the film's main advocates, referred to it as "one of the greatest monster movie masterpieces in history, something that neither Hollywood nor Japan can ever replicate".[69] According to the Choson Sinbo, Japanese reviewers positively compared Pulgasari to Godzilla (1998) at the time, saying Pulgasari is not "sophisticated" like Godzilla (1998) and "reminds the viewers of Japanese monster movies of their good old days".[11] According to Kinema Junpo, Pulgasari is more reminiscent of the Daimajin trilogy than the Godzilla series.[83] Lee Dong-jin of the South Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo compared Pulgasari's technical prowess to Godzilla (1998); he wrote Pulgasari "feels a bit old, but is a fun work that cutely mixes drama and spectacle".[53] South Korean reviewers also criticized the acting.[81]

Reviewing the film's initial American video release, Film Threat noted its political background and said it should have been parodied in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.[84]

Participants' response

[edit]

Satsuma later said he adored Pulgasari and that he fondly remembered performing in it,[11][69][80] deeming it to be the "most memorable work in [his] long acting career".[85] In October 1988, Bungeishunjū published a book written by Satsuma titled Godzilla's View of North Korea, which details his experiences of working on the film.[86][87] He told Choson Sinbo in 1998 his favorite scene in the film was the one in which the titular monster is caged and set ablaze, and that he wanted to return to North Korea to work on a sequel.[69] The Daily Telegraph also said Satsuma considered the film to be better than Godzilla (1998).[88]

In 2005, Shin told The New Yorker he believed the film's special effects were outdated.[21] According to Fischer, Kim Jong Il considered Pulgasari to be a masterpiece.[89]

Interpretations

[edit]

According to The Guardian in 2003, there has been some speculation Shin included a hidden message in Pulgasari.[30] The film's titular monster is often interpreted as a metaphor for Kim Il Sung betraying a revolution for his own purposes and as a plea to the North Korean people to rise against the Kim regime. Some believe this is represented by Pulgasari demanding his subjects feed him more iron, even after the monarchy has been defeated, leading to the workers rebelling against and defeating their savior.[30] Shin rejected interpretations the film may have conveyed a message about North Korea's contemporaneous class conflict.[22][88] In 2005, he said Pulgasari is rather a plea for pacifism because "there are limits to what weapons can do".[21] A 2019 article quoted Shin saying: "It was a pure monster film, I didn't put any ideology in it".[88]

Remake

[edit]
Main article: Galgameth

In 1995,[90] under the alias Simon Sheen, Shin worked on an American remake of Pulgasari.[21][31][91] Galgameth (1996), which was directed by Sean McNamara and written by Michael Angeli,[91] tells the story of a young prince who is aided by a warm-hearted monster, reclaiming his deceased father's medieval kingdom. Shin said Galgameth, along with The Gardener (1998), "caused [him] a big financial loss".[31]

Legacy

[edit]

Pulgasari is now considered a cult classic. Modern sources have stated it has become the most-widely-seen North Korean movie worldwide and Shin's best-known work, partly due to its involvement in his abduction by North Korea.[ix] According to Fischer, the film "defined [Shin's] career and changed his life".[96]

In the years following its US premiere in 2001, Western critics and kaiju fans have frequently mocked the film, according to Schönherr.[76] In 2015, Fischer described it as Shin's worst film.[96] A 2016 review on Screen Anarchy called it propaganda, and solely praised Shin's efforts and the monster's depiction.[97] Simon Fowler of The Guardian ranked it the third-best North Korean film ever made but noted: "it's [easy] to get lost in the ridiculousness of it all".[6] Jonathan Ross said Pulgasari was among the few North Korean films he had seen, and described it as an "enjoyably campy kaiju flick".[98] In March 2024, Collider ranked the film tenth on its "10 Best So-Bad-They're-Good Monster Movies" list,[55] and Vulture called it "quite bad as a film";[35] both websites said its behind-the-scenes story is more fascinating than the film itself.[35][55]

References

[edit]

Footnotes

[edit]
  1. ^ Attributed to multiple references:[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]
  2. ^ Attributed to multiple references:[32][33][34][35]
  3. ^ Attributed to multiple references:[14][17][18][38][39][40]
  4. ^ Attributed to multiple references:[17][18][19][23]
  5. ^ Attributed to multiple references:[16][21][23][63]
  6. ^ Attributed to multiple references:[7][26][31][37][52][65]
  7. ^ Attributed to multiple references:[12][71][72][73]
  8. ^ Attributed to multiple references:[74][75][76][77]
  9. ^ Attributed to multiple references:[25][89][92][93][94][95]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Korean: 불가사리; RR: Bulgasali; MR: Pulgasari. The film was released in Japan as Giant Monster Pulgasari (Japanese: 大怪獣プルガサリ, Hepburn: Daikaijū Purugasari) and Pulgasari: The Legendary Giant Monster (Japanese: プルガサリ 伝説の大怪獣, Hepburn: Purugasari: Densetsu no Daikaijū) in 1995 and 1998, respectively.[3][4]
  2. ^ a b c Many publications have claimed that Chong Gon-jo was the assistant director and finished the film on behalf of Shin.[14][16][17][18][19] However, some contended that Chong's name was merely used to replace Shin's in the credits.[20][21] Shin maintained to have directed the film himself.[22] Satsuma reinforced this by articulating that Shin was the de facto director and Chong was his assistant.[23] Nonetheless, he counted: "I think in the latter half of the shooting, he gave Chong Gon-jo some [free] rein to finish the film."[23]
  3. ^ Pulgasari was not, however, their final collaboration overall. In the time leading up to his escape, Shin was preparing a film inspired by The Conqueror (1956) for Kim.[30]
  4. ^ In a 1994 interview, Satsuma asserted that Kim produced the film himself.[10] Some modern sources cite Kim as an executive producer.[26][54][55]

Citations

[edit]
  1. ^ Kinema Junpo 2003, p. 145.
  2. ^ a b c Satsuma 2007, Part 2: "The Night Before Departure".
  3. ^ Eiga Chirashi 2023a.
  4. ^ Eiga Chirashi 2023b.
  5. ^ Becker 2005, p. 138.
  6. ^ a b Fowler 2014.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 1995 Japanese flyer for Pulgasari, p. 2.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Kinema Junpo 2024.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l KMDb.
  10. ^ a b c d Associated Press 1994, p. 3.
  11. ^ a b c Choson Sinbo 1998b.
  12. ^ a b Jin 1999.
  13. ^ Edwards 2007, p. 169.
  14. ^ a b c d Mo 2018.
  15. ^ a b c d Izumi 2013.
  16. ^ a b Schönherr 2012, p. 84.
  17. ^ a b c d Shim 2018.
  18. ^ a b c d e Lee 2019.
  19. ^ a b Newsis 2019.
  20. ^ a b Yamada 1995, p. 152.
  21. ^ a b c d e f g h Shapiro 2005.
  22. ^ a b c d e f NK chosun 2000a.
  23. ^ a b c d Edwards 2007, p. 213.
  24. ^ Monma 1996, p. 207.
  25. ^ a b c Jackson-Han 2006.
  26. ^ a b c d e f g Romano 2015.
  27. ^ a b TOCANA 2017, p. 1.
  28. ^ a b Peralta 2011.
  29. ^ a b c d Kim 2020.
  30. ^ a b c d e Gorenfeld 2003.
  31. ^ a b c d e f Cho.
  32. ^ Choe 2006.
  33. ^ Taylor 2012, p. 162.
  34. ^ a b c Fischer 2015a, p. 285.
  35. ^ a b c Grebey 2024.
  36. ^ Choi 2002.
  37. ^ a b Kim 2000.
  38. ^ Moon 2003.
  39. ^ Lind 2014.
  40. ^ Ozaki 2018.
  41. ^ Wiggins 2022.
  42. ^ a b c d e f g h Satsuma 2007, Part 1: "Pulgasari is Hollywood...!?".
  43. ^ Asahigraph 1988, p. 20.
  44. ^ a b c Fischer 2015a, p. 283.
  45. ^ Satsuma 2007, Part 10: "Director Shin Sang-ok talks about North Korea's special effects situation".
  46. ^ a b Satsuma 2007, Part 8: "The Great Collapse".
  47. ^ a b NK chosun 2000b.
  48. ^ Korean Film Archive.
  49. ^ Edwards 2007, p. 211.
  50. ^ a b c Edwards 2007, p. 215.
  51. ^ a b Atsumi 2016.
  52. ^ a b c d TOCANA 2017, p. 2.
  53. ^ a b c Lee 2000.
  54. ^ WBUR 2012.
  55. ^ a b c Urquhart 2024.
  56. ^ a b c Satsuma 2007, Part 11: "Finally heading to North Korea".
  57. ^ Satsuma 2007, Part 7: "Beijing Film Studio".
  58. ^ a b Daily Shincho 2023, p. 2.
  59. ^ Edwards 2007, p. 212.
  60. ^ Edwards 2007, p. 214.
  61. ^ Fischer 2015a, p. 286.
  62. ^ Cheung 2014.
  63. ^ Kinema Junpo 1999, p. 192.
  64. ^ Fischer 2015a, p. 294.
  65. ^ Natalie 2024.
  66. ^ Fischer 2015a, pp. 303–304.
  67. ^ 1995 Japanese flyer for Pulgasari, p. 1.
  68. ^ Monma 1996, p. 203.
  69. ^ a b c d e f Choson Sinbo 1998a.
  70. ^ Choi 1998.
  71. ^ a b c d Choi 2000.
  72. ^ MK 1998.
  73. ^ a b Yonhap News 1999.
  74. ^ a b c d e Noh 2000.
  75. ^ a b c Joo 2018.
  76. ^ a b c d e Schönherr 2012, p. 148.
  77. ^ BBC 2018.
  78. ^ Edwards 2007, p. 197.
  79. ^ Jeu de Paume 2015.
  80. ^ a b Nikkan Gendai 2014, p. 3.
  81. ^ a b The Korea Herald 2003, p. 44.
  82. ^ Edwards 2007, p. 220.
  83. ^ Kinema Junpo 1998, p. 179.
  84. ^ Przywara 2002.
  85. ^ Satsuma 2007.
  86. ^ Asahigraph 1988, p. 19.
  87. ^ Daily Shincho 2023, p. 3.
  88. ^ a b c Power 2019.
  89. ^ a b Fischer 2015b.
  90. ^ Variety 1995.
  91. ^ a b Edwards 2007, pp. 169–170.
  92. ^ Schönherr 2012, pp. 82, 84.
  93. ^ Fischer 2015a, p. 282.
  94. ^ Gourevitch 2003.
  95. ^ Edwards 2007, p. 168.
  96. ^ a b Fischer 2015a, p. 287.
  97. ^ Regehr 2016.
  98. ^ Ross 2021.

Works cited

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