Pulgasari (North Korea, 1985) – Episode 9

Cinemassacre’s Monster Madness is a yearly series of horror movie reviews produced by Cinemassacre Productions and airing around the month of October. This series is hosted by James Rolfe. This is episode 9 of Monster Madness “Around the World!”

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45 comments

  • Aiddon
    October 9, 2021 at 8:15 pm

    Vampire Hunter D!

  • Dr Plague Productions
    October 9, 2021 at 8:36 pm

    Damn, this episode was REALLY interesting

  • Joe
    October 9, 2021 at 8:37 pm

    Excellent! This is one of the greatest Monster Madnesses ever.

  • JohnPaulJ2
    October 9, 2021 at 8:38 pm

    Ngl that is a pretty badass monster.

  • Gene
    October 9, 2021 at 8:46 pm

    Great review james. Is there gonna be a Filipino Horror movie in Monster Madness?

  • Joe
    October 9, 2021 at 9:36 pm

    Well critiqued. I first tried to watch this movie thinking it would be laughable, but knowing it was actual evidence of many terrible crimes, it was just too sad to finish.

  • Xena
    October 9, 2021 at 10:46 pm

    Gotta love the Mecha Godzilla theme song in the background.
    That was very interesting though!

  • Deeny
    October 9, 2021 at 11:02 pm

    Hey James love from Argentina man. I know you probably got all these videos planned out for monster madness this year but it would be sick if you could cover a horror movie from Argentina it would mean a lot to me! (Just a suggestion/ request) I’m a huge fan dude! Been watching since I was in middle school. October has always been my favorite month and monster madness is one of the top reasons why. This show is literally how I discovered my love for horror! Much love man, we appreciate you!

  • Constantine Furman
    October 10, 2021 at 12:09 am

    The Toho effects crew were not tricked into making this movie. They were asked to do it much like Toei was for South Korea’s “Yongary, Monster of the Deep.” The effects director was Toho’s Teruyoshi Nakano and he agreed only if they had contracts stating they could leave North Korea when the movie was complete.

    The Pulgasari costume was created from one of the leftover 1984 Godzilla suits. Kenpachiro Satsuma later wrote a book about making “Pulgasari.” And in 1998, when he saw the Tri-Star “Godzilla,” Satsuma infamously remarked, “Even ‘Pulgasari’ was better.”

    Oh, and the baby Pulgasari was played by Little Man Machan, the same dwarf who played Minya in his three Showa films.

  • Xavrrulez216
    October 10, 2021 at 12:27 am

    Can you do a russian horror movie!

  • Wolfgang Schneider
    October 10, 2021 at 12:37 am

    I’ve heard this story a few times over the years but after studying more of North Korean cinema over the years I have to question the notion that they had to kidnap people because they “didn’t have a film industry”

    North Korea did have a film industry since the 60s although it was limited, most famously it produced a long running spy movie franchise where infamous American North Korea defector James Dresnok played the American villain. If you aren’t aware of Dresnok’s story it’s equally interesting. He defected over to North Korea during the war and is one of the only dozens of Americans to defect in the history of the conflict.

  • Enrique
    October 10, 2021 at 1:04 am

    I loved this review! It´s true, the backstory is very interesting…and sad.

  • Danny
    October 10, 2021 at 3:46 am

    cool looking monster. great episode James!

  • The Flail
    October 10, 2021 at 4:42 am

    As a Korean adoptee with a mother who was also adopted during the Korean War, I really appreciate you going into that history with enough detail, even with the short length of the video itself. Love seeing Monster Madness continue full force, always wonderful work!

  • FarBeyondDriven
    October 10, 2021 at 6:49 am

    I’m glad that you’ve went out of your way to expose the ludicrousness of N Korea. That place is a nightmare and truly is a real horror.

  • Yggdrasil
    October 10, 2021 at 7:23 am

    Speaking of North Korea and horror, I gotta tell this story:

    The Swedish horror movie Frostbite (pretty okay from what I recall) was actually the first straight-up horror movie to be shown in North Korea (at least according to director Anders Banke). The film had a lot of comedic elements that didn’t work, due to the pretty intense cultural barrier, instead, everyone was scared shitless, even strict party-officials in their fourties who went to see it.

    The one exception was a young kid who absolutely loved it and complimented the creators (who were also there for the screening). He sincerly asked them if working with vampires wasn’t difficult, as if the actors in the movie were actual vampires.

  • Citrakite
    October 10, 2021 at 7:41 am

    Best Korea’s totally original Kaiju movie. /s

  • Grafikdrummer
    October 10, 2021 at 7:49 am

    If you’re interested in the story behind the movie, I recommend the documentation “The Lovers and the Despot”!

  • Gilvan
    October 10, 2021 at 8:56 am

    That story about the kidnapping of the director and his wife has more holes than a swiss cheese. They probably were under contract with the North Korea government and changed the story to clean their names and for propaganda purposes.

  • Duke Dakka
    October 10, 2021 at 9:00 am

    A monster movie from Pakistan would be great as well. There are few really good movies on ghosts and the super natural, and the cringe Texas Chainsaw Massacre copy called Ziba Khana “Slaughterhouse”…. But it would be great to have some representation for South Asian movies, apart from Bollywood

  • Ron
    October 10, 2021 at 9:45 am

    Great review. I hope you can find the english version of a Filipino film “Anak ng Bulkan” (1959). It was better than the claw imo.

  • JayRam
    October 10, 2021 at 1:22 pm

    I’m fascinated by the backstory to this movie.

    But dear god, tell your editor to cool it with the Team America cutaways.

  • Godzilla
    October 10, 2021 at 2:35 pm

    The music from Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla is seriously the best from any kaiju movie.

  • Cinemassacre
    October 10, 2021 at 4:51 pm

    “In the Godzilla genre”

    You mean kaiju genre? Godzilla’s a franchise in a genre.

  • Baggzey23
    October 10, 2021 at 5:02 pm

    Another great review, I’ve been looking forward to this one with it having a shady backstory and being a kaiju movie

  • VicHD
    October 10, 2021 at 5:41 pm

    I don’t know what’s darker, the movie’s plot, or the stuff that happened behind the scenes.

  • Aggron
    October 10, 2021 at 10:14 pm

    Aggron isn’t weak to fire because it’s also a Rock type.

  • Christian
    October 11, 2021 at 2:47 am

    I hope you review i film from the Philippines. I suggest reviewing Eerie. Thanks for the content guys..

  • kamposter
    October 11, 2021 at 6:25 am

    laugh so hard on pulgaSORRY

  • Stiv64
    October 11, 2021 at 10:58 am

    Said Pokemon, Aggron, actually is not weak no fire attacks.

  • 🤍
    October 11, 2021 at 11:41 am

    🤍

  • cilimandra
    October 11, 2021 at 12:12 pm

    Ok, this movie was more disturbing because of the story behind it, wow North Korea is a messed up place

  • Josh L
    October 12, 2021 at 6:22 am

    This is my favorite MM review since the first season. Brilliant work.

  • Hayley
    October 13, 2021 at 6:09 am

    These videos are great but they take forever to load and I have a great computer. The playback stops repeatedly to load even on the lowest setting. Can you upload these to YouTube as unlisted?

  • Nedburns
    October 15, 2021 at 4:12 am

    Wow, he sure is saying Pulgasari a lot…
    “Pulgasorry?”
    Okay that was funny.

  • Raizqo
    October 15, 2021 at 7:00 am

    James ,

    Maybe make a covering of Dutch Horror movies ?
    Bumperkleer in particular is equal to Unhinged with Russel Crowe .

  • Raizqo
    October 15, 2021 at 7:03 am

    Bumperkleef in particular .
    My last post had a grammar mistake :/

    I always enjoy to see your vids

    And there is no cinema without a massacre

  • Artur L
    October 15, 2021 at 9:05 am

    Check out first Latvian found footage horror movie – The Land of Blue Lakes (2021)

  • Agent36496
    October 17, 2021 at 3:55 pm

    I think you’re right about the backstory being more interesting than the actual movie

  • Robert M
    October 17, 2021 at 5:47 pm

    The movie clip at 52 seconds was from what film?

  • Donny DePaola
    October 26, 2021 at 10:55 pm

    That pub at the end was classic

  • Donny DePaola
    October 26, 2021 at 10:55 pm

    pun*

  • Shane Juche Gang
    October 27, 2021 at 7:22 am

    Great movie, horrible review, sad to see that you guys take US mainstream narrative about DPRK at face value, considering US is still at war with Korea, after killing 3 million of them in the 50s including with viral and bacterial warfare. Not to mention the nukes and depleted uranium brought into the south. The whole story about DPRK needing to kidnap people from Japan (another country which tried to colonize Korea like the US does to this day), and other places for movie making is absolute nonsense, they came voluntarily, and when they couldn’t get any evidence of the nightmare that was supposed to exist in DPRK, and weren’t becoming as famous there as they thought they should, they make up b.s about being kidnapped but then leave. Also DPRK never stole anything from Toho they licensed it out and have done cultural exchange with Toho in the past. Btw cultural exchange such as that, and because of north south relations at the time, much of the Simpsons movie was animated in the north. Again great movie sad to see the review just swallow all this nonsense up wholesale even when it flies in the face of pretty simple logic and readily available evidence.

  • Leo S. Luna
    November 1, 2021 at 12:12 pm

    I wonder who owns the rights to this? It would be nice to have a Kaiju mashup. I mean I wouldn’t put North Korea as a total enemy, but you can’t argue about the kidnapping stuff. And yes, US has done a lot of uncool stuff to Korea more so they provide economic benefits without having to deal with Japan, in a strange way Japan has good relations with US. What a mess man, all I know is that movie truly benefit from all this, specially Kaiju genre.

  • erg arg
    October 11, 2023 at 10:15 am

    Good lord that ending was a groaner. In fact I’m still groaning as I type this.

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