Disposable!

Pulsagari (North Korean; 1985)
Director: Shin Sang-ok

Although we have hardly heard of North Korea (NK)'s indulgement in the celluloid industry, The Supreme Leaders of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kim Jong-Un and Kim Jong-Il before him, are movie buffs. The elder was so desperate to bring his country's movies to the international arena (and to make propaganda films) that Jong-Il kidnapped South Korea's famous film icons of the 60s, Shin Sang-ok and his ex-wife Choi Eun-hee for this purpose.

In 1979, Choi went missing in Hong Kong. Shin was the prime suspect in her disappearance. In trying to investigate her vanishing, he was kidnapped by Kim's men and whisked off to NK. Here, Shin found Choi safe and sound. After series of torture and rehabilitation exercise, Shin decided that the best way to escape was to play ball. Both Choi and Shin soon became a feature in NK high society. He was coaxed to make about 7 movies, of which Pulsagari is one. A year later, in Vienna, both of them sought asylum. Pulsagari is basically a rip-off of Godzilla. Even though the backstory behind this sci-fi sounds more interesting than the flick, the storyline does carry some sobering thoughts.
It tells of an evil emperor who tortures his subjects. The already resources-depleted mountain dwelling community is harassed for taxes. When money became scarce, the King's generals demand their metal utensils, hoe, rakes, pots, pans and knife to be smelt to be made weapons. The villagers resisted. The head was imprisoned and tortured. Before dying, the leader moulded a figurine of a fabled monster named Pulsagari and breathed life into it.

Pulsagari was discovered by the villagers, and soon they realised that the cute little monster was very much alive and thrived on iron. It was just handy as it fast gobbled up all the enemies' arsenal. Pulsagari was a saviour who saved the villagers from the tyranny of the iron-fisted rulers. It became bigger with more iron-feed. When the war was over, and the foes were defeated, the villagers had a bigger problem in their hand. Pulsagari's ferocious appetite could not keep up with the availability of iron in the village. Ironically, the saviour became the demander. The only way to reach sanity was to just kill off Pulsagari!

The hidden message here is that in life everybody has a shelf-life. No one is indispensable. They are sent to be Earth to perform a specific pre-ordained mission. What that is, is anybody's guess. After that is done, we have to just fade away into the sunset rather than to be a burden to the soil that supports us. Funny, Kim did not see the moral staring in the face of its viewers. I guess the joke must be on him.

Hear a podcast of the experience of the South Koreans on the other side of the 38th parallel... On 'This American Life'.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/556/same-bed-different-dreams/act-one


https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson

Waste of time...

Interview (2014)
Perhaps it was all just a stunt to catch everybody's fancy. The alleged hacking of a giant and threat of war and all. Anyway, what do you expect when a leader of a sovereign nation is ridiculed? Most Hollywood films would only make characters that resemble a leader of a small helpless nation, not point blank the very same name.
Sitting through the 1.5 hour of the movie which would make 'Austin Powers' seen as a classic, I realised that it not even worth the film it is printed on. The jokes are not funny with frequent use of explicit foul superlatives and adjective and 'in your face' sexual jokes which are not sexual innuendoes but descriptive pornographic gestures.
Over at the story department, it is nothing much. Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his producer Aaron Rapoport (Seth Rogen) are proud of their brainless TV show which features interview of worthless importance. Not surprisingly, it is a runaway hit in its ratings and is even liked by North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un - as they later found out on line. To spice up their show further, they decide to embark on a mission to interview the man himself!
As their plan reaches feverish pitch, the CIA moves in to arm twist them to be part of their plan to assassinate the North Korean dictator with a poisonous resin.
When the jokers finally reach their destination, Skylark find Kim to be a regular kind of guy who enjoys American way of life and American music. On top of it all, everything is hunky dory there in the heavenly kingdom - no famine, no malnourished kids, etcetera.
Slowly, the truth surfaces and in spite of all their bumblings, Kim is killed and democracy is restored.
It is a complete waste of time which would spiral your IQ down by a few notches!