MUST ... GET ... THIS ... MOVIE! I MUST GET THIS MOVIE!!!

@WickedGlee: You can watch it for free at the link above, plus there's a DVD.

Yeah... I've wanted to see this movie for some time now. It looks amazing...

Did anybody see American Dad last night? With Roger as the evil Bond villain that concocted a vast evil plan just to force everybody to watch his movie?

Yeah. Just sayin'.

"Do not want!!!"

Having him eat the iron cannon...tsktsk, so short-sighted.

Isn't it possible that this is actually a different kind of take on the history of 20th Century Communism.

The Joseon dynasty = feudalism (1400s-1800s). The Japanese imperialists (1910-WWII) or even capitalism generally = Pulgasari, and then the peasants overthrowing Pulgasari = communism?

Or is that what you were saying?

@92BuickLeSabre: That's plausible, I guess... but I doubt many people in Korea ever saw the Japanese as any kind of liberators. The Japanese enslaved them worse than their own feudal rulers ever had. It really feels as though Kim made an unintentional metaphor for his own government.

@charliejane: Whatever his actual purpose, I think you're ultimately correct.

But I'm not sure I would exactly call Pulgasari a "liberator" either. At least not a very pleasant one.

An iron-eating bull, inadveriably, is an iron-pooping bull, of course.

@92BuickLeSabre: Jonathan Ross did a piece a couple of years back on Asian Cinema, and while talking about Korean cinema (north and south) basically said what you did. Pulgasari was an allegory for capitalism and it was the communist spirit in the villagers that overthrew the evil capitalist monster.

For all y'all interested, N Korea released another movie The Schoolgirl's Diary (2006) which of course their "dear leader" had a hand in the scripting and editing. I, for one, am glad to hear that the nuclear thingy going on didn't dampen his creative spirits.

@Eac_O_System: So does that mean pig iron come from an iron-pooping pig?

@twreckx: One wonders how he finds the time now that he's taken up golf. I've always "wanted to see"* the Unsung Heroes series. The 20-hour N. Korean spy flick that cast two of the American deserters (Jenkins and Dresnok) as the "evil American masterminds."

(* In quotes because I don't really want to see 20 hours-worth of it.)

I wonder how many North Korean peasants starved to death in order for this movie to get made? And what is it with dictators and film-makign? Mussolini, Stalin and Goebells also shunted millions of resources into "epics" while their people were starving and/or getting the shit kicked out of them by Allied Forces.

Wow... that's so interesting. Kim Jong-Il is one messed up bastard. Kidnapping foreign scientists for nuclear research is one thing, kidnapping South Korean movie stars to make a movie is just insane. It is said that he is quite the movie buff though, apparently it's his favorite hobby. I wonder if he ever got a chance to see Matt Stone and Trey Parker's Team America ? I definitely want to see catch this movie though.

I was noticed an influx of traffic to this posting. I remember reading the story about the kidnapped director and his actress wife which was a very sad story indeed. The story of escape was even more interesting. This is some of the atrocities North Korea has done, and today, there are reports of tens of thousands of people lingering in prison camps.

Anyway, thanks for the link. :)

@livinglogic: Kim Jong-Il definitely was aware of Team America World Police, because he made a big fuss about banning it in North Korea. Not sure if he watched it though.