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Pulgasari
''Pulgasari'' () is a 1985 North Korean horror-action kaiju film directed by Shin Sang-ok. It stars Chang Son Hui and Pak Sung Ho and features special effects by Duk Ho Kim, supervised by Teruyoshi Nakano. The film centers around the legend of the Bulgasari and is based on the lost 1962 film from South Korea of the same name. Director Shin had been kidnapped in 1978 by North Korean intelligence on the orders of Kim Jong-il, son of the then-ruling Kim Il-sung and was coerced into making several films as a director, with ''Pulgasari'' being his final before he and his wife, actress Choi Eun-hee, escaped to the United States.Backrow BanterThe Dear Leader, The Director And The Director’s Wife/ref> Plot In feudal Korea, during the Goryeo Dynasty, a king controls the land with an iron fist, subjecting the peasantry to misery and starvation. An old blacksmith who was sent to prison for defending his people creates a tiny figurine of a monster by making a doll of rice and before ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bulgasari
''Bulgasari'' is a lost 1962 South Korean ''kaiju'' film directed and edited by Kim Myeong-je. Produced by Kwang Seong Films Co., Ltd., it was the first monster film to be made in South Korea, as well as the first Korean film to use special effects. The film stars Choi Moo-ryong as Nam Hyeong / Bulgasari alongside Um Aing-ran, Gang Mi-ae, Kim Dong-won, and Lee Up-dong. In the film, a skilled martial artist is resurrected as an iron-eating monster in order to exact revenge on those who murdered him. ''Bulgasari'' was reported to have begun production on November 26, 1961. It was inspired by the legendary Korean monster of the same name and heavily influenced by ''Godzilla''. Principal photography began on February 28, 1962, and wrapped on March 24. ''Bulgasari'' premiered at the Myungbo Theater in Seoul on December 1, 1962. The film received negative reviews from critics, especially because of its unconvincing effects, direction, and acting. Believed to have disappeared short ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abduction Of Shin Sang-ok And Choi Eun-hee
The abduction of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee occurred in North Korea between 1978 and 1986. Shin Sang-ok was a famous South Korean film director who had been married to actress Choi Eun-hee. Together, they established Shin Film and made many films through the 1960s which garnered recognition for South Korea at various film festivals.Fischer, Paul (2015). ''A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power''. Flatiron Books. . In 1978, Choi was abducted in Hong Kong and taken to North Korea to the country's future supreme leader Kim Jong-il. The abduction of Shin followed six months later. After three years in prison, Shin was united with Choi, and the two were instructed by Kim Jong-il to make films for him in order to gain global recognition for North Korea's film industry.Martin, Bradley K. (2004). ''Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader''. New York: Thomas Dunne Books. p. 334. . Aft ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shin Sang-ok
Shin Sang-ok ( ko, 신상옥; born Shin Tae-seo; October 11, 1926 – April 11, 2006) was a South Korean filmmaker with more than 100 producer and 70 director credits to his name. His best-known films were made in the 1950s and 60s, many of them collaborations with his wife Choi Eun-hee, when he was known as "The Prince of South Korean Cinema". He received the Order of Cultural Merit (South Korea), Gold Crown Cultural Medal, the country's top honor for an artist. In 1978, Shin and Choi were Abduction of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee, kidnapped by North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, for the purpose of producing critically acclaimed films. The two remained in captivity for 8 years until 1986, when they escaped and sought asylum in the United States. Shin continued to produce and direct films in America, now under the pseudonym "Simon Sheen", before eventually returning to South Korea for his final years. Early life The son of a prominent doctor of Korean medicine, Shin was born Shin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenpachiro Satsuma
, born is a Japanese actor who portrayed Godzilla in the Heisei films, from 1984 to 1995. Born in Kagoshima Prefecture, Satsuma began his acting career in the 1960s with small roles in samurai films. In 1971 he was offered the role of the smog monster antagonist Hedorah in '' Godzilla vs. Hedorah'', opposite Haruo Nakajima as Godzilla. He went on to play Gigan in two further Godzilla films. When Nakajima retired from the Godzilla role in 1972, substitutes were hired between 1973 and 1975 until Satsuma took over permanently in 1984. His portrayal took the character away from the humour of the character's portrayals over the past decades, returning to the more animalistic Godzilla persona of the original 1954 film. While filming ''Godzilla'' movies, Satsuma would regularly pass out on the set due to lack of oxygen while wearing the poorly ventilated and rubber suits; this was especially a problem during production of ''Godzilla vs. Destoroyah'', in which the steam effect on the suit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cinema Of North Korea
The cinema of North Korea began with the division of Korea and has been sustained since then by the ruling Kim dynasty. Kim Il-sung and his successor Kim Jong-il were both cinephiles and sought to produce propaganda films based on the ''Juche'' ideology. All film production is supervised by the Workers' Party of Korea and generally concerns propaganda. North Korea has nevertheless produced some non-propaganda films for export to the wider world. Film studios North Korea's principal producer of feature films is the Korean Film Studio, a state-run studio founded in 1947 and located outside of Pyongyang. Other North Korean film studios include the Korean Documentary Film Studio (founded in 1946), the April 25 Film Studio of the Korean People's Army (founded in 1959 and previously known as the February 8 Cinema Studio) and the Korean Science and Educational Film Studio (founded in 1953 and also known as the April 26 Children's Film Production House, and Science Educational Kore ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kaiju
is a Japanese media genre that focuses on stories involving giant monsters. The word ''kaiju'' can also refer to the giant monsters themselves, which are usually depicted attacking major cities and battling either the military or other monsters. The ''kaiju'' genre is a subgenre of ''tokusatsu'' entertainment. The 1954 film ''Godzilla'' is commonly regarded as the first ''kaiju'' film. ''Kaiju'' characters are often somewhat metaphorical in nature; Godzilla, for example, serves as a metaphor for nuclear weapons, reflecting the fears of post-war Japan following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the '' Lucky Dragon 5'' incident. Other notable examples of ''kaiju'' characters include Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah and Gamera. Etymology The Japanese word ''kaijū'' originally referred to monsters and creatures from ancient Japanese legends; it earlier appeared in the Chinese ''Classic of Mountains and Seas''. After ''sakoku'' had ended and Japan was opened to for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Godzilla
is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. The character first appeared in the 1954 film ''Godzilla'' and became a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in various media, including 32 films produced by Toho, four American films and numerous video games, novels, comic books and television shows. Godzilla has been dubbed the "King of the Monsters", a phrase first used in ''Godzilla, King of the Monsters!'' (1956)'','' the Americanized version of the original film. Godzilla is an enormous, destructive, prehistoric sea monster awakened and empowered by nuclear radiation. With the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the '' Lucky Dragon 5'' incident still fresh in the Japanese consciousness, Godzilla was conceived as a metaphor for nuclear weapons. Others have suggested that Godzilla is a metaphor for the United States, a giant beast woken from its slumber which then takes terrible vengeance on Japan. As the film series expan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans Japanese archipelago, an archipelago of List of islands of Japan, 6852 islands covering ; the five main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu (the "mainland"), Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa Island, Okinawa. Tokyo is the Capital of Japan, nation's capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto. Japan is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eleventh most populous country in the world, as well as one of the List of countries and dependencies by population density, most densely populated and Urbanization by country, urbanized. About three-fourths of Geography of Japan, the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Return Of Godzilla
is a 1984 Japanese ''kaiju'' film directed by Koji Hashimoto, with special effects by Teruyoshi Nakano. The film features the fictional monster character Godzilla. Distributed by Toho and produced under their subsidiary Toho Pictures, it is the 16th film in the ''Godzilla'' franchise, the last film produced in the Shōwa period, and the first film in the Heisei series. In Japan, the film was followed by ''Godzilla vs. Biollante'' in 1989. ''The Return of Godzilla'' stars Ken Tanaka, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Yosuke Natsuki, and Keiju Kobayashi, with Kenpachiro Satsuma as Godzilla. The film serves as both a sequel to the original 1954 film and a reboot of the franchise that ignores the events of every Shōwa era film aside from the original ''Godzilla'', placing itself in line with the darker tone and themes of the original film and returning Godzilla to his destructive, antagonistic roots. The film was released theatrically in Japan on December 15, 1984. The following year, in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous city and state. A landlocked country, Austria is bordered by Germany to the northwest, the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia to the northeast, Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The country occupies an area of and has a population of 9 million. Austria emerged from the remnants of the Eastern and Hungarian March at the end of the first millennium. Originally a margraviate of Bavaria, it developed into a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire in 1156 and was later made an archduchy in 1453. In the 16th century, Vienna began serving as the empire's administrative capital and Austria thus became the heartland of the Habsburg monarchy. After the dissolution of the H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toho
is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer and distributor of many '' kaiju'' and ''tokusatsu'' films, the Chouseishin ''tokusatsu'' superhero television franchise, the films of Akira Kurosawa, and the anime films of Studio Ghibli, CoMix Wave Films, TMS Entertainment and OLM, Inc. All nine of the highest-grossing Japanese films are released by Toho. Other famous directors, including Yasujirō Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Masaki Kobayashi, and Mikio Naruse, also directed films for Toho. Toho's most famous creation is Godzilla, who is featured in 32 of the company's films. Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah and Mechagodzilla are described as Toho's Big Five because of the monsters' numerous appearances throughout the franchise, as well as spin-offs. Toho has also been involved in the pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutional monarchy), to fully autocratic (absolute monarchy), and can expand across the domains of the executive, legislative, and judicial. The succession of monarchs in many cases has been hereditical, often building dynastic periods. However, elective and self-proclaimed monarchies have also happened. Aristocrats, though not inherent to monarchies, often serve as the pool of persons to draw the monarch from and fill the constituting institutions (e.g. diet and court), giving many monarchies oligarchic elements. Monarchs can carry various titles such as emperor, empress, king, queen, raja, khan, tsar, sultan, shah, or pharaoh. Monarchies can form federations, personal unions and realms with vassals through personal association with the monarch, whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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