“Godzilla in New York” Program

April 21, 2005

“Godzilla in New York” Program
Lecture with Screening: A Proletarian Godzilla: Pulgasari and North Korean Cinema
Charles Armstrong (Associate Professor of History, Columbia University)
Altschul Auditorium, 417 International Affairs Building (118th St. and Amsterdam Ave.)
8:00 PM

Directed by esteemed South Korean filmmaker Shin Sang-ok during his enforced stay in North Korea in the 1980s, Pulgasari represents a unique blend of entertainment and ideological education according to Kim Jong Il’s principles of cinematic art. Set in the medieval Koryo dynasty, North Korea’s answer to Godzilla seems on the surface to be a critique of feudal Korean society, but it can also be read as a subtle attack on the North Korean regime itself. This talk will discuss the film and its place in the history of (North) Korean cinema.
Co-sponsored by The Weatherhead East Asian Institute and The Center for Korean Research