Kingsajz
Kingsajz is a 1987 cult Polish comedy fantasy film directed by Juliusz Machulski. The action takes place in contemporary Poland (late communistic period) and in a fictional Lilliputian kingdom called Szuflandia (Drawerland), hidden deep in the undergrounds of the Quaternary Research Institute. The movie is a strong and evident allegory of a communistic regime and thus was received very enthusiastically by anti-communist society. Kingsajz is considered to be one of the best Polish comedies and also one of the most important and socially significant pictures of the 1980s. It is also noticed as unreachable ever since in Polish cinema example of using highly oversized props and sets, supervised by production designer Janusz Sosnowski, made to capture a difference of size between lilliputs and used by them things from Kingsajz world. Drawerland sets were built in Łódź Studio soundstages as wall-to-wall set-construction. Some scenes were optically enhanced by a matte painting, made by artists from Barrandov Studios.
Title
Name of the film, "Kingsajz", is actually "King Size" with spelling altered so, that it would be pronounced correctly in Polish. Such alteration of spelling of foreign, especially English words is considered amusing in Poland. In the movie Kingsajz is a name of a world of grown men in opposition to the Drawerland where liliputs live, as in Drawedland everything is miniature and mediocre and outside it everything is king size. Also a green potion that allows a liliput to became "big man" for a certain period of time was called Kingsajz.
Plot
Olo Jedlina (Olo is informal for Olgierd) was born a liliput and serving Drawerland government he was permitted to visit Kingsajz. However after getting few drops of potion that made him human-sized he decided to stay in Kingsajz for good and drinking human soda drink called Polo-Cockta regularely he avoids shrinkink back into liliput size. He becomes a journalist in popular magazine and a boyfriend of attractive model and lives a peaceful life although in Drawerland he is considered traitor and refugee.
His close friend Adaś Happs (Adaś is informal for Adam) is a scientist that once helped to produce Kingsajz potion, rebelled and escaped too. Hiding in Kingsize he works in his secret laboratory to break the potion formula hoping to be able to manufacture it one day and deliver to all liliputs in Drawerland.
The movie starts when Adaś finally discovers the secret and has to immediately escape from his lab which is being demolished by liliput agents that tracked him down. He manages to contact Olo and tell him everything but before they meet Adaś is being kidnapped right in front of Olo. Before that happens however he puts the vial into a pocket of Ala that unknowingly to Olo was also called there by Adaś.
Olo follows her wanting to get the vial with Kingsajz but Ala doesn't trust him at their first meeting and just shows him empty pocket with a hole in it. She follows him for a while and when they meet at a fashion show in which Olo's girlfriend takes part Ala reveals that she still has a vial and gives it to Olo. It also turns out that she in fact designed the collection.
They both decide to free Adaś from Drawerland when he is being interrogated and tortured. They seek help of two others liliputs that concoct the plan and lead the rescue action but unfortunatedly both die before reaching Drawerland.
When Olo gets there alone and liliput-sized he allows himself to be captured and manages to fool Drawerland's high officials that he is in fact secret agent working on Adaś's case. He gives a name of liliput secret service official that he knew was killed very recently and tells it was his superior and only person that knew about Olo's assignment. Liliputs don't fully believe him but allow him to meet Adaś. Adaś gives him a message with Kingzajz formula encoded into it.
After that Olo manages to escape from Drawerland but the vial with Kingsajz which Adaś gave Ala earlier gets smashed so although he is free, he remains a liliput. Ala manages to decipher Adaś's message and knowing the potion ingredients she tries several times with different proportions but fails each time. When she is all resigned Olo manages to contact telepathically with Adaś and learns that water which is one of the ingredients must come from a rusty tap in Adaś'a flat.
When Ala goes there and gets water she manages to produce the potion seconds before liliput agents break into her flat to kidnap Olo. The potion works just at the right time for Olo to help the girl and knock down the agents.
Soon Adaś uses telepathy once more to call for help as Drawerland official deciphered his message too, accused him of treason and the rebel scientist is about to be executed. Olo and Ala manages to save him just in time and Olo goes to Drawerland human-sized to get his friend. There he faces three officials that were after him from the beginning. During the fight they give each other shrinking injections and keep fighting liliput-sized until all three officials are defeated.
Movie ends with Olo, Adaś, Ala and her father who also was a liliput traveling in a train. They are all happy and cheerful when they notice that train is in fact a model and through the window they see a giant figure of a boy playing with it. They are all terrified when it turns out that there is something more above Kingsajz.
Cast
- Jacek Chmielnik as Olo (Olgierd) Jedlina
- Grzegorz Heromiński as Adaś (Adam) Haps
- Katarzyna Figura as Ala
- Jerzy Stuhr as Kilkujadek, Drawerland's high official
- Jan Machulski as Kwintek, "specialist" I
- Leonard Pietraszak as Kramerko, "specialist" II
- Witold Pyrkosz as Bombalina, Olo's superior
- Maciej Kozłowski as Waś
- Joachim Lamża as Zyl
- Leon Charewicz as Gil
- Bronisław Wrocławski as Pycio
- Olgierd Łukaszewicz as Paragraf
- Marek Walczewski as Ala's father
- Liza Machulska as Ewa
- Halina Machulska as Ewa's mother
- Sławomir Kryński as man in fez on the marketplace
- Zdzisław Kuźniar as man in bonnet on the marketplace
- Beata Tyszkiewicz as woman on the marketplace
- Ryszard Kotys as Nosacz, the prisoner
- Jan Paweł Kruk as Muchomor, the prisoner
- Mariusz Saniternik as Małolet, the prisoner
- Wojciech Skibiński as liliput speaker at the gathering
External links
- Kingsajz at the Internet Movie Database
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