User reviews

Earthquakes in central Korea turn out to be the work of Yongary, a prehistoric gasoline-eating reptile that soon goes on a rampage through Seoul.

Allegedly, there is no more Korean print of this film and what circulates today is an American television print. This means we are stuck with the American dialogue rather than the original, and the editing may be quite different. Thus, we are watching (and critiquing) a film not as it was ever intended to be seen.

While much of what remains is amusing, it does tend to get boring. With Godzilla it never gets old, but with Yongary we can only see him smashing things for so long before it seems like the same old thing over and over. What other tricks do we have? None?

Nuclear testing in the Middle East awakens the earth-shaker Yongary from the depths of Korean mythology. This medium-sized kaiju is essentially Godzilla with big canines and a rhinoceros horn glued to his snout, and he is about to face the entire South Korean space program, air force, army and a willful eight-year-old. Needless to say, there really isn't much competition and Yongary makes short work of Seoul and everything along the way.

The special effects are anything but. The miniatures and cinematography are actually worse than some of the worst Japanese kaiju films of the early '70s. The acting and English dubbing is actually fairly good and the plot is not incoherent, though it is ridiculous.

Recommended for silent background play accompanied by your own soundtrack at a house party.

A Scientist and a young woman get married and immediately are harassed by the bride's young brother, whom you will likely hate almost immediately. Their honeymoon is short lived, as the scientist's new father-in-law calls him into action on the wedding night, not the kind of action he was looking for. It seems this man is the only one who can solve a problem plaguing the Korean people...a giant, angry, thunder lizard who has emerged from "the deep". I guess it's happened before, as most of the people know this Godzilla-like beast by his first name, Yongary.

Anyways, Yongary destroys a bunch of buildings, killing a bunch of people I assume, and ravages the Korean oil refineries, using the blow-torch in his mouth. We find out that he was only causing this ruckus because his tummy was growling, yes our boy Yongary was hungry. That pretty much covers most of the movie, other than a scene where he starts to dance, which makes it all worth watching (not really).

I mean...the company is called Kuk Dong. If you speak Swedish, that is quite funny. Otherwise its just random. Umm...movie review.

A giant monsters appears after a space shuttle launch. It goes to crush a model of a Korean city. An annoying kid uses his flashlight to make Yonggary dance. After much pointless destruction, a random scientist dumps a load of toxins on Yonggary and he dies a painful, withering death.

It's standard stuff here, folks, but very quaint and amusing in it's production. It's got some random stuff, like the Korean priest shouting repent in one of the crowd scenes, and the epileptic rave scene. Otherwise it's Godzilla from start to finish, complete with terrible models, a supremely cheesy space sequence, and pointless, unintroduced characters.

Yonggary has got a neat cutting beam that he slices a motorcycle and a jet fighter(straight out of Team America) in half with.

If you want some late night cheese, this is it.

Cheapo Korean GODZILLA rip-off. Yonggary has a nose that glows when excited, likes to dance to rock 'n' roll, and is vulnerable to itching powder. Going Godzilla one better, Yonggary breathes fire AND shoots lasers from his nose. An allegedly cute eight year old boy befriends him; you keep hoping a building will fall on the boy or he'll get run over by a tank or be trampled by the mobs fleeing in terror to shut him up. The weirdest sequence occurs early in the movie: on his wedding night, just when his new bride is getting amorous, an astronaut is summoned on a secret mission; the next scene you see, he's blasting off into space in an enormous phallic rocket ship.

Yongary is a terrific Monster with fantastic powers(albeit a little too much like Godzilla). Particularly I like his horn which shoots laser beams.

However the film itself drags on incessantly, stars an annoying little kid in short shorts and has less than spectacular special effects. Particularly bad is when the flame-shooting device used for Yongary to breathe fire is so obviously visible on screen. Also the eventual outcome for Yongary may be too much for some children.

1967's "Yongary Monster from the Deep" ("Taekoesu Yonggary" or The Great Monster Yongary) served as South Korea's entry in the kaiju sweepstakes, using technicians from Japan's Toei Studios to help on special effects. With the year's competition being Toho's "King Kong Escapes," Shochiku's "The X From Outer Space," and Nikkatsu's "Monster from a Prehistoric Planet" (plus one apiece from Godzilla and Gamera), it would be no surprise that poor Yongary doesn't earn the kind of recognition he otherwise might have, if only because of his status as a Korean rarity. Scriptwise it greatly resembles a Gamera film, with 8 year old Icho the brat so annoying even his big sister isn't safe from his latest prank, an itch-causing flashlight shining on her newlywed vehicle to force the couple into a scratching fit in the middle of the road. Hubby just happens to be Korea's only viable astronaut, called away from an obviously uncomfortable honeymoon to venture beyond mere head space, discovering an earthquake that awakens a legendary monster known as Yongary, emerging at the half hour mark to begin stomping buildings and such. Amazingly, military leaders and politicians never leave headquarters as they argue the merits of their futile efforts, leaving little Icho to do all the heavy lifting like spotting Yongary's feasting on gasoline and energy reserves. Naturally, the boy's brother is a brilliant scientist who deduces that the right combination of ammonia dropped on the unlucky Yongary will assuredly prove fatal, but not until after he shares a tango in the night with Icho to a guitar instrumental. Yongary shoots flames from an open mouth like Gamera (the nozzle clearly visible) but in all other respects looks and acts like Godzilla, smaller spikes down his back, a long tail, and a horn on his nose. We go from smashing up a battered metropolis to boozing on gas at an oil refinery before ending at a lonely stream where the final dropoff puts the quivering beast to bed permanently, his blood flowing into the water a disquieting touch. Derided for years as a cheap knockoff, it was obviously a risky undertaking for director Kim Ki-Duk, special effects completed in three months to huge box office returns in Korea alone, picked up for a small screen dub by AIP-TV to become the nation's best remembered monster picture.

I cannot imagine to much good that can be said about this muddle. It is amateurish even by the standards that defined the genre of cheap, japanese monster movies of the sixties and seventies. The set, especially the backgrounds are so obviously phony and the rockets, army equipment, etc. might as well kept the tags on them from the toy store. The buildings were so hokey as they toppled (they had nothing inside, even fake floors, to give the illusion of reality. And to top it all off was the guy in the rubber monster suit. How hard is it to look like a monster in a monster movie??? Six-year old Trick or treaters give better performances.

The only redeeming aspect I can point to is that it made in Korea, instead of Japan, which is kind of interesting to see on a why would anyone think copying cheap Japanese monter movies was a good idea level.

On the night of his honeymoon, a Korean astronaut { I did not know that Korea had a space program}is sent on a re con mission to observe an earthquake moving to the center of South Korea.This however is no earthquake. The scientist- and his obnoxious but likable 9 year old sidekick soon discover that nuclear testing in the Mid east have awaken the legendary monster Yongary, and he's heading straight for Seoul!After making quick work of the army and air-force Yongary- who looks like a close relative to Godzilla heads for an oil refinery and starts to drink the oil! Having followed Yongary to the refinery through the sewers, the kid aims his static gun at the beast and he starts to dance to what sounds like surf music!Before long, the monster is on the rampage again.To the uninitiated, this might seem like a Japanese monster movie. Although it does borrow heavilly from Godzilla, this film has its own unique feel. The FX are reminiscent of Tsubarayas work and the directional style is pure Honda, but thats not a bad thing.Even though Yongary is a man in a monster suit, it is fairly well done The FX do run hot and cold. The prerequisites city stomping is good, but you can see the blowtorch in Yongarys mouth as well as the 3rd wheel undert the jeep before the rear section gets blown away. It is amazing that these goofs were not edited from the movie. The end is kind of out of character with the rest of the film, but you will feel sorry for Yongary.Far from being Bergman or Kurosawa, the film does have its moments, The spaced out patrons at the club and the street evangelist yelling "repent, repent" are priceless.This is like the old channel 9 movie{in the New York area}that they used to show at midnight on Saturdays in the late 60s and early 70s. Great fun for fans of the genre. How can you NOT like a movie like this?}

Yonggary (1967) is much like Gamera, a cash crop film, aping off the success of other pilfered monsters, better ones. The film opens with what I thought was a rather nice shot of space with rolling credits, followed by a fine cast of mediocre actors and a young boy in shorts, the evil omen for any giant monster movie fan of terrible things to come. The story and plot run through very worn out terrain, mysterious happenings somewhere, a loving couple, monster attack, and discovery of weapon to kill the monster. The film was geared to children, as most kaiju films of this time (late 60s), one would expect this in itself would diagnose Yonggary as terminally unwatchable, but the kid aspect is what to me kept it entertaining, Yonggary dancing, drinking, etc. were all bizarre enouph to keep a smile, bad editing also played it part. As for the action sequences, Yonggary's arrival and first rampage was well done, not very convincing mind you, but thats never really the point in these films, to look interesting and incite nostalgic inner child hollaring.

Yonggary is by far one of the most forgettable Kaiju monsters to grace East Asian screens, his physical appearance is right down the middle neutral to anything that may catch attention; his skin color bland, his design simple and uninspired and his range of emotion nonexistent. However , despite all of this, I had fun watching it, unlike Gappa, pretension toward seriousness is out the window, thus making the inevitable moral lesson and speech at the end all the more bearable.

One of the better, lesser kaiju films. 6/10

Well, I got to see North Korea's take on the giant monster genre with "Pulgarasi" a movie that was created literally because the country's leader kidnapped a director and now I see South Korea's take on it. I admit to being confused as to how this one is actually worse. I guess when you're being forced to do something, you have to work harder. This movie features a giant monster named Yongary attacking South Korea. The actual monster doesn't appear until a third into the movie, which is actually better than most giant monster movies. The thing is, it's very poorly done.

It's mostly because we just get cheesy scene after cheesy scene of Yongary being attacked over and over. There are a few times where it seems to die, only for us to unfortunately find out it's just going to give us more movie. It's dumb how they try to make it sympathetic, but then admit they have to kill it. I can literally easily see the tube inside the monster's mouth where the fire comes out! That might have been a deliberate part of the monster as it looked too cheesy to even be fake. The models are ugly looking and sometimes the people really do appear to be as large as the actual monster. *1/2

Yongary comes out of the sea and destroys Seoul.

Some of you who have looked at this masterpiece of Korean cinema may claim that this is nothing but Godzilla with a name change and set in Korea. True, Yongary comes out of the sea, is played by a guy in a rubber iguana suit and has atomic-fire breath. He stomps down various medium high-rises in Seoul while the populace flees, each carrying the item most precious to them (no babies, but one man seems to be carrying a bowling ball). However, he has a horn on the end of his nose, like a rhinoceros, so nothing at all like Godzilla.

In addition, this monster isn't defeated by chance. There's a small boy who has invented an itching ray, you see, and has the knowledge to operate the controls of a oil-storage facility.

I look forward to the many sequels in which Yongary becomes the boy's best friend. A kid like that must attract bullies, and when someone is yanking up your underwear, there's nothing like an atomic-fire-breathing giant lizard to help you out.

"Yongary: Monster from the Deep" is another entry on a nearly endless list of low-budget giant monster films that owe their inspiration and creation to the two most popular movie monsters of Asia: Godzilla and Gamera. The monster, Yongary, has characteristics similar to both of these monster icons. The thing is that Yongary makes his film debut in a film that is very cheap, dull, and oftentimes unintentionally funny. And the moments that were intentionally funny, are mostly just painful to look at.

Yongary, as you can imagine, was represented by a man in a rubber suit. The suit, I'm afraid to say, is a very poor effort. It isn't bulky like Godzilla, but in fact very slender, like the T-rex costumes of some particular low-budget American dinosaurs movies. When viewed from the side, Yongary doesn't look half-bad. But since we most commonly see him from the front, he mostly looks pretty bad. Too skinny, too humanlike, too unrealistic. There are many other revealing aspects to the poor special effects. Yongary, like Gamera, can breathe and literally inhale fire. Whenever he does either one of these, you can see the nozzle in the back of his mouth and his tongue just seems to disappear. And what's also funny? Yongary is prone to feeling itchy, and also likes to dance. Yes, dance.

The human characters are dull and uninteresting, mostly annoying, as you would expect. Dubbing, for once, wasn't half-bad. Like Gamera, Yongary has a child character who idolizes him. But I think this character just smiled too much. Even when he talks about how Yongary wasn't a bad monster, he just smiles. If Yongary is facing danger, instead of being angry, the kid still smiles. There is also a sense of stupidity with these characters. Such as, what's the point to sending a man in a rocket into space to observe a nuclear explosion? One can easily see and observe from a safe distance on Earth. And also, there's a moment where the characters argue about missiles to attack Yongary with, and say the missiles could be too dangerous to the city to use. But, when they are used, the missiles don't seem to cause much for an explosion. Missiles fired by jets later on, which are much smaller and less destructive, seem to cause greater damage.

Bottom line, "Yongary: Monster of the Deep" is a movie that is worth looking at. But do not expect much from it. It is better than other low-budget Godzilla-rip offs such as "The X from Outer Space", but is still not all that impressive of a film.

No offense to the South Koreans, but I'm surprised to see how similar the town and people looks compared to the kaijyu moves from the similar era Japan. I've heard that this move is not well known in its home country, and the version I saw was an English dubbed version made by MGM.

An astronaut is asked to investigate a bomb experiment. When the bomb goes off, it starts a chain of earthquakes. The earth quake strangely is heading towards middle of Korea. A martial law s declared, and soon after the monster Yonggari appears from the ground.

The look and feel of this movie is very similar to the Gamera series movies from the mid '60s. The man protagonist's driving a Chevy Corvair just like the original Ultraman series defense force guys were driving. Then comes the obligatory scientist's lab scene, and another obligatory meeting of the minds of the government officials.

The Yonggari's special effects scenes were shot by Daiei's crew that were flown over from Japan, so I can understand the similarities, but even the scenes involving humans were very much like (almost identical) it's Japanese cousins. I'd like to compare this movies to other Korean movies from the same era to see if the similarities, were a coincidence.

The movie is on par with the likes of Gamera vs. Barugon. Even the roar of Yonggari is borrowed from Barugon, but suitmation part isn't as good as the Japanese counterpart.

There might be no market for this type of movie in Korea, but it would have been interesting if they developed this idea further as it was done n Japan. An okay film that's as entertaining as the kaijyu movies made by Daiei of '60s Japan.

This was South Korea's second attempt to make a monster movie, and this is the best one in my opinion.

This film can be boring even with the monster action, Yongary just moves so slowly. That's one hundred percent a problem they had with the costume.

Half decent acting from the cast, the characters a pretty paper thin, but you don't see them that much anymore when Yongary shows up twenty three minutes in.

The special effects in this movie are actually pretty solid, the scene where Yongary attacks Seoul is the highlight of the film, the visual effects are on par with Godzilla at the time. Yongary has an ability where he can shoot lasers out of the horn on the tip of his nose, it's a really good effect. The miniature work is not as good as Godzilla's at the time, they look more like Ultraman miniatures.

I only recommend this one to people like me who really love Kaiju movies.

Makes US 50s and 60s schlock sci fi, and even original Godzilla flicks, looks like works of art. Watch MST3K version only.

But you did give us a great one. Thank you.

An earthquake shakes up the peninsula and it turns out a 'Seoul' version of Godzilla is to blame. Meet Youngary.

Like the Japanese films, this big creature stomps cities and causes general mayhem just because. People flee and we hope they make it. So why is it different? Korea gave the cast, crew, and direction a lot more emotion. The stoic nature in Tokyo is a lot more stressed. The Koreans were allowed to free their feelings. Therefore our hearts were with them.

A lot of the decor was different too. An Asia-phile would notice it more. But it was good to see a "Kan-Kokku-no" version in the monster genre.

Nice job Seoul-mates. Welcome aboard.

1967, the year Japanese audiences came face to face with "Gamera vs. Gyaos" and "Son of Godzilla". However, Korea was also releasing a kaiju flick that year: "Yongary: Monster From the Deep". Following in the line of King Kong, Godzilla, Gorgo and Gamera, Yongary emerges to wreak havoc on mankind. The monster looks like your average dinosaur, nice and fearsome (quite obviously a Ceratosaurus). Oddly enough, as opposed to most monster movies, there are a significant number of people who choose to die as the monster approaches. Another plus is that the miniatures look pretty awesome in this one.

Like Gorgo and Gamera, this movie gets a kick out of throwing a child into the plot. I can't say I care for him but it's still nothing compared to other tortures I've been subjugated to, like "Gamera vs. Guiron" of 1969. The characters here aren't too developed but there's some nice comedy between them. At one point a plan is forged and a government official remarks, "If it can save just one life it'll be worth it". Wow, if only governments in the real world acted on such polices right? I will say though, the scene where Yongary is killed is something akin to the 1933 King Kong death atop the Empire State Building. You actually feel for the poor dancing dinosaur, even though if it is a tad less elegant. Yongary is poisoned like a giant rat, even ends up pissing blood, what a way to go.

A lot of what we see here is familiar but it's all in good fun. I find this film better than the new Yongary film, a.k.a. "Reptilian".

Notable among guy-in-rubber-monster suit epics for the fact that this is a Korean film, rather than Japanese. Some of the building-trampling scenes are impressive by standards of the genre, but other than that this is pretty much formulaic with cheap visuals, toy tanks and aircraft, and silly dialogue. Monster tramples buildings, annoying little boy teams up with scientist to stop the destruction. The ending with Yongary's slow death despite the boy's grieving is oddly moving.

And that pretty much sums it up. The story beats are pretty much the same as any Godzilla or Gamera movie from the same period, except it's set in South Korea instead of Japan. There a whole segment with a rocket in the beginning that ads nothing to the movie before the monster emerges and does what monsters do in these kinds of movies.

We can talk about the model and suit work, which was vastly inferior to Japanese special effects of the same period.

The movie features an annoying child character, again recognizing the big names in Kaiju were going for a juvenile audience at that point, but the action is the more adult horror. The monster is destroying for destruction's sake.

Simply put, I'm not sure why this movie was made, other than traditional Japanese Korean rivalries, where Korea was just trying to have it's version.