Yongary, Monster from the Deep

While this is by far the most blatant Godzilla rip-off I have seen, it's far better than Godzilla could ever hope to be. The English dub is ridiculous. At one point a soldier actually repeats two lines. The green screen work is hit and miss, sometimes it seems like they might be trying to be bad for the comedic effect. There were a couple times I actually laughed out loud. As bad as this movie may be, I still liked it.

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.

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).

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.

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.