Yongary, Monster from the
Deep
Director: Kim Ki-duk
Year: 1967
Rating: 5.5
Country:
Korea
In 1962 South Korea had produced their first
Kaiju film hoping to cash in on the Godzilla craze out of Japan. Bulgasari
was based on a folk-tale (the same one that North Korea was to base Pulgasari
on in 1985) in which an iron-eating creature seeks justice. In that case,
it was a martial-artist who was executed and came back as Bulgasari. It sounds
interesting - a kung fu monster - but we will never know as the prints mysteriously
disappeared soon after the bad reviews came out. Perhaps they are in the
North Korean print library. Oddly, something similar happened to this Kaiju
film. The Korean prints were lost and so the only existing copy is the one
that the American International Television company had purchased and dubbed.
Check with Kim for the missing print. So, that is what I am reviewing here
and I have no idea how much the Korean version differs from this one. Going
on what American companies normally did to Japanese Kaiju films it could
be deadly, but at least Raymond Burr doesn't show up. It is a co-production
of a Korean film company and Toei. Toei provided the special effects. One
has to wonder whether the Korean version might have been clearer about whether
Yongary is a stand-in for North Korea invading underground.
The film is rather fun though it isn't really
good by any means. There are a ton of model buildings and tanks and planes
for Yongary to destroy but they look as fake as a Hollywood Botox treatment.
The tanks and planes are obvious models and the buildings look like those
children toys that allowed you to make buildings. Not nearly as much detail
as the Toho models. When Yongary opens his mouth to spit fire, you can see
the metal nozzle in the back. Yet, it is still fun watching a guy in a costume
knock down bridges, buildings and stomp on tanks. Yongary even dances which
has to come from Godzilla in Invasion of Astro-Monster. Clearly throwing
shade at his Kaiju neighbor to the South. This is how Korean Kaiju's dance.
In truth, better steps than Godzilla. Not really a bad guy, but they have
to kill it because we kill anything we don't understand.
Yongary burrows underground towards Seoul
creating earthquakes as he goes. The film basically bounces back and forth
between the gray suits and military men sitting around a table trying to
figure out what to do and shaking their heads a lot - and a family in which
the young scientist is trying to come up with something to defeat Yongary.
In his tiny lab in his bedroom. There is also a young boy who keeps going
out to spy on Yongary and hits him with a light that makes him itch. By the
end, believe me you will wish he was stomped on. Why do so many of these
Giant Monster films have annoying children in them? The government declares
Martial Law, which the people must have been used to by then. At the end,
the entire family piles into a helicopter to drop something on Yongary. They
are quite cute. The brainy scientist, the boy, a newly married and still
likely virginal couple and the girl who loves the scientist who is always
too busy for her. The film looks fine - nice use of colors and clean sets
- and the end of Yongary is surprisingly poignant. I read that the guy in
the suit earned a whole $400 for this. That was a lot of stomping for $400
measly bucks though I would do it for free.
