Godzillas Todespranke

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.

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.

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.

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.

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