Daegoesu Yonggari

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.