Yongary, Monster from the Deep

Justin LaLiberty3.0

people who hate on this never wrecked a lego city with a toy monster and it shows — it might be garbage, but it's my kind of garbage

Cinema_Strikes2.5

25 minutes before we even get a glimpse of the monster’s spiky ass!! Fuck off with that! And then Yongary did his dumb little dance and all is forgiven.Yongary is kind of a cross between Godzilla, Anguilas, and Gamera. He’s pretty cute, I’m saying. I was a little bummed when he appeared to die of cholera.Added to my big kaiju movie list here.

Mandrakegray3.0

"Yongary, Monster from the Deep" reaches juvenile kaiju nirvana during it's most celebrated/mocked scene...in which an 8-year-old boy named Icho shines a light in the eyes of the temporarily defeated title creature, waking it in the process. The two then share a celebratory dance set to surf rock. And you thought the early Gamera films were bonkers.A nuclear test in the Middle East sets off an earthquake, impacting the core of Korea. From the bowels of the planet emerges Yongary, a big beastie that craves consuming gasoline. Cue all the familiar tropes one associates with Kaiju films of the late 60's...military types expounding theories on how to defeat the monster, a precocious boy in shorts who (kind of) befriends the behemoth, and a plethora of scenes depicting the monster causing destruction. South Korea's foray into the giant rubber monster boom of the 60's, fed by the growing popularity of Godzilla, Gamera and the Ultra Q/Ultraman TV series, was quite the success in it's time. To it's credit, it sports a pretty decent looking suitmation. The man who constructed Gamera's getup for Daiei Studios, Masao Yagi, oversaw the making of Yongary's ensemble. The design is certainly a bit Godzilla-like, but I'm fond of it's glowing eyes and horned snout. The miniature landscapes look fairly respectable from some of the establishing shots, but as the camera pushes in for the movie's many destruction scenes, it's clear they're a far cry from Eiji Tsubaraya's quality work for Toho Studios. Still, they're not bad considering the budget and being done by a South Korean crew who were new to that type of special effects techniques. The same can't be said of the use of matte shots, which are bargain basement level.The cast is fairly likable for the most part. The heroic scientist in this is named Ilo and played by Yeong-Il Oh (1969's "The Snake Woman"), and he acquits himself well in a pretty standard role. Even better is the lovely Nam Jeong-im ("Beauty in Black Rose Castle") as Ilo's love interest. She's absolutely adorable here, and helped me make it through some of the admittedly sluggish human plotlines. Kwang Ho Lee, on the other hand, is pretty annoying as Icho, a (smarter than adult scientists) brat who likes to torture loved ones (and Yongary, for that matter) with an itching ray he lifted from Ilo's lab setup.Director Ki-duk Kim ("The Barefooted Young") helmed many films both before and following Yongary, which ranged from War Dramas, Crime flicks, to comedies. Many are quite critically admired, but it's difficult to find much written about the busy filmmaker, who just passed away last year. I'm curious as to what he thought of Yongary in hindsight, and hope to find more of his movies to watch in the years to come.Yongary is only available in it's AIP English version, with the original South Korean version considered (mostly) lost. It's also one of two Kaiju films made in South Korea in 1967. Sadly, the other, "Space Monster Wangmagwi", has also long been considered lost...although a few prints are said to be in existence and screened occasionally in it's home country. If that's true, here's hoping some daring distributor locates it and gives it a long overdue home release. The picture's other notorious scene comes at the end. While Yongary passes away, he defecates blood into the river he's partially submerged in. It's a hell of a visual, and challenges the dance-off moment as the movie's most WTF scene. I have yet to watch the relaunch of MST3K on Netflix, but I am aware that this flick was among those that have been skewered on the revamped program. It may seem tailor-made for a verbal beatdown, but I found the film to be a diverting weekend view. That said, with a main monster that's prone to shimmying and rectal bleeding, and a human storyline that's more boring than most films of this ilk, I understand the backlash. To me, it's simply mid-tier Kaiju wackiness, benefiting from a bit of nostalgic glow. I was charmed by it. A mild recommendation from me.