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6 out of 6 people found the following review useful: Cheesy, in a limburger sort of way, 18 May 2004 Author: bluzman from United States
I cannot imagine to much good that can be said about this muddle. It is amateurish even by the standards that defined the genre of cheap, japanese monster movies of the sixties and seventies. The set, especially the backgrounds are so obviously phony and the rockets, army equipment, etc. might as well kept the tags on them from the toy store. The buildings were so hokey as they toppled (they had nothing inside, even fake floors, to give the illusion of reality. And to top it all off was the guy in the rubber monster suit. How hard is it to look like a monster in a monster movie??? Six-year old Trick or treaters give better performances.The only redeeming aspect I can point to is that it made in Korea, instead of Japan, which is kind of interesting to see on a why would anyone think copying cheap Japanese monter movies was a good idea level.
7 out of 8 people found the following review useful: Godzilla's Seoul Brother, 25 May 2004 Author: TheAngryRobot
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).
7 out of 9 people found the following review useful: Best Korean made Kaiju film ever, 6 January 2006 Author: loufalce from United States
On the night of his honeymoon, a Korean astronaut { I did not know that Korea had a space program}is sent on a re con mission to observe an earthquake moving to the center of South Korea.This however is no earthquake. The scientist- and his obnoxious but likable 9 year old sidekick soon discover that nuclear testing in the Mid east have awaken the legendary monster Yongary, and he's heading straight for Seoul!After making quick work of the army and air-force Yongary- who looks like a close relative to Godzilla heads for an oil refinery and starts to drink the oil! Having followed Yongary to the refinery through the sewers, the kid aims his static gun at the beast and he starts to dance to what sounds like surf music!Before long, the monster is on the rampage again.To the uninitiated, this might seem like a Japanese monster movie. Although it does borrow heavilly from Godzilla, this film has its own unique feel. The FX are reminiscent of Tsubarayas work and the directional style is pure Honda, but thats not a bad thing.Even though Yongary is a man in a monster suit, it is fairly well done The FX do run hot and cold. The prerequisites city stomping is good, but you can see the blowtorch in Yongarys mouth as well as the 3rd wheel undert the jeep before the rear section gets blown away. It is amazing that these goofs were not edited from the movie. The end is kind of out of character with the rest of the film, but you will feel sorry for Yongary.Far from being Bergman or Kurosawa, the film does have its moments, The spaced out patrons at the club and the street evangelist yelling "repent, repent" are priceless.This is like the old channel 9 movie{in the New York area}that they used to show at midnight on Saturdays in the late 60s and early 70s. Great fun for fans of the genre. How can you NOT like a movie like this?}
4 out of 4 people found the following review useful: Kuk Dong delivers a poor but amusing Godzilla ripoff., 26 August 2007 Author: MrVibrating from Sweden
I mean...the company is called Kuk Dong. If you speak Swedish, that is quite funny. Otherwise its just random. Umm...movie review.A giant monsters appears after a space shuttle launch. It goes to crush a model of a Korean city. An annoying kid uses his flashlight to make Yonggary dance. After much pointless destruction, a random scientist dumps a load of toxins on Yonggary and he dies a painful, withering death.It's standard stuff here, folks, but very quaint and amusing in it's production. It's got some random stuff, like the Korean priest shouting repent in one of the crowd scenes, and the epileptic rave scene. Otherwise it's Godzilla from start to finish, complete with terrible models, a supremely cheesy space sequence, and pointless, unintroduced characters.Yonggary has got a neat cutting beam that he slices a motorcycle and a jet fighter(straight out of Team America) in half with.If you want some late night cheese, this is it.
5 out of 6 people found the following review useful: If You Thought Japanese Monster Movies Were Bad…, 27 October 2007 Author: rabrenner from United States
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.
4 out of 5 people found the following review useful: It's A Sickness!, 4 September 2003 Author: teuthis (Teuthis@knology.net) from Columbus, Georgia
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
I almost always watch this ridiculous muddle when it comes on cable television! I cannot fathom why. It's a sickness I guess; because there has never been a monster picture in which I wanted to see the monster win more than in Yongary! Perhaps I'm hoping for a directors cut with an alternate ending?An atomic blast, how au currant, releases the hapless Yongary from some deep ocean tomb, and he rises to wreak monster havoc on Korea. Of course the all the scientific forces of the orient are thrown against him in a battle for survival of the fittest.SPOILER ALERT!!! As If? The monster doesn't win! What a surprise. He defeats the finest scientific minds of Korea, but falls prey to an obnoxious eight year old kid. Then the entire cast spends the last five minutes of the film gloating, boasting and congratulating themselves after having killed the poor beast with what seemed to be itching powder. Go figure!I confess, Yongary is not any worse than the Japanese monster films where a plump stunt man is waddling about in a rubber monster suit stomping on doll houses. I actually kind of like those things. I guess it's the human cast that makes me side with the monster this time. I keep hoping for a sequel entitled "Yongary Conquers Korea!" The monster does have fun swatting airplanes and squashing much of the financial and cultural infrastructure of Korea; and he's entertaining to a monster aficionado, in a rubbery sort of way. But in the end, Yongary is just another predictable formula entry in the "Giant Monster versus All Asia" genre. So why can't I resist it? Give it a look, and let me know!
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful: A mixed bag of charming camp, 25 June 2008 Author: Emideon from Los Angeles, U.S.A.
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
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful: The Truth Beneath Plate Tectonics, 6 May 2008 Author: mstomaso from Vulcan
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.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful: the Godzilla and Gamera of Korea, 1 January 2008 Author: TheUnknown837-1 from United States
"Yongary: Monster from the Deep" is another entry on a nearly endless list of low-budget giant monster films that owe their inspiration and creation to the two most popular movie monsters of Asia: Godzilla and Gamera. The monster, Yongary, has characteristics similar to both of these monster icons. The thing is that Yongary makes his film debut in a film that is very cheap, dull, and oftentimes unintentionally funny. And the moments that were intentionally funny, are mostly just painful to look at.Yongary, as you can imagine, was represented by a man in a rubber suit. The suit, I'm afraid to say, is a very poor effort. It isn't bulky like Godzilla, but in fact very slender, like the T-rex costumes of some particular low-budget American dinosaurs movies. When viewed from the side, Yongary doesn't look half-bad. But since we most commonly see him from the front, he mostly looks pretty bad. Too skinny, too humanlike, too unrealistic. There are many other revealing aspects to the poor special effects. Yongary, like Gamera, can breathe and literally inhale fire. Whenever he does either one of these, you can see the nozzle in the back of his mouth and his tongue just seems to disappear. And what's also funny? Yongary is prone to feeling itchy, and also likes to dance. Yes, dance.The human characters are dull and uninteresting, mostly annoying, as you would expect. Dubbing, for once, wasn't half-bad. Like Gamera, Yongary has a child character who idolizes him. But I think this character just smiled too much. Even when he talks about how Yongary wasn't a bad monster, he just smiles. If Yongary is facing danger, instead of being angry, the kid still smiles. There is also a sense of stupidity with these characters. Such as, what's the point to sending a man in a rocket into space to observe a nuclear explosion? One can easily see and observe from a safe distance on Earth. And also, there's a moment where the characters argue about missiles to attack Yongary with, and say the missiles could be too dangerous to the city to use. But, when they are used, the missiles don't seem to cause much for an explosion. Missiles fired by jets later on, which are much smaller and less destructive, seem to cause greater damage.Bottom line, "Yongary: Monster of the Deep" is a movie that is worth looking at. But do not expect much from it. It is better than other low-budget Godzilla-rip offs such as "The X from Outer Space", but is still not all that impressive of a film.
2 out of 3 people found the following review useful: Hey Korea...you're late!, 17 February 2008 Author: haildevilman from Tokyo, Japan
But you did give us a great one. Thank you.An earthquake shakes up the peninsula and it turns out a 'Seoul' version of Godzilla is to blame. Meet Youngary.Like the Japanese films, this big creature stomps cities and causes general mayhem just because. People flee and we hope they make it. So why is it different? Korea gave the cast, crew, and direction a lot more emotion. The stoic nature in Tokyo is a lot more stressed. The Koreans were allowed to free their feelings. Therefore our hearts were with them.A lot of the decor was different too. An Asia-phile would notice it more. But it was good to see a "Kan-Kokku-no" version in the monster genre.Nice job Seoul-mates. Welcome aboard.
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