Based in South Korea, Yongary is yet another movie made to cash-in on the giant rubber-suited monster craze of the 1960’s. Essentially you get a combination of Godzilla and Gamera, with plot elements and creature designs stolen from both. I’ve watched this movie a few times as a kid, and yeah it’s taken me an excessively long time to review it, but here it is.

The movie starts out at a wedding, which happens to display most of the cast, and moves on to a scene where the resident little kid of the movie plays a potentially cancer-causing practical joke with an experimental itching-ray. Interrupting the honeymoon, the groom is called in for a space capsule recon of a potential nuclear test (I didn’t know South Korea had a space program, but then again I didn’t think Japan had one either.). Needless to say this test unleashes a giant monster, one that burrows through the ground in a beeline towards Seoul (I also didn’t know you could see moving-epicenter earthquakes from space). Once the monster shows his face (or in this case his back), they immediately declare him to be the legendary monster Yongary. What exactly this legend said is unknown to the audience. The military sends toy tanks and such, but nothing seems to stop this creature as he pointlessly trashes the city. Eventually Yongary makes his way to an oil refinery and sucks up some crude, then starts itching like crazy as he creates a cloud of chemicals, soon after falling asleep. Well with the help of the little kid (of course), the main characters of the story work out that Yongary is an energy-sucker (kinda like Gamera), and happens to be weakened by a “certain precipitate of ammonia”. The 8-year old also finds that Yongary dances when exposed to experimental itching rays. Eventually the resident scientist of this picture works out the exact formula and dumps it on poor Yongary. Side effects include headaches, fatigue, dry-mouth, anal bleeding, and in rare cases, death.

Although the plot goes all over the place, the pacing is fairly good and you get enough exposition to at least care for the characters a miniscule amount. You have your typical “my way or else” military types, your “I must save the world” scientific types, your “despite the wanton destruction the monster is a good guy” little kid types, and your “hi I’m female” worry-for-the-males types. Everything you need. One interesting point in this movie is it’s showcase of psychology as the various people react to the threat of giant monsters in their own ways. Some grab random furniture and run. Others state that they are dead anyways and start partying. Still others are compelled to watch the events despite the dangers involved. There is actually quite a lot of drama involved, despite the fact that it’s still just a silly monster movie. Playful antics pop up now and then. It’s almost as if they couldn’t decide what sort of movie they were making.

The same is true for the special effects. For the most part, it seems as if they wanted to make a dramatic backdrop to match the tension of the moments. The scenes of Yongary stomping the city are well-shot, highlighting the powerful imagery of sheer destruction by an unstoppable beast with glowing eyes. These images stick with you, and there is plenty of them because they went all-out when it comes to the sheer size of the model city. Like with the plot, though, silliness creeps in here and there. Sure the model-work is a bit above-par, but certain buildings are more fake-looking than others. Yongary impressively shoots fire out of his mouth, until you notice the metal nozzle of the blowtorch stuck in the suit. Sure the scene with the jet fighters is one of the better “planes attack monster” classic moments, but around the same time you also see Yongary slice a jeep in half with his laser and spot the notorious fifth wheal. It seems that for every dramatic well thought out image you have the lame image of uncaring budget.

So what do you end up with? A well-done bad movie! This one stands up there with Godzilla movies, probably the best/worst series around. Quite an amazing feat to be so good and so bad at the same time.

Descent Plot

Above-Par Special Effects

Nice showcase of monster attack psychology

Dramatic moments mixed with laughable moments

A blatant rip-off of other movies

Somewhat absurd situations abound

Disturbing overabundance of itching references

Extremely fake looking backdrops (I know I can paint a better night sky then that)

OK, who’s idea was it to make Yongary dance to surfing music?

Credits