Yongary, Monster from the Deep (1967)

Earthquakes in central Korea turn out to be the work of Yongary, a prehistoric gasoline-eating reptile that soon goes on a rampage through Seoul.

Director:

Ki-duk Kim

Writers:

Ki-duk Kim (screenplay), Yun-sung Seo

Stars:

Yeong-il Oh, Jeong-im Nam, Sun-jae Lee

Cast

Credited cast:
Yeong-il Oh	...	Ko Il-woo
Jeong-im Nam	...	Yoo Soon-a
Sun-jae Lee	...	Yoo Kwang-nam
Moon Kang	...	Kim Yu-ri
Kwang Ho Lee	...	Yoo Young
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Cho Kyoung-min	...	Yongary

Storyline

Earthquakes in central Korea turn out to be the work of Yongary, a prehistoric gasoline-eating reptile that soon goes on a rampage through Seoul.

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Plot Keywords:

reptile | korea | earthquake | kaiju | itching | 

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Taglines:

A Monster from another age ... with terrifying destructive powers ...

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

South Korea Japan

Language:

Korean

Release Date:

13 August 1967 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

Yongary, Monster from the Deep

Box Office

Budget:

KRW 117,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Keukdong Entertainment, Toei Company

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The special effects scenes were filmed in about 3 months.

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Goofs

When the Jeep speeds past Yongary's feet, several cracks are visible in the Yongary suit's tail.

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Quotes

Soldier: You got here a bit too late, sir. They're going to hit Yongary any minute. They'll be using guided missiles. You better go. They're going to hit Yongary any minute. They'll be using guided missiles. You better go.

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Alternate Versions

The US version of the film has had three slightly different title/end sequences. 1. The new region 1 MGM widescreen dvd had no titles on the film print. MGM did their best to match the previous 1960s version font and style 2. The public domain dvd released by St. Clair vision features the original titles sequence and has the wording of "American international tv Presents" in small lettering above the Yongary title 3. The public domain dvd released by Alpha video also has the original 60s title sequence, however the aip wording of "American international tv presents" is not present on their print. It just shows the title of the film. The end credit sequence is both the same for the alpha and St clair dvd versions. The MGM edition is slightly different

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Connections

Followed by Ape (1976)

User Reviews

the Godzilla and Gamera of Korea

"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.