[HorrorScience] Yongary, Monster from the Deep (1967)

The last giant monster movies I reviewed were fairly recent (Godzilla: King of the Monsters of 2019, Rampage of 2018, Kong: Skull Island of 2017, Shin Godzilla from 2016, Jurassic World from 2015 and godzilla 2014), so I have decided to comment on one that was created more than 50 years ago.

Taekoesu Yongari, either Yongari, Monster from the Deep is a giant monster movie created in 1967 by South Korea, so it will be the second Korean movie I comment on in this section (the first was The Host).

Practically all the movies I've seen in the Kaiju Eiga (giant monsters) genre are Japanese so movies like this one or Pulgasari (a North Korean film of that genre) gives me the opportunity to see how the Koreans interpreted such a Japanese genre.

The film begins with the wedding of two of the main characters, who see their honeymoon interrupted due to a strange event that causes the husband to return to work to do a reconnaissance mission (or something like that).

At that moment, an earthquake shakes Korea, causing an evacuation of the population near the core, although shortly after the epicenter of the earthquake appears to move, causing a real surprise to the scientific and military specialists in charge of solving the problem.

As it could not be otherwise, that epicenter turns out to be a giant dinosaur-like monster, which has the ability to shoot fire from its mouth and causes real destruction in the nearby city. It will be there where the protagonists (a scientist and a child) try to gather information about the monster in order to put an end to it.

The first feeling that this film gave me was that being Korean I would not have to obey the rules of Japanese films, which at that time had infantilized the Kaiju Eiga genre, making it almost unrecognizable, and had doses of “very special” humor as well as child protagonists forced into it to attract children. But after a few minutes of footage I realized that none of that was going to happen.

This film obeys the same patterns seen in Godzilla and Gamera films of that decade, we have absurd humor and nonsensical scenes, as well as a repellent child among the protagonists, although in defense of the young actor, I have to say that the child is relatively useful for the plot, at least at a specific moment.

One of the funniest (unintentionally) and original things about this film is the inclusion of people who, instead of running away, act strangely when they consider that they are facing the end of their lives. We have those who prefer to gorge themselves rather than eat good things and the typical religious person who starts shouting at the people who are fleeing so that instead of going they should pray to God, while holding a huge cross in his hand.

If we focus on Yongary, we see that his design is very typical of the time, half dinosaur, but with some elements that make him look fun (including the eyes). He could have easily passed for an enemy of Ultraman, Gamera, or the Showa stage of Godzilla (especially in recent years, where the designs became much more extravagant). However, this does not mean that the monster looks bad, rather, it is very similar to what is seen in Japanese films.

The best part of this film is in the special effects related to the destruction, since in those years the Godzilla series had begun to use tropical islands as a scene of destruction to reduce costs with films like Godzilla's son (1967) and Ebirah, Horror from the Deep (1966). However, in Yongary we have many models of cities ready to be razed. In addition, there is a certain variety in them, buildings, industrial zones, a little bit of everything.

We must also applaud the effects achieved when the lightning that Yongary launches from the horn cuts cleanly everything it touches (similar to Gyaos from the saga gamera) regardless of whether they are models or cars with actors on them. The scenes where the monster appears in the background and human actors in the foreground are also sufficiently accomplished, except for one of them, which has a horrible contrast that gives such a shoddy finish that it seems to belong to another movie (when the military cars pass by Yongary's feet).

Another negative thing is the editing of a few scenes, which seem to be poorly edited or as if there were missing footage. I mean things like we see a car on the road and then the drivers screaming, so that in the next scene the car is falling halfway down the mountain and exploding (without having seen it start to fall) and things like that.

These types of errors may be due to the fact that the film was possibly edited for release in the West. It was common at that time to retouch (and destroy) films by cutting or adding scenes so that they "adapted" better to Westerners. Unfortunately, the original version of the film is missing, so I will never be able to check it out.

What I do believe has no logical explanation is the inclusion of a scene where the monster appears dancing to the delight of the little boy. As I said, at that time these films used to be infantilized to appeal to children more, but that does not mean that this scene has no meaning within the story.

In general, I have to admit that I liked the film, although before seeing it I fantasized about the idea that it would move away from Japanese productions in tone or form, but the truth is that it is almost identical to those that were released in Japan in those years (both in the good and the bad).

Curiosities:

• El título americano de esta película es casi idéntico a Ebirah, Horror fom the Deep (uno de los títulos americanos de Gojira, Ebira, Mosura Nankai no Daikettō) que apareció un año antes.
• La versión original coreana de esta película está perdida (los productores enviaron el material original para hacer la versión occidental de la película y nunca más aparecieron, de manera que la versión conocida actualmente es la diseñada para occidentales.
• Inicialmente Yongary iba a ser un organismo unicelular proveniente del espacio, que mutaría a monstruo. Esto explica la existencia de imágenes de temática espacial (los créditos, las escenas del protagonista volando con el cohete) en la película, pese a que no tienen nada que ver con la trama.
• En 1999 se lanzó una película inspirada por esta, llamada Yonggary.
• La primera aparición de Yongary es en Panmunjom, lugar donde se finalizó la guerra de Corea en 1953. Hay quien considera que este hecho no es casual y Yongary representa el miedo a la guerra, de igual manera que la primera película de Godzilla lo representó en 1954.
• En una de las escenas de Yongary escupiendo fuego se puede ver la boca del lanzallamas usado para crear el efecto.