A few days ago my Arts Editor and I finished watching Yongary, Monster from the Deep (1967), a South Korean monster movie, and ever since I’ve been awaiting that moment of inspiration that will let me build the proper review of this … this …
It didn’t come.
Apparently inspired by the classic Godzilla, I’m completely bewildered as to its artistic purpose. Godzilla, and to some extent the other Japanese kaiju flicks, often had a message at their heart. Godzilla was awakened by nuclear bomb testing and laid waste to the Japanese as if in punishment. Rodan was more environmental, as a toxic mine shaft is driven to the lair where the eggs containing the Rodan monsters have survived, ready to hatch and dine upon the monstrous caterpillars killing the miners. (OK, so the message is a bit mixed.)
But in Yongary, the monster is released upon South Korea due to nuclear activities in the Mid East – not connected to the Koreans. The monster sports a fiery breath reminiscent of Godzilla’s, and adds in a laser beam emanating from his nose horn. People die from its actions, especially one poor chap who Yongary picks up for particular attention and a curiously bland death.
And our attention is not drawn to anything that might be considered a message, but instead to a young boy who has no impulse control, apparently can breach security perimeters at will, as well as the laws of space & time, not to mention my own sense of propriety when it comes to child management. At one point, for no particular reason, the monster breaks into what might be charitably described as a dance, and the child dances, too; based on this sentimental attachment, the kid later advocates for letting the monster go, rather than exterminating this critter that has rampaged through a couple of cities, drank fuel oil like a cocktail, and sprayed various military personnel with a spectrum of awful death. Since we can credibly say Yongary is not part of the ecological cycle, having slept underground for an unknown number of millennia, it’s thoroughly reasonable to leave its bloody corpse for the seagulls.
So … this is a four beer movie. You’ll need to drink at least four beers before you can even hope to enjoy it. The best I can say is that the dubbing is well done. After that, it’s a charity case.
