Yonggary (1967)

Before the United States sent men to the moon South Korea had a futuristic space program...and...a giant fire breathing lizard visiting from out of town.

Prior to becoming a tv and film grandpa, Lee Soon Jae was an astronaut and pilot trying to celebrate his wedding night. Instead of celebrating he was called into action to observe from space an earthquake moving in a straight line toward Seoul.
Ill Woo, a young overworked scientist, tracked the phenomenon from the ground. Low and behold up popped from the ground Yongary, hungry and tearing through town looking for something to eat.

The requisite politicians and military took charge and performed all the tried-and-true tactics against a Kaiju, starting with tanks. This is where Korea broke with Japan when the tank commander didn't take long to call for a retreat. Anyone who watches these movies knows that the poor tank guys don't have a long life span when battling giant monsters. A helicopter managed to make it through, too. They also sent a plethora of missiles to pelt the beast, against Ill Woo's recommendation, which only served to strengthen the monster.

This is where I should mention the one thing I disliked about this movie. Yongary had one of the most annoying kids in monster movies, almost tying a couple of early Gamera flicks. The eight-year-old Icho delighted in pulling pranks such as using a beam his uncle invented which caused people to itch, like the poor honeymooners, and often disappearing from his older sister's care to follow Yongary around. And of course, the young scientific genius figured out what needed to be done to stop the behemoth. Ill Woo might have done the heavy lifting constructing the deadly weapon but he couldn't have done it without his plucky irritating sidekick. This was one of those movies I was rooting for the monster to eat the child.

Yongary's costume was almost on par with Godzilla's from this era, the flame nozzle in Y's mouth was quite visible, but in a rubber suit, I'm not sure how they would have worked around it. And Yongary danced, the actor inside of the suit was quite agile for all he was required to do. South Korea must have sunk some money into this movie because overall the miniatures were quite good. Not to say they were all well-constructed, one canvas backdrop of the city looked like they should have ironed it before filming. A tank that was set on fire had it's wiring showing beneath it. Oh, and the moon looked like a Death Star prototype. But other than those few quibbles, the miniatures, forced perspective, sets and overlay were pleasing and well done.

Aside from the overly precocious child, the human stories were slightly above par for an old Kaiju movie and the acting passable. The Koreans brought a more emotional element to the genre. There was no moral to the story except sometimes you have to do things you don't like to do to survive.

Yongary was a fun monster romp, with lots of monster action. Toho could be stingy with Godzilla's scenes, this movie let the monster stomp, burn, laser and dance his way through South Korea before being brought low. A word of caution, the ending was a bit gruesome for the time period. Yongary was better than Son of Godzilla that came out in the same year, not saying much I know. I would have rated this slightly higher except for Yongary's diminutive fan who seemed to pop up in nearly every scene. If you enjoy giant monster movies from this time period and all the camp and tiny planes that entails, you might want to try this one.

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Great Godzilla-like movie

A great Korean kaiju movie from 1967. The camera work was average, but the special effect was great of course not up to par of today's effects but for the time it was good. I didn't like the design of the monster much but the way the actor acted in it made it look natural and not cringy like some kaiju movies look. The story was bland though, generic kaiju story. But when they got to destroy the building it felt epic and awesome. It ain't no Godzilla movie, but it's a great one for when you want some kaiju/Godzilla action that isn't Godzilla. The music is good too nothing to write home about though.

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