Yongary, Monster from the Deep (1967)

South Korea does Kaiju, 20 April 2017

As with a lot of the movies I've written about lately, until last night, I hadn't seen Yongary in what seems like a million years. Thanks to the new MST3k, I watched it once again. I remembered it being a cheap, poor, Godzilla knockoff – and that's exactly what it is. Other than the horn on the nose, the creature designs are almost identical. Even the plots are similar with Yongary going on a rampage through Seoul, similar to Godzilla's rampage through Tokyo.

But that's where the similarities between Yondary and Godzilla end. First, compared with Yongary, Godzilla looks incredible. It may be a man in a rubber suit, but the Godzilla design is so much better than Yongary. Yongary looks exactly like what it is – a man in a rubber suit. The Godzilla design is much fuller and more interesting to look at. The eyes, though always a weakness with Godzilla, are a million times better and more expressive than Yongary. And Godzilla's roar destroys what little noise Yongary makes. Other aspects of the films where Yongary fails: tone, music, plot, action, miniatures, acting, interesting characters, and on and on. In fact I cannot think of a single area where Yongary beats Godzilla. To make matters worse, it's boring. There is absolutely no tension. At no time is the menace that's so palpable in other monster movies present in Yongary. If all that weren't bad enough, the dance scene with the annoying kid and Yongary should be enough to put anyone off Yongary. In the end, not only do I find Yongary a poor example of a kaiju, it's a poor film regardless of how you classify it.

4/10