Yongary: Monster from the Deep – original title: Yonggary or Yongary (대괴수 용가리; Taekoesu Yongary; literally Great Monster Yongary) is a 1967 South Korean Kaiju monster film directed by prominent genre-film director Kim Ki-duk. It stars Oh Yeong-il and Nam Jeong-im.
The film was released in 1969 in the USA by American International Pictures (AIP) and is now considered to be in the public domain.
In 1999, a reimagining of the film was produced, released in Korea simply as Yonggary and released in the United States as Reptilian.
In the Middle East, a bomb is set off that creates massive earthquakes. Meanwhile, in South Korea, a young couple is about to get married and the tension builds when South Korea sends a manned space capsule to investigate the bomb site.
The earthquake reaches South Korea, caused by a giant monster named Yongary (inspired by a mythical creature in Korean lore). Yongary attacks Seoul and makes his way to the oil refineries where he consumes the oil…
Reviews:
‘The budget was obviously agonizingly low, and the movie features some of the worst matte shots of all time, but there’s an enormous amount of miniature scenery getting smashed, and the monster suit itself is at least as good as what Toho was serving up in the late 1960’s. Such a shame, then, that the people responsible for this film didn’t feel the need to put commensurate effort into the acting, direction, or screenplay.’ 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting
‘Unfortunately, the effects as a whole were one of the weaker points of the movie. Yonggary’s fire breath was produced by a blow torch within one of the heads used for the monster’s effect, and the nozzle could clearly be seen during some of the scenes when he’s blasting fire. The sets were decent and looked realistic enough when it came to Yonggary destroying them, but when it came to actors interacting with the rubble, it wasn’t hard to tell that they were pieces of styrofoam or (in the case of bricks) cardboard boxes.’ Kaiju Classics
‘Yongary was obviously meant as a replay (some MIGHT say “rip-off”) of the Godzilla films. This is most notable in the destruction scenes where Yongary walks through a building VERY similar to Japan’s Diet Building which Godzilla walked though in the 1954 original and which King Kong climbed atop of in King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962).’ Joe Cascio, DVD Drive-In
We are grateful to Just Screenshots and Robby’s Super 8 for some of the images above
