Yongary, Monster from the Deep

 (1967) ***1/2

In Korea, a series of earthquakes release the monster Yongary from his underground prison. Angered that they have disturbed his rest he proceeds to rampage through the city tearing down everything in his path. Guns and missiles seem to only increase his energy leaving the brains behind the weaponry at a loss. The solution finally comes via a pint-sized hero named Icho who provides the vital piece of information needed to take the big guy down.

I love monster movies, new ones, and old ones any way you can dish ‘em out. If you asked me as a kid who my hero was I would proudly blurt out Godzilla. Now some of these films can be a real labor to watch, glacially paced, too much deliberating and not enough rampaging, limited monster face time and all that stuff. Lord knows that our beloved Octopunk has trudged through some real snore fests for our benefit. I am happy to report that Yongari delivers the goods like only a man in a rubber suit can.


Sure there is some of this going on; they have to let us know how hard they are trying to get things under control.

 

 Fortunately there is also a whole mess of this going on in between those brainstorming sessions. 

 

Now while all the rampaging and brainstorming is going on the townspeople are running around wildly trying to evacuate the city. What are interesting to me were the items these people chose to grab in their frantic last minute scuttle.

 Perhaps the bucket guy was thinking he could provide a vessel for the booze guy once the bottle is gone if he’s feeling a bit queasy.

 Now I can give it to the rug guy, perhaps it was an expensive hand woven piece. But the globe? What the hell was this dude thinking? It reminds me of Steve Martin in The Jerk, “My globe, yeah, that’s all I need.”

 Then there are these fellows who figured fuck it, we’re all gonna die anyway so we’ll just stay here stuff our faces and booze it up. You have hold a certain level of admiration for them for making that choice.

 

Now what Icho sees that becomes vital to Yongary’s demise is this little scene at the chemical plant. 

 Yongary stomps the plant releasing a crapload of ammonia based powder.

This causes the monster to go into a fit of itching. He’s rolling around scratching himself like a dog with mange.  I really felt bad for the poor guy, there is nothing worse then being crazy itchy. Of course this little episode is nothing compared to the grief he suffers when the military dumps a few chopper fulls on him. Yongary is a fun watch and I was delighted to find that I had no memory of it from my childhood. It was like opening a Christmas gift that you thought was one thing and finding something completely unexpected and really cool.