Scott LeBrun A massive surprise is in store for the people of Korea. When a massive earthquake shakes the central region, a monster emerges from a crack in the ground. A monster that supposedly was just a local legend: stomping, screaming, fire breathing lizard Yongary. Among those humans determined to put an end to its destructive rampage is the brilliant young scientist Ko Il-woo (Yeong-il Oh), who's just gotten married.For a shameless imitation of Japans' legendary "Gojira" series, this is actually pretty agreeable entertainment. It definitely lacks the gravitas and style of the original "Gojira", instead functioning more as simple, straightforward fun. The characters are likable, the women are just beautiful, and Yongary itself is a decent enough character. The filmmakers do give it some semblance of personality - for one thing, when it awakens from some sort of slumber, it is seen to "dance". Sure, the special effects aren't outstanding, but if you're in the mood for sequences of a man in a rubber suit stomping around and annihilating miniature sets, then the movie does deliver. It also looks fairly good in both color and widescreen.The main debit for a fair amount of viewers will be the child character, who runs around giggling to himself, causing mischief, and sometimes putting himself in harms' way. But this viewer will admit to being fairly amused by this kid.It's all pretty silly, but also impossible to truly dislike.Seven out of 10.

mark.waltz Dinosaur by play dough, trucks by Tonka. That's the obvious credit that this film should carry, a silly "Godzilla" rip-off where the sets are obviously models (check out those battery operated tanks) and pretty much every piece of metal (every shape or form of it) was utilized to provide plenty of amusement, but not in the way the creators may have wanted. This time, the monster is in Korea, not Japan, and Yongary comes out of the ground just as an enormous earthquake is continuing to devastate the whole country. The hero is a young kid, originally seen with some sort of gun that flashes a light and makes its victims itch horribly, in this case his own sister and her fiancée. Later, he gets the over-sized reptile to itch and dance at the time, making you think that you're in the middle of the "Itchy and Scratchy Show", ironically with rock music in the background. There's a strange brief sequence showing partying Koreans getting wasted, not realizing the danger outside approaching, but that's never even seen again, making me wonder if the editor cut out the wrong footage. Even with obvious models, the effects are pretty good, although kids today spoiled by computer technology and graphics are going to realize it's all phony. So if you want a few laughs with some bad English dubbing and a reminder of what didn't necessarily come from Hollywood (even though this ended up in a sequence of the 1982 documentary "It Came From Hollywood"), check this out. This is marked, interestingly enough, as having been released by American International Television, but for some reason, it's in widescreen, giving the impression that some drive-in or second rate theater somewhere must have shown it.

ebiros2 No offense to the South Koreans, but I'm surprised to see how similar the town and people looks compared to the kaijyu moves from the similar era Japan. I've heard that this move is not well known in its home country, and the version I saw was an English dubbed version made by MGM.An astronaut is asked to investigate a bomb experiment. When the bomb goes off, it starts a chain of earthquakes. The earth quake strangely is heading towards middle of Korea. A martial law s declared, and soon after the monster Yonggari appears from the ground.The look and feel of this movie is very similar to the Gamera series movies from the mid '60s. The man protagonist's driving a Chevy Corvair just like the original Ultraman series defense force guys were driving. Then comes the obligatory scientist's lab scene, and another obligatory meeting of the minds of the government officials. The Yonggari's special effects scenes were shot by Daiei's crew that were flown over from Japan, so I can understand the similarities, but even the scenes involving humans were very much like (almost identical) it's Japanese cousins. I'd like to compare this movies to other Korean movies from the same era to see if the similarities, were a coincidence.The movie is on par with the likes of Gamera vs. Barugon. Even the roar of Yonggari is borrowed from Barugon, but suitmation part isn't as good as the Japanese counterpart.There might be no market for this type of movie in Korea, but it would have been interesting if they developed this idea further as it was done n Japan. An okay film that's as entertaining as the kaijyu movies made by Daiei of '60s Japan.

haildevilman But you did give us a great one. Thank you.An earthquake shakes up the peninsula and it turns out a 'Seoul' version of Godzilla is to blame. Meet Youngary.Like the Japanese films, this big creature stomps cities and causes general mayhem just because. People flee and we hope they make it. So why is it different? Korea gave the cast, crew, and direction a lot more emotion. The stoic nature in Tokyo is a lot more stressed. The Koreans were allowed to free their feelings. Therefore our hearts were with them.A lot of the decor was different too. An Asia-phile would notice it more. But it was good to see a "Kan-Kokku-no" version in the monster genre.Nice job Seoul-mates. Welcome aboard.