By 1967, the kaiju boon in Japan was in full-swing as Godzilla and his cohorts were scoring respectfully at the box office for Toho Studios, much like Daiei's kid-friendly alternative Gamera. With efforts like Daiei's secondary series Daimajin, The X from Outer Space coming from Shochiku and Monster from a Prehistoric Planet released by Nikkatsu by this point, South Korea's Keukdong Entertainment Company and Japan's Toei Studios partnered together for the oldest surviving South Korean kaiju film, to capitalize on the genre's success.
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After their wedding night, astronaut Il-woo (Oh Yeong-il) is forced to leave his bride Soon-a (Nam Jeong-im) when his boss Kwang-nam (Lee Sun-jae) tells him of a new mission. After hearing about a potential nuclear test being carried out by a Middle Eastern country, he is to go up on a rocket and spy on the event, which carries off without a hitch only to then come upon a strange earthquake traveling across the area on a direct line for South Korean soil. It soon becomes apparent that the earthquake is being caused by the giant underground dinosaur Yongary, revived from the nuclear tests, which begins rampaging through the country destroying everything it comes across. With conventional weaponry powerless to stop it, Il-woo comes across his brother-in-law Yoo-young's (Lee Kwang-ho) discovery of a potential weakness in the creature, using a special chemical compound which seemingly has the potential to stop it and sets out to use it on Yongary before it destroys the country.
“Yongary, Monster from the Deep” is an overall quite fun effort if featuring a somewhat simplistic story. The idea here is essentially strange occurrences in the countryside which are revealed to be caused by a giant monster, as it rampages across the city destroying things while the military proves to be ineffectual as a little kid is shown to know how to actually stop it. He then allows the authorities to put the plan into motion which stops the monster. That's the basic outline of just about every kind of genre effort featured in the scene which is admittedly serviceable due to the frequency of use. However, there's no real surprise generated by the monster story. That also means that not a whole lot else really gets known about Yongary himself, with just a passing reference to it's backstory and nothing else from why it needs to drink oil to how it got trapped under the Earth. There's no reason to expect the film to offer such elements but it's more indicative of its simple, formulaic nature.
As for the human drama, this is quite lame. The fact that the newlywed couple Ill-woo and Soon-a don't seem all that interested in getting to know each other is a big issue. What with her desire for attention and him being more preoccupied with work to the point of leaving her on their honeymoon in order to undertake a mission from his bosses, it means they don't have any special connection at all and they don't really come off with any kind of impressive story. Beyond them, it's all pretty much just the expected military figures trying to come up with a plan of action against the creature and there's not much story there with it being divided into two pieces. After initially trying to discover the source behind the earthquakes, it's soon going into how to stop the creature.
Like most of the film, the special effects are a mixed bag but have some solid moments within here. Starting with the monster costume, it's a workable and certainly distinctive creature. The overall design is reptilian that has some nice dinosaurian elements included. The horn on its nose, a small sail-like fin on its back and a pair of tail spikes make for some unique design features, but it's still pretty clear that the overall intention was to rip off the big kaiju films in the genre, Godzilla and Gamera. Elements of both creatures make their way into his final design, and he looks close enough to appeal to that crowd while not being a total clone. The construction of the costume is certainly serviceable, hiding the actor within, although the cheap-jack nature of the construction is obvious, with the suit plainly and continuously folding up in bunches around the chest whenever he has his arms extended in front of him. As well, the numerous times where the nozzle at the back of the throat to put the flamethrower for Yongary's fire-breath are somewhat comical and cheesy-looking which just adds to its low-budget charm
Apart the kaiju work, there's still a lot to like here. Done in miniature, the model rocket-work, from it firing off the launchpad to being shown in flight, look solid enough for the time period with their realistic flames and steady guide in flight. The best work is the sets for the earthquake-rattling countryside which are truly impressive. These end up ranging from the shifting mountains, the heaving smoke and cracks in the ground to the tumbling dirt and buildings for some solid action-packed sequences. Yongary's second appearance at the mountain resort where it gets attacked by the military offers up some rather solid miniature equipment firing at it. Once the film gets Yongary loose, there's plenty more to like with the cheap-if-effective miniature city. The creatures' rampage is given plenty of solid action in a brief if still fun rampage engaging in the typical monster movie fun as it smashes through the cityscape.
However, what must be mentioned here is the fact that, for as much good as it does in the special effects work, some incredibly sloppy work slips through. The suit construction gives the beast a derpy look at times, as well as the few other aforementioned suit issues, which is only the start of problems here. For every shot where the miniature city comes off great, there are scenes of Yongary knocking over obviously hollow shells or dumping shoeboxes onto fleeing citizenry disguised as rubble. Another notable example of this includes the famous sequence of the creature using a one-shot horn blast to slice open a transport vehicle into several pieces and the stunt piece goes straight for the camera giving off a clear view of the guide wheel underneath that would ensure the safety of the performers. It's a feature that sticks out where the filmmaking quality enhances the flaw and makes this look far cheaper than it really should be remembered for.
By and large, it's hard to really rate the acting mainly because it's impossible to distinguish who's who in the dub. The astronaut in the lead, Oh-Yeong-il as Il-woo (or Illo in the English dub) is quite bland and unappealing. He comes off as a workaholic who does nothing of importance, as he tries to work on his assignment, which means he neglects his newlywed wife Soon-a for the majority of the film. He's a bit better in the second half where he's a bit more proactive in trying to come up with the chemical solution to stop the rampage, but there's still not much else to the guy. Nam Jeong-im as his wife Soon-a is a perpetual worrywart who basically exists to be put into peril by the beasts' rampage or look concerned by the lack of attention paid to her before just completely disappearing in the final half for no real reason.
However bland these characters are, they're nothing compared to the bratty kid Yoo-young or Icho in the English dub. He's either Soon-a's younger brother or cousin or something like that which is never confirmed and is all for the better. Yoo-young is the stereotypical younger kid from this genre of films, basically doing whatever he wants to simply because he's a young child so all his antics are ignored and laughed off without discipline. He has to be the one who discovers the monsters' weakness and is given a free pass to do anything and everything again without discipline which is infuriating and unrealistic. Given an annoyingly smug dub that hams up his performance more than anything else, he's the worst aspect of the movie.
One of the few additional elements worth mentioning is the means of the monsters' demise, which is quite distressing and somewhat demeaning to the creature. Whether intentionally or not, the sight of the helpless, twitching creature laying on the beach as a pool of blood seeps into the water around it from what appears to be the back or hind legs of the creature comes off as mercilessly cruel and unwarranted due to our connection to the beast. Based on the scene of it shown to be actively dancing and grooving to a surf-rock tune being played over a radio and the sense of sympathy shown to it because of that scene, to see the creature get disposed of in the manner depicted here in such a heartless method, especially with the cutaways to show the group spraying it to be laughing and enjoying the fact that their plan is working, just adds even more to the cruelty.
While “Yongary, Monster from the Deep” has some of the biggest detriments possible for this kind of genre effort, there are more than enough positives to be had that it becomes quite fun in the interim. Give this a chance if you're into these kinds of cheesy kaiju efforts or are curious about genre products from outside Japan, while those who are incapable of looking beyond the flaws should definitely heed caution if not outright avoid it.
