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Title: Yongary Monster From the Deep / Konga (Double Feature) (2007)
Format: DVD
Score:
Starring: Yeong-il Oh, Jeong-im Nam, Sun-jae Lee, Moon Kang, and Kwang Ho Lee
Director: John Lemont and Ki-duk Kim
Rating: Unrated
Runtime: 127 minutes
Hits: 119
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Review of Yongary Monster From the Deep / Konga (Double Feature)

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Comments for Yongary Monster From the Deep / Konga (Double Feature)

• Posted on 2009-09-18
  Fantastick Funne
  
  The prints which M G M Midnite Movies used for the transfer of these films, are beautifull. These films are fun. Yongary will give you a time to be a kid again. It also sports a well produced English dub. Konga features Michael Gough in true form. These films are among the classic monster films which evoke a compassion towards the monster. If you enjoy these, you will most likely appreciate Gorgo, Gappa (aka Monster from a pre-historic planet) ; or any film which features a creature minding its own business, which is up-heaved by an "act of man".
  
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• Posted on 2009-05-04
  One boring, one not . . .
  
  The Korean monster picture YONGARY looks phenomenal here in nicely restored widescreen, especially when compared to the various public domain releases of years gone by, but it's as boring as it ever was, sadly (it takes a good three+ minutes for the heroes to administer their winning "dose" at the climax). Also probably the only time I've seen a major character in a 60's movie anywhere die from rectal bleeding. Unique for what it is--Korea's first giant monster film--but squarely aimed at undiscriminating kids of the day (who preferred their monsters to dance!). KONGA's a different beastie altogether, although it's as budget-minded as YONGARY thanks to legendary producer Herman Cohen. But with Michael Gough in the lead, an actor who knew just how to pitch performances in this kind of material (most notably in Cohen's HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM), this is premium schlock with a gigantic ape--made that way by a jilted woman no less--stomping around a miniature London.
  
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• Posted on 2008-12-09
  Yongarrrrrrrrrrrrreat!!!!
  
  First; Yongary, Monster from the Deep
  
  It sure is refreshing to see some city other than Tokyo being stomped into the ground by a giant monster. Until the Heisei Gamera trilogy, every Kaiju just made a bee-line for Tokyo, it got kind of boring after a while.
  
  But being Korean and not Japanese, Yongary had no choice but to go after Seoul. He probably could not get a tourist visa and Japanese immigration officials are notoriously strict. But that aside, I thought he was a pretty cool monster, although in the end you kind of feel sorry for him. After all, how would you feel if you were knocked out of bed by a nuclear test in the nebulous "Middle East" (where was that, anyway??), and then when you went out for a drink and to do a little dancing, they started firing on you with artillery?? I would be damned surly about that myself. And then to add insult to injury they started spraying you with nasty chemicals that got you stoned and you eventually died from an overdose?? Not very hospitable if you ask me.
  
  Were the special effects cheesy, yeah kind of. Especially his fire-breathing where the metal nozzle is clearly visible in his mouth. The laser beam emanating from his rhino horn was pretty cool, he should have used that more often. And his "roar", well if he went up against Godzilla with THAT roar Big "G" would laugh himself to death. Imagine a lion's roar with a donkey braying superimposed on it and you hit it right on the head. But for a 60's monster movie the effects were certainly at least average.
  
  The cast was pretty well developed. Who knew Korea had a space program capable of putting a man in orbit on a moment's notice?? And the protagonist Il-lo's girlfriend Soon-a and here sister Yu-ri were incredibly cute. And the little kid Icho filled the bill nicely as the one who "befriends" Yongary, even if it was a bit late and then only to admonish them not to kill him quite so dead. To no avail I might add, the ending left very little room for a sequel. There was even an actor who was a dead ringer for Kim Jong-Il, which was strangely prophetic given that he was still decades away from taking power in the north at the time this flick was shot. And the cars, I would kill for a Corvair like the one driven by the heroic astronaut/monster fighter Kwang-nam, not to mention all the other cool American iron from the 50's and 60's. If they still built 'em like that the Not-So-Big-Anymore Three would not be in Washington rattling the tin cup, but that has little to do with the film.
  
  I wish the DVD had also had the Korean soundtrack, although that would have involved doing more than just slapping the dubbed english version on a disc. I give it four stars, it probably only deserves three because of the weakly dubbed voices in a British accent and no Korean soundtrack, but four it is.
  
  Next; Konga
  
  God, what an awful movie this was. But then I am having a hard time thinking of a GOOD British monster movie. They were all pretty terrible. This one especially so. Terrible special effects, terrible acting, terrible plot, terrible everything. It took a great deal of resolve just to sit through this one, and it was impossible to take it all in one dose. The one bright spot was near the end when the professor goes horn-dog on a student he has the hots for in the greenhouse and is in turn snatched up by Konga leaving the girl, who was not all that attractive in the first place, in the grasp of a giant Venus' Flytrap. Konga carrys the screaming prof around in one hand for what seemed like forever before tossing him on the sidewalk with a nice little splat, hoisting him by his proverbial pitard. We never did find out what happened to the girl, but presumably the Venus' Flytrap was the only real winner in this turkey of a flick. If this cinematic abomination were on a disc by itself, I would give it zero stars, but as it is it gets to ride Yongary's coat tails to a four star rating.
  
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• Posted on 2007-12-12
  Yongary At Last
  
  MGM continues to release some great titles in these Double Feature DVDs. KONGA, a goofy-but-entertaining one, has been released previously, so the real reason to get this is for the nice widescreen print of YONGARY, which was for many years the only South Korean monster film to be seen in the USA. Of course, comparisons to Godzilla and/or Gamera are all but inevitable, but the film stands on its own as a favorite Saturday afternoon Creature Feature. Video quality of both titles is fine, and YONGARY includes a scene I had not seen before: planes and military vehicles are sliced in half by Yongary's death ray...I guess he learned that trick from Gyaos. If you're a kaiju fan, this one's a must!
  
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• Posted on 2007-11-07
  From the pretty good to the indefensible
  
  Y'know, I wasn't really expecting to like either of these...
  So why buy the thing? Hey, it was cheap and I love the genre.
  But Konga was great! Misanthropic to be sure, some clunky effects without doubt but the former just added to its bent charms and the latter were not as numerous as I expected. Way more enjoyable than I was led to believe and everybody in the thing (except, weirdly, them playing cops) is a glorious, fat ham!
  Yongary, on the other hand, is the worst man-in-suit- monster movie I have had the rabid displeasure to see. I have a high tolerance for crappy movies but this is just unwatchable.
  So all three stars are for Konga, a deliciously guilty pleasure.
  
  And both flicks look great!
  
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