Yongary, Monster From The Deep Review (1967) | Godzilla Island Archive

Note: This article was originally published on Godzilla Island in 2015 all views and opinions may have since changed.

The Plot:

Yongary, Monster from the Deep starts off with a space mission to observe, from orbit, a bomb test taking place in the Middle East. During the test, the explosion triggers an earthquake that awakens the monster Yongary!

At first, everyone in Korea believes the earthquake moving across Asia is just a tremor or aftershock, but when it finally reaches Korea, we soon learn that Yongary is the true cause. Yongary was long believed to be a mythical monster that controlled earthquakes but now that myth becomes reality. Yongary doesn’t control earthquakes but instead causes them while traveling underground through the Earth.

The military immediately attempts to engage Yongary in battle but fails miserably. Bullets and tank artillery have no effect on this reptilian monster. Yongary treks across Korea, knocking down buildings with its spiked tail and burning cities with its fiery dragon breath, as the military stands by with no weapons strong enough to hurt it.

Yongary eventually stumbles upon an oil storage facility and begins feeding on the oil. The oil seems to be what allows Yongary to spit fire from its mouth. Back in the Middle East, where Yongary originally lived, there was an abundance of natural gas and oil underground likely what kept the monster fed and satisfied as it slumbered beneath the Earth, waiting to be disturbed by mankind.

While at the oil facility, a boy named Icho shuts the oil tanks down so Yongary doesn’t grow stronger from feeding on the oil reserves. Yongary goes into a fit of rage and destroys a tank full of ammonia. The ammonia is the first thing we see irritate the monster Yongary begins itching and flailing, trying to get it off its body.

Icho brings this news to the military, and they devise a plan to spray Yongary with an ammonia mixture. The mixture works at first, knocking the monster out long enough for the military to open fire with their strongest missiles. They believe they’ve won but soon learn that Yongary is still alive.

The scientists return to the lab to develop a stronger ammonia compound to finish the job. Meanwhile, the military begins an aerial attack on Yongary. During this battle, Yongary reveals another one of its abilities: a deadly energy beam fired from its horn that can slice planes and cars cleanly in half. Many fighter pilots die in the battle, and only a few manage to retreat.

The military puts their final plan into action, sending out a helicopter to spray Yongary with the new ammonia mixture. This time, Yongary flails around in pain and eventually collapses near a river. The monster slowly and painfully dies as the poison flows through its body, shutting down its organs one by one.

My Thoughts:

This movie was overall pretty good I only have a few complaints, but I did enjoy it.

My first complaint is that whenever Yongary used its fiery breath, they used a low camera angle that clearly showed the metal flamethrower nozzle inside the costume’s head. Seeing that metal nozzle really took me out of the scene. I don’t understand why they didn’t just shoot it from a higher angle or a different side of the monster, like the back or the side anything but the front.

The second thing that bothered me was when Icho started dancing around with Yongary after the first attack. Icho thought Yongary was dancing too, but I like to believe the monster was just shaking off the leftover ammonia residue. The music in that scene didn’t help it made it seem like Yongary was actually dancing. If they had left the scene with no music and shown the military pulling Icho away, yelling at him for being an idiot, that would’ve made it so much better. Instead, they went with goofy music that kind of killed the moment.

Other than the dance scene and the bad camera angles during the fire breath, I didn’t have any real complaints. I would’ve said this movie was just as good as a Showa-era Gamera movie, but that dance scene hurt it.

The film did have a nice message, though about how man’s actions caused Yongary’s awakening and that the monster was really just an innocent creature that didn’t know any better, similar to King Kong. I also feel like Yongary’s consumption of oil was a subtle symbol or jab at mankind’s overconsumption of Earth’s natural resources.

Overall, this movie is a good watch, especially if you’re building your kaiju collection. Pick it up if you want something classic, fun, and a little different from the usual Toho lineup.