A Quick Look: YONGARY, MONSTER FROM THE DEEP (1967/69 - color)

   Korean rather than Japanese, but the effects were farmed out to Japanese technicians (and the monster suit constructed by the same team who made the Gamera monsters) YONGARY, MONSTER FROM THE DEEP was South Korea's bid to enter the giant monster genre during the great explosion of such fare in the late 60's. It too was imported to American television by AIP-TV, and later had a successful run on home video. The film tells of a series of earthquakes that release a giant, fire-spitting, oil-eating, indestructible dinosaur upon the modern world. Not a bad picture. Like MONSTER FROM A PREHISTORIC PLANET, YONGARY, MONSTER FROM THE DEEP was also subject of a popular 8mm home movie digest. In an almost impossible turn of events, MGM DVD discovered and released a pristine widescreen print. This was big, as the original Korean version -like many Korean movies of the era- was lost. The old TV print has also turned up on a few discount multi-sets, but the film suffered one of the worst crop jobs I've ever seen.