Yongary, Monster from the Deep

Recently I talked about Denmark's 1960s entry in the kaiju eiga genre, Reptilicus. Now I'm moving eastward to South Korea for 1967's Yongary, Monster from the Deep, or Taekoesu Yongary, as it's known there. Yongary was more of a traditional giant monster, bipedal and rampaging, and making a beeline to the country of origin's major city - in this case, Seoul.

I was very surprised when I saw this movie recently on basic cable. Before the showing on something called The Works, a digital subchannel of MGM, a rating declared Yongary TV-14, and containing "some material that many parents would find unsuitable for children under 14 years of age." Wow. I had to wonder, as I've been watching giant monsters for as long as I can remember - did I have bad parents, and did I turn out all right? Wow.

The monster is strictly adequate, with a horn on its nose and light up eyes. They even threw in fire breath, via flamethrower. Most of the Japanese kaiju TV and even some of the cheaper Gamera movies seem to have bigger budgets, and the South Koreans had a lot to learn about building convincing miniatures. And since when has that country had a space program?

The movie is slow, plodding, and predictable. It's so bad that, yeah, I actually enjoyed the scene where Yongary dances. The moment is refreshing compared to everything else. When I first reviewed this movie, I also trashed its decades later sequel/remake Reptilian. To be honest, neither has aged gracefully. You can read that mess here. Hopefully my reviewing has aged better in a dozen years…

Snowpiercer

Snowpiercer ~ As far as word of mouth, and 2014's must see film, this was it. Everyone was talking about Snowpiercer. A future dystopic tale, where the world has been frozen over by an attempt to halt global warming and what's left of Earth's population has been loaded onto a constantly globe circling train divided by class into cars, just sounds insane, or at the least, very Terry Gilliam. In fact, and homage, John Hurt's character is even named Gilliam. Yes, it's a mental idea, but once you wrap your mind around it, it gets rather predictable, sadly.

Director Bong Joon-ho, probably best known for the wonderful new age kaiju eiga The Host, really wants to be Terry Gilliam here, and for the most part he succeeds. The amazing cast is caked in Gilliam grime, except for those who are clean and just plain odd. Captain America Chris Evans, The Help's Octavia Spencer, Alison Pill from "The Newsroom," Jamie Bell, Song Kang-ho, Ed Harris, and supremely odd Tilda Swinton are among the all star cast that make this flick.

The film is based on a French graphic novel called Le Transperceneige, and was Bong Joon-ho's first English language work. The class struggle turned into a rolling revolution is peppered with enough bizarro futurism and dystopian madness to keep things interesting. It's a science fiction ride that crosses The Poseidon Adventure with Les Miserables that has to be seen to be believed, and well worth watching.

Quickies 7-7-2014

The Black Knight Returns ~ This low budget superhero flick comes from Tomcat Films, the same folks who brought us Thunderstorm. Yeah, I know, I'm a masochist to watch this. This was pretty bad, it was no Thunderstorm, mind you, but pretty bad. It's about on par with the 1966 "Batman" TV series (without the humor or sensibility) crossed with the terrible Marvel movies of the 1970s. The problem? It's 2014. Pass.

Quick ~ At first glance, it's Speed, on a motorcycle, made in South Korea. Based on those three things, I thought this would just be derivative drivel, but I was sooo wrong. I was pleasantly surprised by the opening sequence that reminded me very much of the beginning of Akira. The terrific score only helped to pull me in. This fast furious and fun flick has a motorcycle messenger racing to destinations before the bomb in his helmet explodes, and it rocks.

Nazis at the Center of the Earth ~ Only from The Asylum could something so bizarre originate, well, there or Troma. Scientists in Antarctica finds Nazis living underground. Yep, it's just like Pellucidar or Skartaris, only instead of dinosaurs, it's got high tech Nazis. It's got Josef Mengele, robo-Hitler, and did I mention it stars Jake Busey as, wait for it, a scientist? Twisted fun, Asylum style.

World Without End ~ This 1956 scifi B-movie used footage and sets from 1951's Flight to Mars, and at first seems to be a precursor in plot and theme to both The Time Machine and Planet of the Apes (and its sequel Beneath… for that matter) but it soon falls apart into an uninteresting cross between a town meeting and a frontier western. Worth watching for the 1950s scifi nostalgia.