Happy Halloween!

Yongary! Eat the annoying kid!!

Who said the Japanese were the only ones who could make monster movies? Tonight in our "Around the world to meet new monsters" tour we meet Yongary. Though he is not dissimilar to Godzilla, as he does breathe fire, stomp on cities and gratuitously break things, eats oil and gasoline for strength, but he has one thing going for him that Gojira doesn't: a horn at the end of his nose... That blinks. I kid you not. It blinks. His beak blinks. This is Korean monster cinema at its best, yes you read that right, this cinematic masterpiece is from Korea.

Yongary does have some limitations though for one thing, his fire breathing mechanism works only for short distances which was quite unfortunate as he could have taken out the annoying lead characters in a chopper early on which would have improved the film immensely. His second limitation was his fascination with helicopters. Ooo a whirly birdy! Let's follow it to our doom! His third and last limitation was that he dies at the end, so much for a sequel. It was a most ignominious death too as he died half in and half out of a river, but happily he was able to take out one last bridge for the viewers enjoyment. Leaving his business end in a river he shuffled off this mortal coil leaving behind what was supposed to be blood in the water I guess, but age has deteriorated the color of the film somewhat so the red blood was more like brown diarrhea... Thus leaving the viewer thinking he crapped the river when he went the way of the dodo. Just a final indignation after being shot and poisoned to death.

One other aspect of the film that is not unlike some Godzilla movies - the obligatory annoying pre-pubescent know-it-all child in a starring role, UUGH! I hate that aspect about these films. It leaves me to think that all Asian children have level 7 security in their respective governments. I mean really, if I tried going the places these kids seem to just walk in I'd be shot dead on the spot and then arrested. And yet these scruffy little rascals always seem to save the day. Honestly I never like when the monster dies but at least I was spared from a final scene where some idiot kid is waving to a monster exiting stage left crying "Good bye Yongary! Thank you! Please come back. I love you!!" Or any other disturbing, annoying and nauseating sentiments. Whew saved, but just barely. Strangely enough, the annoying child in this film was in the weirdest part of the film - where Yongary hears music and just starts dancing to it. I mean busting a move to some hip late 60's rock n roll tune. Like yeah baby, you're sooo groooooovy!

Something I have learned watching these kinds of monster flicks is that Japan and now Korea evidently have helicopters and jet planes with the shortest turning radius's in the world. I mean those babies can literally turn on a dime! But when all is said and done this one is actually quite watchable, if you can get past the love crazy adults, an annoying child, and a death scene that would make Norma Desmond proud ~ until of course, the unfortunate pooping sequence...

Love this kitty's face!