A big Thank You to Xploited Cinema for special ordering these DVDs for me!Plot: An unnamed world power plans to detonate an atomic bomb, so the South Korean space authority sends their best astronaut to observe the explosion from space. The subsequent explosion starts a chain reaction of fissures in the Earth, which releases an old Korean legend, Yongary. The monster attacks Seoul, before retreating to the outskirts of the city. The military attacks with its arsenal but with no result. A bratty kid discovers that Yongary is allergic to a chemical, and his scientist uncle determines it is a “precipitate of ammonia.” A batch large enough to destroy Yongary is made and poured on it. Yongary dies in the most disturbing and graphic manner of any giant monster film.
Do you remember that old Norm McDonald shtick on “Saturday Night Live” where he would discuss some world event on “Weekend Update” and end with “proof that Germans love David Hasselhoff.” Well I don’t know about that, but today we will examine the overwhelming proof that Germans DO love Yongary.
Since 2000, there have been three German DVD releases of South Korea’s favorite reptilian protagonist. Yongary was an amalgamation of the popular kaiju of that time, namely Gamera and Godzilla. The special effects were done by Toei (a point that is repeated a number of times on the South Korean poster) to give it that marketability that a giant monster movie in the 60’s needed. Yongary was far from being a great film, but it certainly has enough going for it to elevate it to classic status. For instance, in my opinion its better than ANY Godzilla film made after Biollante. One of Yongary’s biggest problems is its music score. It’s repetitive and droning, and only occasionally echoes the action on the screen.
Yongary didn’t have a theatrical release in the USA. No instead it was purchased and released straight to television by AIP-TV. It seemed to have been released theatrically in a number of European countries though such as Germany, Italy, France and Belgium. Strangely enough, I have not found any evidence that it was released in Japan in any form. Considering Toei did the special effects, I thought it would have some audience there.
All that aside, it did seem to enjoy some popularity in Germany. There was a 20 minute Super 8MM digest version sold (in color, sound and letterboxed) during the mid-seventies by Marketing Film. During the VHS boom, it was reissued a few times in Germany, mostly under the title Godzilla Monster Des Schreckens.
Now that is not enough to prove that Yongary was necessarily popular in Germany, but if you compare it to how many times it was released here (a Super 8MM digest, one video/laser disc release and one DVD release) its difficult not to draw the same conclusion.
The German version of Yongary differs dramatically from the American version, which is now the most complete version available. The German distributors excised almost 20 minutes out of the movie. Even so, there is one scene in the German version that was cut out of the American version! In the US version, we see the atomic explosion. In the German version, you see an aircraft drop the bomb then the explosion.
Now since the German versions are letterboxed, you see things that were not seen in the American version. Most notably when “Ichou” (the bratty kid) is spying on Yongary drinking oil. In the cropped US version, you only see Ichou crouched behind some boxes looking at Yongary who is off screen. Now for the first time you can see Yongary dip his head into the oil vat and drink.
What you can’t see in the German version is probably their meisterstruck in editing the film…the entire sequence where Yongary is dancing to rock music is gone. They also cut all of the ancillary stuff around the astronaut landing and other dialogue heavy segments that didn’t advance the plot.
The DVDs
Yongary was released by three different labels in Germany, each version improving upon the last! All included a letterboxed non-anamorphic print of the film. All three are Region 2 – PAL.
2001 - Godzillas Todespranke (Godzilla’s Deadly Pawn)
Best Entertainment/Astro Records & Filmworks
Includes:
VHS version of Godzillas Todespranke (title Godzilla monster des schreckens) letterboxed non-anamorphic w/chapter stops
Trailers from the German release Heisei Godzilla films (thru Mothra)
Godzilla actors filmography (in German)
2003 – Yongary Das Monster Aus Der Tiefe (Yongary the monster of the deep)
Marketing Film
VHS version of Godzillas Todespranke (title Godzilla monster des schreckens) letterboxed non-anamorphic
Picture Gallery (German and Italian lobby cards. The images are poor quality, like they were copied from the Internet)
AIP-TV version of Yongary, Monster from the Deep
The German Super 8MM digest version!
A slide show of grainy frame blow ups (from the 4:1 version)
Artwork gallery of posters, DVD &VHS box covers
Yongary’s director Kim Duk Kim’s filmography
2006 – Godzillas Todespranke (Godzilla’s Deadly Pawn)
CMV Laservision
A new, cleaner print of Godzillas Todespranke. Original theatrical version without the Godzilla monster des schreckens title card. Letterboxed non-anamorphic Attractive interactive menu. Unfortunately, the transfer is not as good as the first two releases. Lots of PAL “stagger” and artifacting
Picture Gallery – I was very surprised to see the images I provided to Alpha Video for their Yongary release included in this picture gallery. A couple of AIP-TV stills and an image of my Super 8MM of Yongary are featured, along with some images of DVD & VHS covers, and the German lobby cards.
AIP-TV version of Yongary, Monster from the Deep
The German Super 8MM digest version!
The German theatrical trailer for Yongary!
Bambi Meets Godzilla – the original Marv Newman cartoon
Gazorra- Die Bestie aus dem Erdinneren (Gazora, Beast From The Center Of The Earth) – a homemade stop motion dinosaur film made by German fans. Pretty cool.
All in all, these releases are the closest thing fans will ever have in the way of an Ultimate Yongary DVD experience. While the CMV release has the most goods, it falls short with the actual film presentation. So do like I did and buy all three.
