Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Monster Mystery solved!

A quick bit of silliness before I delved into my next blog (due out tomorrow). I've had a small monster toy and I couldn't place its origins. I've had this small, very detailed 3" plastic critter for about ten years. It made its way from one box of toys to another; lived on a self of DVDs, and eventually migrated to my bedside table. Cute little monster. But where the hell did it come from? Nobody I showed it to had any idea.  I knew it must've been a critter from some kaiju film.












YONGARY from 1967

A few months ago I was researching early South Korean giant monster films which there are very few. Most of you may remember YONGARY (대괴수 용가리) from 1967, a giant monster film that played on USA TV in the 70's which was later remade in 1999. There was even an earlier 1962 giant monster film called PULGASARI. Nothing exists of this film other than a low-rez poster I found on a South Korean film archives site. It was later remade as BULGASARI a kaiju/comrade-prograganda film in the 1985 by North Korea.

1962 South Korean Giant Monster epic PULGASARI
North Korean BULGASARI from 1985.
So where does my little monster fit into all of this? Well, there is a little known 1984 South Korean giant monster movie called BICHEON GOESU. It's not a great film, and it features a horribly annoying little girl who whines and cries and acts like a little shit throughout the production. Kind of like the fat little jerk in YONGARY and all those obnoxious kids in the Gamera and Godzilla series.  Anyways, when watching this film for the second time it clicked.

There as my toy destroying building, doing a poor job dodging missiles, and, sadly, NOT stomping on that annoying little girl.


Mystery solved.

UPDATE: 
From August Ragone, Master Kaiju-wrangler (via the MONSTER! Blog FB page):
"This Korean film used footage from the first episode of Tsuburaya Productions' ULTRAMAN ACE! This is the "Superbeast" (synthetic organism), "Belocron" (renamed "Verocron" by some newer fans). He recently came back in episodes of ULTRAMAN MEBIUS and ULTRA GALAXY."




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