Skip to main content

Space Monster Wangmagwi (1967)




Tonight on YouTube, I watched the Korean film Space Monster Wangmagwi. This flick was originally thought to have been lost. After it made its debut in South Korea, it seemed to have disappeared, showing up occasionally at Korean film screenings. The rights were eventually acquired in 2022 to license the film, and it has since become available for home media distribution. Wangmagwi is the oldest surviving Korean giant monster film, the other big one being Yongary. I saw this on a channel called The Original Creature Features.










The plot is about a UFO in space that sends a monster to Earth as part of their plans of conquest. They hope to use a typhoon as cover to send the monster down undetected. Once the creature reaches our planet, it will grow giant, go on a rampage and destroy civilization, leaving the Earth open for conquest. The film has several side characters and plots, including a woman who’s upset that her wedding day will be ruined, two bumbling fools who are making a bet on who can stay in the area longest, and a young boy who is determined to be brave and stop the monster. Most of these side stories are comedic and silly, giving the movie a goofy tone. The monster is a guy in a suit that looks like it was made out of dirty carpet, with a dorky face that sports big ears and teeth. Many of its scenes are shot from below at low angles, to give it the appearance of a giant. It has a mechanical box on its back that acts as a remote control, and it sprays an acid mist from its forehead that melts and burns everything it touches. The spacemen look like they are wearing welding suits. 











Despite its silly appearance, the monster scenes are entertaining enough, with a set full of impressive miniature work. The comedic elements don’t always work, sometimes coming off as just annoying or weird. There were some elements of King Kong, as Wangmagwi picks up the bride and carries her around his hand for most of the movie, enthralled by her cleavage. One of the most bizarre but entertaining sequences is when the little boy climbs up the monster, crawls into his ear, uses his knife to slash through the monster’s eardrum and end up in his nasal passage. While the military jets fly around and basically do nothing, the kid finds a way to destroy the monster’s control. Why none of the military members noticed the obvious electrical panel attached to the monster’s back and the kid did was kinda hilarious.







Ultimately, Space Monster Wangmagwi is just an ok movie. Nowhere near as good as some of the better Japanese kaiju films, it suffers due to the comedic subplots that slow down the pace, as well as the inept military who are outwitted by a kid. The monster attacks, while decent, should have had more destruction. The aliens sent him down with the hope that he will eat the population of humans, but other than one scene showing a guy getting stepped on, no one else gets eaten. It’s still worth checking out if you’re a kaiju fan, just don’t go in expecting a lot and you should be fine.







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Help Me… I’m Possessed (1974) / #Missingcouple (2024)

I've watched some weird, obscure horror movies throughout my life. I can now add this lurid 1974 schlockfest to that growing list. In a castle in the desert, Dr. Arthur Blackwood runs a sanitarium filled with mentally disturbed patients (as well as staff). He claims to be working on finding a way to cure people of any violent tendencies they have, and brags about his younger sister, innocent, child-like Melanie, as evidence that his treatment works. When she was a child, their parents had to keep her locked up and chained in the basement, to control her violent fits. Now that he's cured her, Arthur has his wife Diane come to the castle to meet Melanie, so that they can be one big, happy family. Diane begins to grow suspicious that something is amiss after a Sheriff shows up investigating the murder of 2 local teens, and sets about on her own investigation, hoping to uncover the sinister secrets that she feels her husband is hiding. Help Me... I'm Possessed is an outrageous,...
Post a Comment
Read more

S.H. MonsterArts Anguirus 1972

One of my most anticipated figure releases of 2025 was finally delivered this last week. Godzilla's trusty sidekick, S. H. MonsterArts Anguirus (based on the 1972 suit). From the early video and photo reviews I had seen, he looked to have turned out a great figure. Now that I have him in hand, he absolutely is! This Ankylosaurus is based on the suit that was introduced in 1968's Destroy All Monsters, and made subsequent appearances in Godzilla vs. Gigan (72), Godzilla vs. Megalon (73), and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (74). Anguirus was the 2nd Toho monster to ever appear on screen, dueling with the big G in 1955's Godzilla Raids Again. For the later films, he became Godzilla's buddy, helping him out in his various battles. I'm a bit surprised that it took Bandai this long to release Anguirus in the MonsterArts line, as he's one of the more popular kaiju, but better late than never. He's painted in a chocolate brown, with pale yellow on his various spikes, hor...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ultraman Omega finale

Episode 25, the series finale of Ultraman Omega aired this Friday. From the very first episode I was hooked, and the series continued to maintain a high quality until the surprisingly emotional end. Sorato (Omega) regained all his memories, learning that he was one of many Space Gazers, who's job is to watch a planet and not interfere with any wars between the species (in Earth's case, humans and kaiju). A space Gazer's job is to observe, study and take notes, to learn from a planet's successes and mistakes, in the hopes of finding the right formula to achieve universal peace. Having returned to his previous role as simply a watcher, Kosei, Ayumu and Sayuki were forced to rely on themselves and their team to defeat the powerful kaiju Zomera. As he continued to watch the battle, Sorato/Omega found himself wrestling with the inactive role he was meant to do and his memories of the friendships he had forged with the others, as well as the examples of human kindness he had ...
Post a Comment
Read more