Yonggary, Success or Failure?

If you're living in South Korea for 3 years till now, you might know about 'Shim Hyung Rae' & [Yonggary](1999 & 2001). He was admired as the pioneer of Korean movie, and he was blamed as the great deceiver. But nobody cares about his goal, "Making movies to sell". So I'd like to write some article about that point, and tell you whether [Yonggary] is Success or Failure.

The past of Young-gu art movie
First of all, is [Yonggary] good movie or not? I've written some articles about this over 3 years(only in Korean), and [Yonggary] is half-success & half-failure movie. But before I let you know about that, I must tell you about Young-gu art movie that debuted with [Young gu and Dinosaur Ju-Ju](1993). Young-gu art movie has made 5 theatrical movie & 3 video movies till now(Except for [Pink can], comedy movie but never released), and they had only made 'SFX-based movie for children' for about 10 years. But only [Power King] & [Yonggary] gained money, and another movies got failed in market till now. In other words, "They must be got broken long time ago". Though they didn't earn lots of money, they improved much things in SFX, and to my surprise, every movie gained about 10 years of development that foreign movie industry got.

If you compare [Young gu and Dinosaur Ju-Ju] (Very cheesy & really low budget movie) to [Yonggary](Good minature & not bad CG), you would know what I mean. In Korean movie industry, and even in the American movie industry, nobody has never done such fast improvement in SFX, so we might admire Mr. Shim with this point. But the problem is on Korean movie critics & audience, who can't see such points. I've told this thing over 3 years(Only in Korean article). [Yonggary] SFX was the best thing in Korean film history, and that storyline(That was blamed as bad plot.) was typical as 'Giant Monster movies', so it doesn't have really serious problem in the movie itself. In fact, [Yonggary] has serious problem in other part, and I'd let you see them below.

How foreigner Monster Movie lovers think about [Yonggary]?
I'd like to make sure about this thing first. [Yonggary] was very famous, when Mr. Shim got 10 minutes promo film to abroad, and lots of Monster Movie lovers were intersted in it. At least, those articles about [Yonggary](Which was suspected as fake in Korea) was almost real, and lots of foreigner were aware of that movie. And after [Yonggary] went abroad, lots of Korean films went oversea to attend Film Festival & Market, too. So [Yonggary] had made good footstep at Korean film industries, and [Yonggary] became the most famous Korean movie all over the world.

Even Argentina released a [Yonggary] VHS! If you type 'Yonggary' at Yahoo(http://www.yahoo.com), and press Web Page Matches, you could find 415 matches at Nov/9th/2001. Some of them are Young-gu art movie offical homepage & Korean fan made homepage, but most of them are made by foreigners. Some are for selling, some are for reviewing, and some are made of [Yonggary] articles before that movie was released. And you can find much more POSITIVE FEEDBACK than you've expected. I've read lots of [Yonggary] reviews here and there, some were positive & some were negative, but lots of monster movie has enemies, so I think it's not so serious. The most important thing is, [Yonggary] got spotlight all over the world, and lots of people watched this movie.

[Yonggary] has serious problem - pt. 1
To tell the truth, the most important problem about [Yonggary] is, Young-gu art movie couldn't get good money with this one. Mr. Shim always says "I make movies to sell, not for art", but he couldn't earn money well. What do you think about this irony? But this is real & serious thing. In South Korea, lots of people watched [Yonggary 1999], but how about [Upgrade Yonggary]? It's renewal version, and they told everyone "This is real one!", however they didn't use enough money for commercial! As you know, domestic income is very important thing to import movies(Even in American movies!), and Young-gu art movie must spend much more money in Korean market for commercial! To things make worse, HK VCD was released very soon after Korean theatrical release. It was about 6 months before American DVD release, so lots of HK dealer sold it on EBAY.

HK dealer got some money from selling this, but how about Young-gu art movie? They must get high score on American & Japanese film market, but lots of Monster Moive lovers got HK VCD before. So that movie was going far from Success money making. Actually, EBAY had got more than 10 VCDs(And some American bootleg) at once from first release date to 3-4 months later, they were sold very well, and most of the Internet reviews were based on those HK VCD. It was really serious problem with [Yonggary] international selling. And... finally, there comes American VHS & DVD! [Yonggary] can't get theatrical release, but they were distributed by Columbia Tristar(This company distributed [Godzilla] & some recent [Godzilla] movies. So they were most suitable company.), and [Yonggary] became the 1st.

The Korean movie that was distributed by American Major Production. But some bad things happened at the same time. [Yonggary] was named after [Reptilian](What does it mean? I really don't know about this word!), DVD cover was made alike [Godzilla]. and 'MFI' was the boss of the International sell of [Yonggary]. In fact, 'Young-gu art movie' & 'MFI' were not in good condition at the early of this year, and they wanted to make their oversea office at America to sell [Yonggary] directly, but they failed & 'MFI' came back. [Yonggary] is with Columbia right now, but who might win the money? Within some months, [Yonggary] would be released at Japan, but who would win that money, too? And [Upgrade Yonggary] has some serious problem in movie itself. At first, 'Cho Sung Woo'(The most important Korean OST composer, and made [Yonggary 1999] music) was removed from [Yonggary] Score, and 'Chris Desmond' got in [Upgrade Yonggary] Score.

But who is 'Chris Desmond'? When I find his name at IMDB, I can't find any composer whose has the name as 'Chris Desmond'! He might be newbie, or another Alan Smithee. Anyway 'Cho Sung Woo' was very good, and why Mr. Shim replaced his music with Chris Desmond? Everybody who saw [Yonggary 1999] (Or got [Yonggary] OST CD) tells "Chris Desmond sucks!". And what about that 'Abominable Erotic Scene' in the first sequence? That's no need for [Yonggary], and it was really ugly one! And what about that dialogue "Godzilla is Pussy."? Lots of Godzilla fan got angry with that.

[Yonggary] has serious problem - pt. 2
Mr. Shim told "We want to make the world for Mania!", but he didn't do real thing for Mania. He visited lots of Market, but never attend any Festivals as G-Fest & FantAsia. (Just Damon Foster of Oriental Cinema showed some early tapes of Mr. Shim at G-Fest.) And Mr. Shim must contact some fanzine & webzine as Oriental Cinema - Monster Zero & KFC Cinema, but he has never done it yet. In fact, I & my friend got a request from some Festival for Young-gu art movie, to attend Festival & show [Yonggary], and we handled it to Mr. Shim. But nothing had happened after that! [Yonggary] was very well known abroad, but only through Offical Press. We all know how Monster Movie Mania has big power, so Bandai & Toho contacts them very well. Young-gu art movie must consider mania as big part of their commercial, as Bandai & Toho do, but they had never done it yet. That's very miserable thing! And about Young-gu art movie offical homepage, I can't find anything special & new there! Then what is for their offical homepage?

Young-gu art movie must consider 'marketing' best! As Mr. Shim always said, he makes movies to sell, and he must make movies to be well-sold. If someone's trying to sell movie, 'Production' is important, but 'Distribution' & 'Marketing' are also important! But about [Yonggary], it only does good to others(Another Korean movie production - HK VCD seller - MFI), and then Mr. Shim & Young-gu art movie got trouble with earning cash again. Privately I had been big fan of their films, and I think their improvement is really excellent! But they must sell much better, and that's all upon them! We are just audience & fan, so we can't help anything, if they don't struggle to do it much better.

Young-gu art movie Theatrical release:
-1993 Young gu and Dinosaur Ju Ju
-1994 Tyranno's Claw
-1995 Power King
-1996 Dragon Tuka
-1999 Yonggary 1999
-2001 Upgrade Yonggary (Count those [Yonggary] series as one) -

Video release
Young gu and Monster Bul Gwi Ri Shim Bi Hong Grandmother Cop

Web page With Yonggary infos:
Young-gu art offical homepage
Monster Zero (American Monster movie fanzine-community)
KFC Cinema (The best Asian movie webzine in Canada)

Article by : MrKwang
Visit his Korean Store at: http://www.mrkwang.com/