I had just read about this movie in that great zine, and then it shows up on Amazon prime. I'm glad I didn't buy this thing. It's a South Korean giant monster movie, though not a single shot of the monsters was made in that country. It all came from various Tsuburaya shows, including Ultraman, Return of Ultraman, Fireman and Ultraman Ace. I think Bemstar is the lead monster, which is fine, it's a great looking beast, and the others just show up. The premise is a rather obsessed scientist has found out that monsters will be returning. A reporter is sent to interview him, and she befriends his precocious daughter. So it's a family drama with giant monsters.
The problem is that they go nearly half the movie before we get any monster action, or even real evidence that they exist. Bemstar makes a small cameo, but then it's this drama about the reporter, the child and her father. A smarter director would have interspersed the monster footage liberally through the movie, making the people more palatable. Instead they cram most of the monsters into the last third of the movie, where all the explosions and such get old quickly because there is barely a break in the action. The family stuff is pretty good, though the daughter, Sohee (Kim Da-Hee) is not a very good actress. She's really cute, but she veers from incessant whining and crying to laughing and matchmaking. The rest of the cast is pretty good. The movie just needs better pacing.
The film looks great, like it was shot yesterday. The scenery is beautiful as well. South Korea would be lovely to visit, at least in 1984. The movie was considered "lost" but apparently Tsuburaya allowed it to be released over here. I doubt there is a large audience for this thing. It could have been a pretty good movie. It's more of an interesting failure the way it is now.
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