Monster Wangmagwi (1967?)
Introduction
I know next to nothing about this movie, other than that it was made around the same time as Yongary, Monster from the Deep. I have only ever seen this movie mentioned in Jeff Rovin's Encyclopedia of Monsters, and on a Korean Yonggary site (which plagiarized Rovin's book), and a few other places. As far as I can tell, this movie was never released on video even in Korea, therefore making it essentially impossible see.
Plot Summary
Aliens use a 400 foot tall alien ape to attack Earth. (Compiled from various sources)
Cast and Crew
(From Phil Hardy's Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies)
Director: Hyukjin Kwon
Screenwriter: Hayong Byun
Cinematographer: Changyoung Ham
Special Effects: Soojai Byun
Leading Players: Kungwon Nam, Haekyung Kim, Unjin Hahn, Hikap Kim
Links
KoreaPop.com - Formerly, known as Iodo.com, they had a special page devoted to Yonggary (1999) that mentions this film. Since then, they've taken that page down. KoreaPop seems to be affiliated with the AsianDB.com, a movie database. It is just starting up at the time of this writing. Perhaps someday it will include Monster Wangmagwi.
Final Thoughts, Notes, and News
I found a French webpage on movie records that claims that Wangmagwi used more extras in the course of filming than any other movie except Ghandi (1982). If true, this means that 157,000 people participated in the filming of the movie, yet no one can find a single solitary picture of the monster!
The following is taken from Phil Hardy's Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies (Thanks to Rik Kershaw):
"Wang Ma Gwi aka Monster Wangmagwi
CENTRY CO.; S. Korea
Length 80 mins.
The first all-Korean Science Fiction move offers a space variation on King Kong (1933), about a rubber-clad giant with pointed claws, flapping ears and a face mask reminiscent of Corman's monster in It Conquered the World.
The creature is launched via flying saucers by advanced aliens seeking world domination. First it tramples on Seoul and then it burns it down by spewing a death ray onto the city in a very poor imitation of the Japanese monster movies, although allegedly made with considerable production resources. The carefully constructed miniature models were photographed by S. Byun, South Korea's expert and pioneer in this type of work. He also designed the monster. "
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