Movie: (1967) Earthquakes in Korea turn out to be the work of Yongary, a prehistoric fire-breathing reptile who’s headed for Seoul.
Opening: J&tB are having their weekly dream journal meeting
Invention exchange: J&tB demonstrate their tiny desks; The Mads have Hitler Coffee
Segment 1: J&tB discuss astronauts and the music they like
Segment 2: Tom explains his monster-themed club, Yongary Nights
Segment 3: J&tB discuss what monster they’d like to be friends with
Closing: J&tB and The Mads sing “Push Past the Hurting”
Stinger: Monster a-go-go
(57 votes, average: 4.11 out of 5)
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• Capsule!
• A pretty good episode, with lots of great riffing and some mostly decent host segments. This sort of thing is right up their alley.
• The “music the astronauts like” sketch just sort of peters out. Thank goodness for movie sign.
• Another little bit of nomenclature from Max: The thing projecting onto the surface of the moon is called the “Iron Butterfly.”
• J&tB are very musical in the theater this time. Lots of singing.
• Callbacks: “I’m huge!” and “Thunderbirds are go!”
• The song they sing at the end is another great ditty by Paul & Storm.
• There was a bit more chuckling among the riffers in the theater this time. Maybe they just thought it was funnier.
• Cute moment the theater when something that looks eerily like the movie sign light goes off, and triggers Jonah and the bots.
• Movie question: What happened to the U.N. experts that were supposedly coming? Did they ever arrive?
• Cast and crew roundup: Just one this time: Macao Yagi, who built Godzilla and Gamera’s suits, supervised the construction of the Yongary suit.
• Fave riff: “I’M UPSIDE DOWWWWWWWN!” Honorable mention: “Everyone grab one thing. Doesn’t matter what the thing is! Just take it!” “Welcome back to Speaking Spectacles. I’m your host, Glasses McFancyHair.”
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CAPSULE!
This is my favorite episode of the new season. Everything about it just clicked with me, especially the choice of movie. Yongary has long been tied with Reptilicus for me as the two films I always ached for MST3K to tackle, so seeing both turn up this season was unbelievably amazing. Yongary is a movie I have seen dozens of times; it’s one of my favorite goofy Kaiju films, and a movie I’ve riffed myself countless times. It was, and remains, surreal to see this movie as an MST3K episode. But oh boy, oh boy, does it ever work. The riffing pace is wonderful, and the flow and humor feels very Season 3ish, much like Prince of Space did back in Season 8. All in all, this really felt like a classic episode.
Also, CAPSULE!
Some thoughts:
-The cold openings are feeling tighter and funnier the longer the season goes on. Maybe it’s just me getting used to them, but they work for me. The dream bit is a fun concept, too!
-I love the Tiny Desk. I’ve never had the urge to flip a full sized desk, but if I had one of these little ones, I’d probably never stop! Also, I wonder if Todd is related to Chip?
-Love the Gamera callout. It’s appropriate.
-A little background on this movie: despite its aesthetics (and, of you listen carefully, some dubbing voices that would sound familiar to those who grew up with the Titra Godzilla/Gamera/Daimajin dubs from AIP in the 1960’s), this movie is not Japanese, but South Korean. It was the country’s first foray into the kaiju genre, which hit its peak in 1967. That year alone, Japan saw the theatrical releases of Son of Godzilla, King Kong Escapes, Gamera vs Gyaos, The X From Outer Space, Gappa, and The Magic Serpent. On TV, Ultraman and The Space Giants ended and both Ultra Seven and Mighty Jack began, along with Monster Prince and Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot, among others. So, with the help of Japanese FX technicians leant out by Toei Studios, South Korean film company Keukdong Entertainment hoped to get in on the giant monster game. The end result was this movie, the most expensive film made in the country at the time. It was a box office smash, but sadly no complete version of the Korean original survives today. All that exists is the AIP cut, recently converted to HD as seen in this episode.
-For those interested, South Korea would go on to embrace the giant monster genre, eventually producing the epic (but sadly still unavailable outside of Korea) Wangmagwi, a 2001 remake of Yongary known in the US as “Reptilian”, Dragon Wars (which is getting a sequel this year), Sector 7, and the incredible The Host, among others. North Korea also produced the infamous Pulgasari in 1985, but that’s another story…
-The episode cuts off over half a minute of panning across space towards both the Earth and the title card. It would have been a nice space for riffing, like the beginning of The Deadly Mantis, but alas, it was cut.
-Isn’t this our second Ichio? Gamera vs Gyaos came out the same year that this film did. Hmmmm…
-One reason I love this episode is because the riffers are FINALLY loosening up and laughing at the movie, and each other’s lines. You can tell they had fun writing and performing this one, and it really helps the episode feel comfortable and memorable. There’s a lot of giggling going on, and I hope that is something they keep going forward.
-“My space amoeba is almost fully formed.” As much as I love it, the AIP cut of Toho’s monster epic The Space Amoeba (known here as “Yog, Monster from Space”) would work perfectly on the show.
-The honeymoon scene was absolutely perfect. I was super excited to see how they riffed it, and boy oh boy I wasn’t disappointed. It’s one of my favorite scenes from the movie, with the obvious sexual allusions and the bizarre line about the husband doing the same thing “whenever I get married”. I was giddy as I watched the guys riff it.
-Callbacks: “The Mole People are really blazing it up!”; “Like a Mothra to a flame.” (Godzilla vs The Sea Monster)
-Classic MST3K Bits: “I’m huge!”; “Think about it, won’t you? Thank you.”; “Acting!”; a bit of ren fest bashing; “He said area.”
-The CAPSULE thing really does just get funnier and funnier the more they do it. It might be Season 11’s definitive catchphrase.
-As I mentioned above, I’ve seen this movie dozens of times, and the reasons behind our hero’s need to be in space is still not adequately explained. Why is he watching the bomb being dropped? What benefit is there from seeing it from space, and what could he do if something went wrong with the explosion?
-I love when Jonah screams in pain as the rocket fires towards him.
-Segment 1 has more laser cut figures, and a funny premise that reminds me of the talky Season 2 host segments of yore. This season has some nice conversational yet funny segments.
-The flashing lights in the meeting room trigger a Movie Sign freakout in the theater. These guys are really conditioned!
-Believe it or not, there are some MORE meeting room scenes removed for this version.
-Gypsy comes in during the second movie segment. I think that’s the only time that happens this season.
-Since the show ended its 10th season in 1999, the word “Kaiju” has entered the western nerd culture lexicon, bolstered by the stateside success of Legendary Picture’s Pacific Rim and Godzilla reboot. The genre is only growing here in the US, and with it the use of this Japanese term used to describe “strange beasts”. It’s a great example of how world pop culture has changed and expanded in the last 20 years.
-This season has quite a few “Dinosaurs!” references in it. This time, it’s the Baby’s infamous “Gotta Love Me!” song, which has an accompanying music video. Hysterical stuff.
-As to be expected, anytime the monster is onscreen, the riffing is sublime. Many of the lines are ones I’ve used myself while riffing this movie on my own, so it was surreal to hear the professionals do it.
-The “repent!” guy was clearly stolen from Gorgo.
-It’s nice that Jonah calls out the original Godzilla, from 1954, as being a parable about nuclear devastation. That statement is entirely accurate. It’s a fact that often gets overlooked by those who consider Godzilla’s career to be entirely made up of MST3K-worthy cheesefests.
-The Yongary Nightclub segment is hysterical. But the bubble edit used to cover the bite Crow takes out of the sign is painfully obvious.
-When Crow talks for the “base with a face” (“Yeah! Ah! Ima building!”), he REALLY sounds like YouTuber and brilliantly insane creator/animator Filmcow, creator of such masterpieces as the Charlie the Unicorn series, Lamas With Hats, and Detective Heart of America.
-The idea of Yongary actually having a jet growing in his throat is kind of an in-joke amongst kaiju fans. It’s obviously not true, but it’s funny to say amongst friends who’ve seen the movie too. The riff is really perfect.
-The soldier who repeats himself is one my favorite scenes in film history. It’s a perfect WTH moment that makes you wonder if you’ve lost your mind, and then makes you laugh because you have no explanation for what you just heard. I’ve seen this movie in theaters twice, and this scene always gets a huge laugh. Crow’s line about finding a glitch in the Matrix was perfect. “You’d better go. They’ll be hitting Yongary any minute. They’ll be using guided missiles.”
-Segment 3 might be the shortest of the season. I swear, it’s like 30 seconds long. Also, Jonah is again working on his spacesuit.
-Silhouette Silliness: during the rainstorm, the guys open umbrellas in the theater.
-The characters really do spend an inordinate amount of time laughing in this film. It’s especially weird during the Yongary death scene, but more on that in a bit…
-So, the dancing scene… I wish I could give you some more insight, but as far as my research has shown, it was simply a little something for the kids: a moment of a monster’s day as seen/interpreted through the innocent eyes of a child. One fun fact, though: the song that Yongary and Ichio dance to is a surf tune version of the legendary Korean folk song “Arirang”, often referred to as the unofficial national anthem of the country.
-This episode’s sole Star Wars Reference: “Porkins, noooo!”
-Yongary TOTALLY stole that car slicing laser beam bit from Gyaos. As I mentioned before, this movie came out the same year as Gamera vs Gyaos did, so the inclusion of such a similar scene is conspicuous.
-Speaking of which, Yongary roars with Barugon’s roar as he falls into the bridge.
-This film is infamous amongst kaiju fans for it’s graphically violent monster death scene, juxtaposed with scenes of the family laughing like crazy people in the helicopter. I was curious to see how they handled the idea of “monster rectal bleeding”. I never could have dreamed that the sequence would spawn such horror in the theater, a memorable closing segment, and even a song! That was worth seeing the film riffed on MST3K on its own. Heck, the scene even forces the Mads to briefly consider repenting from their evil ways! I laughed my butt off.
-End Credits Music: The Canada Song; The United Servo Academy Men’s Chorus Hymn; To Earth; Creepy Girl; Push Past the Hurting (When A Movie Hurts Too Much) (instrumental)
-Favorite Riff: “Toilet’s broken!”
-Honorable Mentions: “Our phones got stuck again!”; “Hi, we used to be main characters!”; Wow, were really looking at this thing, aren’t we?”; “I’M UPSIDE DOOOOOOOOWN!!!!”
I really wanted to love this episode. Again, this is one they should have hit out of the park. But because this is MST3K-Lite they did a good but not great job with it.
6 out of 10 (mostly because it SHOULD have been greater — would have loved to see the original cast handle this one. On its own, probably a 7 out of 10).
“CAPSULE!”
Okay, now that that’s out of my system…
I LOVE this episode. Right under “Cry Wilderness” as far as quality for this season. This is an episode where everything clicks; great riffing, fun host segments, the feel of a classic MST episode and a prime movie subject; Korea’s attempt at getting in on Japan’s kaiju action. It’s not quite “Gamera,” but pretty damn close. And comparing this one to “Reptilicus,” it’s pretty clear that by this point the rough patches that people complained about in the first episode have been smoothed out. This episode really felt like one from the original run.
Random thoughts:
– Random Phillip K. Dick references are always welcome.
– Nice to see that Nazis are an evil limit Kinga will not cross.
– I could use the Tiny Desk on Mondays.
– Yongary is simultaneously as unimaginative and creative as any kaiju I’ve seen. In looks he’s basically just Godzilla with a horn on his nose, but I know of no other giant monster that eats gasoline and enjoys doing dance moves with little kids (even Gamera drew the line at that).
– Icho is not quite on the level of “Cry Wilderness’s” Paul on the “Awful MST Child Character” scale, but pretty damn close. But at least he knows now to kill what you love, not that he needed much encouragement…the little bastard basically tries to assassinate his sister five minutes in.
– The Yongary Nights sketch is easily one of the best of the season, combining Crow’s cute/funny monster suit and rampaging (“Hey, ho, Yongary says buildings got to go!”) with Tom’s narrating prowess (“Ain’t no party like a Yongary party because a Yongary party’s the last thing you’ll ever see.”)
– Political jokes are always a risk, not just because of controversy, but because they have a high probability of being dated (if you watch an old episode and are confused at a John Sununu joke, I fully understand). That said, sometimes they clearly just can’t resist and the Chris Christie bridge joke is pretty funny. For now, at least.
– That ending…what the hell? How does a goofy kaiju movie that has a monster doing the Macarena with a little kid end with him in an eternal death scene that climaxes with anal bleeding? No wonder Joel and the Bots needed that song at the end.
– FYI for those who don’t know, like “Gamera,” “Yongary” got a modern remake, distributed on video/DVD in the US as “Reptilian” with a cover meant to cash in on the 1998 “Godzilla” (bad idea). It would also be a prime riffing target; for one, the CGI is Asylum level bad.
Favorite riffs –
“What if aliens approach Earth from this angle? How are they supposed to know America is the best country?”
(Bloodied guy with camera shows up) “I tried to take Alec Baldwin’s photograph!”
“Nothing gets a guy going like more layers.”
“Guess who’s dressed like your grandma!”
“I’m calling it, those two are the same person.”
“You’re right! The kid is clearly his Tyler Durden!”
“Hmmm, the camera’s saying this is exciting but what’s onscreen clearly is not.”
(Yongary destroys a building) “Don’t worry, it was a Radio Shack. Nobody was inside.”
“DATE NIGHT!”
“When I came to, I was lying in a field wearing a Yongary costume. That’s when I knew I’d hit rock bottom…”
“Thank God they’re showing us all this driving or we’d have to assume they teleported to wherever they’re going.”
“Hi, we used to be main characters!”
“This is a rubber suit monster movie featuring a little kid with an itch ray! We don’t need to see the seven stages of Yongary’s death!”
“Did Werner Herzog slip in and direct this scene?!”
“One last Macarena before I die.”
Next season, I want to see them riff ‘Pulgasari’, the North Korean giant monster movie.
That would be hilarious, but it might get Joel and company marked for death by North Korea.
The backstory behind that is sheer insanity. It’d probably make a damn good movie on its own.
Really great episode, really lousy movie.
I first watched this movie years ago for the Even Deeper Blurting board. Personally, when they reached the repeating guard, I figured a good riff would be, “Not dead the way you know it. He is with us always. Not dead the way you know it. He is with us always.”
This movie definitely rates a revised ending, like Joel & the ‘bots did for “Girl in Lovers Lane”. How about this: It turns out that Yongary isn’t dead, merely injured and dormant. Before the ROK military can blast him again, the JDF (who are experienced in such matters) step in and offer to take charge. Yongary is taken to Monster Island. The Toho crowd kind of looks down on him as a third-stringer, but wise Mothra (on a visit from his own island) sticks up for him, as does Gamera (who now lives in the Daiei neighborhood on Monster Island). Eventually, even the G-man starts treating Yongary with some gruff respect, and they all live happily ever after.
Meanwhile, Ichio tries to steal another invention. Unfortunately for him, it’s a classified gadget on loan from the U.S. The brat is busted for espionage, sent to America for trial, and found guilty. He gets fifty years in a Federal supermax, and everyone has a good laugh as he’s hauled away in shackles.
I thought of this too, but knowing that it was more or less made at gunpoint by kidnapped people takes some of the fun out of it.
Really…I wish I had your free time.
MST3K Lite…I agree with that moniker in reference to the reboot. I wanted the reboot to be so much better than what it has turned out to be.
I just don’t see it lasting beyond next season. Way more original MSTieS, like myself who have been with the show from the KTMA days, dislike the show more than like it…by far. Joel missed a golden opportunity to catch lightning, again, in a bottle. Get rid of Patton…that would be a good start.
I’m sorry, did you do an official poll or something? Do you have scientific numbers to back you up? Or are you just pouting because the show is not exactly as before because, you know, things change?
Speaking as an original MST fan, I’m quite pleased with the revival and think you need to get over yourself.
Wow, you interviewed or polled every single original MSTie? I’m impressed. You might have missed me, because overall I love the new season. Do I love every single movie they picked with a 5-star love? No, I have favorites and I have some misses. I think they did a good job trying to hit the major riff-fodder genres: kaiju, a Western, a sword-and-sandal outing, stupid ’80s Ren Faire nonsense, ’60s sci fi, ’70s made-for-TV crap, a Star Wars knock-off. I hope there’s another season and I LOVE PATTON.
Remember when the Kia brand hit the USA? Everybody said “Cheap Korean copy of the Toyota”. That’s kind of what I expected from Yongary. A cheap Korean copy of Godzilla. The door handles broke off a couple of times, but Yongary turned out to be pretty good, By Golly. The crowds running for their lives ran on the other side of the street compared to the Godzilla crowds, but otherwise pretty much the same. Does anybody know the Korean expression for “upsetting shorts”?
A good not great episode in my opinion. Very season three-ish. Very good print of the movie for this era.
The Yongary dancing scene is a wtf moment. I was laughing my ass off.
By contrast, the death scene with the rectal bleeding and the death twitching was just plain sick.
Still, like sex, average Mst is better than no Mst.
Funny, I have a Toyota and a Kia. Frankly, I think the Kia is the better built of the two. The Koreans have caught on fast to technology. Samsung, LG, Kia, Hyundai. All are at or near the top in their respective products.
They did! And it’s pretty amazing:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01M1DL1OO/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497715360&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=the+lovers+and+the+despot&dpPl=1&dpID=51hHq5E%2B6SL&ref=plSrch
It’s a documentary, and it features some fascinating interviews and some reinactments!
Does anybody know where I can get some of that itching powder that makes you do the Macarena? There’s a guy in a pickumup truck with chrome naked lady mud flaps that parks in the handicapped spaces I would like to try it on.
It’s not so much a huge block of free time as it is watching the episode on a weekend, and then finding pockets of ten to fifteen minutes every (or every other) weekday to sit and edit/add to my eventual wall of text. :) I definitely wouldn’t have time to do all of that in one go!
after the last couple of duds, this one really turned things around quite a bit. a solid episode and one of the season’s best (avalanche still takes the top spot). there are little things about it i didn’t like but the good outweighed the bad and it had tons of spirit. the ending of the movie was genuinely upsetting and the song felt earned and appropriate (i’ve never been crazy about the music of mystery science theater but they knocked it out of the park with this one). good stuff.
Loosening up and being more comfortable with the delivery is good, but “giggling” is what sank the Mike-CC and Sci-Fi era…What is the viewer appeal of listening to comics literally giggle over their own cleverness?
It made M&tB seem more bored in their approach to riffing the movie, that they were “saving their sanity” from boredom rather than mind-numbing cheese, the humor of personal contempt toward the movies set in, and, in effect, we were watching the comic premise of three guys in space who hated their jobs. Unfortunately, that’s what most of the SciFi Generation thinks the show is supposed to be ABOUT.
It’s not until the last two S11 episodes that the riffs start to feel a little rushed and grabbing onto just a few core running-gags to be cathartically hip/lazy/mean and plow through to the end, but that may have been a problem with our new Netflix era of having to grind out whole seasons in a basket, instead of a steady flow of just working on a few episodes at a time all season.
Here, though, it may just be a movie that turned out to be more painful than goofy in the actual riffing and re-riffing, and…I’ll concur with that.
(Yeah, you can’t expect to remember good lines for the later episodes when they’re discussed twelve weeks from now, so some of us had to compile notes of the Good Stuff for later. Another problem of an entire nation of fans not able now to watch the show at the same time.)
The only clip I’d seen of the movie had been of the dancing scene, and think I’m not the only one who tuned in expecting the majority of the movie to be more yellow-backpack fun from another country’s new, even-more annoying Kenny. And then stayed to watch ten minutes of our defeated kaiju rolling and dying in protracted agony.
The old joke about the stop-motion monsters and dinos in Ray Harryhausen’s movies was that once defeated, they would stagger, clutch the air, fall to the ground, give their tails a final Shakespearean lash, and “die like tenors in an Italian opera”–I think that’s the “pathos” this movie was trying to aim for at the end, but wow, did it abuse the privilege.
Think we can agree, Korea, North or South, just doesn’t “get” Japanese Godzilla-kaiju, any more than those Hong Kong ripoffs of the 70’s King Kong could “get” giant monsters either. Only Japan is Japan.
Being of Korean descent, I was VERY excited that they were doing a Korean movie, even though kaiju isn’t my favorite MST3K genre. Watching it now, I wouldn’t call it my favorite of the season, though more because it slowed down in the middle than anything else (and not because of the “MST3K Lite” thing as I don’t consider S11 that for the most part); the first 20 and last 20 minutes were strong, and the last 20 in particular right up there with the best of the season. There’s a moment where Icho is running away and Jonah in a squeaky little-kid voice said “I made it worse!”, and that felt very classic MST3K to me. YMMV.
I’ll say this, though – if presented with very excited “fanboys” who excitedly gush over these episodes and jaded vets who fold their arms, spit on enthusiasm, and sneer at anyone daring to suggest S11 should even be mentioned in the same breath as the CC/Sci-Fi eras, I will side with the former ten times out of ten.
Also, JediPeaceFrog, can you do us a solid and not quote a very long (and quite enjoyable) post every damn time just to mock him for sincere enjoyment? You’re making these pages longer than they should be just to be a snarky dick.
You want to have the Sci-FI years ret-conned out or something?
Total MST fanatic and fan of Joel back to his standup days, was in heaven hosting the reunion shows, alot of comedy knowledge devoted to nerd pop culture. Yeah what a loser.
Sayyy… :)
(And, well, just cut out the Pearl & Bobo cameos, and how much of the SciFi years IS in this season, apart from the house-band songs?)
And me with a name like Screwdriver thinking I was the only tool here. :/
This was a great episode. Clever and funny, especially the riffing.
A Jerk: “…the good outweighed the bad and it had tons of spirit.” I thought it even had tons of “Mrxl”!
OriginalEricJ: I remember plenty of times when Joel and the bots chuckled and laughed at each others’ riffs. So what’s you’re point? I personally don’t understand your vitriolic hatred of the Mike as host years, especially the SciFi seasons. I have watched those episodes, keeping in mind the perspectives you have (and stated here many times), and I just don’t see it. I love the show in all it’s incarnations. Oh well, as Sly Stone said, “Diff’rent Strokes for Diff’rent Folks”. I’m happy.
The music playlists of astronauts was excellent. Very well done and funny.
The episode sign orbiting (?) the moon in the segment breaks is called Iron Butterfly. Cool, man.
Some great song references in this episode: Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town”; Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out”; and War’s “Lowrider”.
Some of my favorite riffs:
Newlywed bride pushes antenna of device down: “That’s a metaphor for our honeymoon.”
“I’m getting nothing but Reggaeton…”
[Where do you think he is?] “Capsule!”
“We’re here! We brought the Snow Queen!”
“I didn’t know if you would come back, so I sold all your stuff and got remarried!”
“Quake day! Whoo!”
“Should we help him or look at photos?…Photos!”
[Yongary’s coming out!] “Good for Yongary.”
“Oh, she’s writing Steve Yeun fan letters!”
Thank you, MST3K, for making us laugh at monsters…again!
When he discovered Mike was married to Mr. B Natural?
Nope. Nope. Nope.
Besides which, he is barely in the show. I’m actually disappointed he didn’t have more to do in the season. If you don’t like him, you can blink and miss him most of the time (with a couple of big exceptions).
Nope. Nope. Nope.
You have no data for that assertion. I have been with the show since sometime in the 1990s and I can’t wait for the next season.
More people agree with me than you, so you’re wrong!
(You see what I did there – I have no data for my assertion, either.)
From what I can tell in my completely unscientific review of the internet, the usual suspects don’t like the new season and a lot of people do. Until there’s some kind of scientific poll done on this subject, any such claims about who likes it more or less and in what numbers will be speculation, hyperbole and, most likely, projection.
As for this particular episode, I have still not recovered from the emotional scars this movie’s ending left me with. But, once again, some great host skits and songs saved the day. Bring on season 12, please.
I remember J&tB organically laughing at each other’s jokes, because all three comics were in the room at the same time and running the risk of breaking each other up.
(Which, of course, we don’t have here, but maybe they’ll fix that for S12.)
In a later CC-era episode, when the movie that week settled into a slump, Kevin’s Servo starts trying a running gag of unspontaneously fakie-sounding contemptuous giggles to fill in the riffing void–“(tee-hee!)(snrkk!)(pfft!!)(giggle!)“–directed at the general implied free-floating badness of the scene for its own sake, and Joel leans over and ad-libs, “…Please STOP that.”
I’ve spent twenty years heartily agreeing.
Yongary just barely passes the Bechdel Test. Suna and Onna briefly exchange greetings.
The Monster from the Deep bit could be considered misleading, as that phrase typically implies something from the ocean.
When we initially meet Korean Kenny, the first thing that caught my eye was how he’s dressed identically to Conan Edogawa (go ahead and Google image search the name). I’m not surprised the riffers missed it, though. Even among North American anime fandom, Detective Conan/Case Closed is pretty niche.
The scene with Yongary’s death throes was a bit much. Loved how it almost made Kinga and Max apologize for sending up that film (but then, “Nah!”).
It’s certainly within reason to argue that Yongary is acting out of instinct rather than malice. Still, killing him isn’t all that different from putting down a rabid dog.
Another spot-on choice for the stinger.
There was also the bit in Starcrash where Gypsy gives Tom a push for his sled. Admittedly she doesn’t say anything.
Though the way it was done in Gamera Vs. Gaos looked much goofier.
I don’t see that ending well. Relations between Japan and South Korea are relatively civil nowadays. But that’s partly due to how most of the people who lived during the Japanese military occupation prior to and during WWII are now dead. Back in the Sixties, there was still a lot of bad blood between the two nations. Now imagine Japanese troops being sent in and picture the reaction.
If this is the case, I’m afraid you’ve been doing a poor job of establishing your credentials here. A cursory use of Control-F among the post-login topics shows you only posting on the discussions for this episode and The Land That Time Forgot. The content of those posts consist of proclaiming your hatred of the current series, largely unprovoked insults towards fellow posters, and you getting a case of the vapors. More telling is how you don’t participate in the discussions of the classic episodes you profess to love. I’ll concede the possibility that you may have posted on those under a different name before we had to log in for posting. Still, I’m personally inclined to take your fandom claims with a grain of salt.
If that were true (though obviously it’s not), it would be pretty hypocritical of him to mock Danzilla for having too much free time.
You might want to try obtaining the itching ray instead. That way you don’t run the risk of getting caught by the guy as you break in to plant the stuff. I’m given to understand that it’s no fun to wear a full body cast in the summer.
This is the episode that has my name in the end credits, and I’m glad it ended up in a giant rubber monster movie. Especially the one that has MST3K’s first ever Booey Bomb! “Baba Booey” is yelled at the reporters at the end of the movie. Being a Stern Show fan, this made me very happy. I even let JD (from the show) know about it, and he favorite-ed my tweet. I doubt this clip will ever make it to air, but you never know. Now, if we get a “Hit ’em with the Hein!” next season, I bet that’ll get noticed!
But yes, Yongary, with a disturbing and bleak ending that reminded me of Season 6 and an overall Season 3 “comfortable” vibe, we’ve got another winner.
The next two episodes kick into high gear!
You know, you could be 100% correct here, but you still sound like a tool.
Anyway, as for this episode, not my favorite of the season but I did enjoy Jonah acknowledging Gypsy’s really bad joke, and Gypsy making an unscheduled appearance in the theater.
Hey, if Pixar’s Cars 3 this week could successfully pretend that Cars 2 never existed, how bad could a little revisionism be for the greater good? ;)
Especially since it’s playing on Cartoon Network, where no “true” NA anime fan would touch it. But yeah, resemblance is kinda spooky, now that you mentch.
Although the “Ventriloquist dummy” riffs were more fitting. Korean Kenny actually makes a more believable dummy than Devil Doll’s Hugo, I’d venture to say.
Although I THINK the riff was satirizing Stern-zombies’ attempt (back around the “Private Parts” days twenty years ago, when Stern still had an actual series) to grab prank-attention for themselves at every public press opportunity. So, I’d “loving reference to Stern” cautiously.
Now that the subtitled original Gojira is on Criterion Blu, Filmstruck, and…just about everywhere else, at least one fan will always drag another doubter to see it, just to show how dark the original was without Raymond Burr.
(And real bleak post-war darkness, not the fake pretentious Warner kind we got from the ’14 remake.)
I was once on a research boat in the Gulf of Mexico with, among others, a Korean gentleman who was suffering greatly from the “mal de mer”. We would hear him exclaim “Yongary” while bent over the railing and the smell of kimchee would waft over the deck. Fortunately, after about three days he gained his sea legs and all was well. Three days at sea seems to the cure for almost everybody in my experience and perhaps the number three might apply here on the WDT.
I figure that after a person has watched about three episodes of MST3K they know whether or not they are a fan of the show. It seems to me that anything after that is just peripheral so why not lay off all this MYSTier Than Thou stuff. It’s a big circus here and we can all just relax under Dr. Lao’s tent if we try. What is it the kids say on their facepages and such? IMHO.
So… were you the guy who sent in the “I HATE TOM SERVO’S NEW VOICE” banner back when Kevin took on the role of Servo? ;)
Maybe you should have spent the past twenty years moving on and finding something you actually like, rather than wasting two decades spewing vitriol online.
Along with Avalanche this is absolutely my favorite episode of the new season. If you thought Reptilicus was a D-grade kaiju, here’s F-grade Yongari. And what a charming monster child we have here. I’m not sure if his wedding gift was to attempt to directly kill the newlyweds with an experimental weapon or indirectly with a car crash. What a cute little scamp. Those Asian kids. And some of the dubbing, like the younger sister at the beginning, made the dubbing in Gamera vs. Guiron seem nuanced.
And so many laugh out loud send your soda shooting out your nose riffs. The whole upside down astronaut with marshmallow padding. Capsule! The military hats on the table jokes. Hey I’m a building alright wooo. The missing missles.
I think this episode is right up there with the classic 3rd season Kaiju movies. I’m watching the new season for the 3rd time along with the weekend discussion, and it just keeps getting better on repeat viewings.
Careful — as you’ve seen, the fanboys are strong with the force here.
I don’t know if more original MST3K fans are with the Return or not, but I can say that the older you are, the less you’ll like this new version. It’s paced for millennials (and I will get heat just for saying that word — sorry, but it’s true). That’s why the riffs come as fast (or even FASTER, which is just plain weird) as the actual quotes do. Whatever happened to sounding as if they were just making that stuff up? It in no way sounds like that, it sounds rehearsed and over rehearsed at that. It’s also permeated into Rifftrax but I don’t want to go there because I will get beat up some more.
Look — we get it, kids. You all LOVE this new stuff. Some of us don’t, and we will continue to express that here even if we then aren’t part of the cool crowd. I paid my money and I thus am entitled to say what I want about this. I *think* I got my money’s worth, but certainly no more, and if it never comes back after this I’d be fine with it.
(Oh, and “Capsule” was the only part of this that actually made my DW and I laugh out loud. It’s a very poor MST3K when we have one laugh-out-loud moment in 90 minutes).
Mike “ex-genius” Kelley: “…but I can say that the older you are, the less you’ll like this new version.”
Not trying to beat you up, just sayin’: as a 58-year-old “fanboy”, I have to blow your correlation. I love the 2017 version as much as past incarnations. Yes, there are episodes that are stronger and funnier than others, but that’s true of any season. I found myself laughing out loud to a lot of the riffs in “Yongary”. The overall pace of the riffs was initially off-putting, but I have since adapted to this aspect (most of the time). I just feel kinda bad you aren’t enjoying it more!
Older fan here too. You can enjoy the faster pace of the riffs if you try; turn on subtitles if that’ll help. How I hate it when people my age trash millennials like they’re some invading species and complain about all the things they like, thereby fulfilling the stereotype of the grumpy old man/woman who refuses to learn or change. Last night I watched an older MST episode, and while I enjoyed it, the riffs seemed sparse compared to the new season and overall not as funny. Go figure.
I was traveling yesterday, so I’m just getting it posted now. I didn’t find a ton of stuff about Yongary.
Birth/death dates
Director/writer Kim Ki-duk, born Sept. 29, 1934
Voice actor Ted Runoff, born May 20, 1939, died Sept. 28, 2013
MST3K connections
Macao Yagi, who built Godzilla and Gamera’s suits, supervised the construction of the Yongary suit.
The film was syndicated to TV by AIP, which released more than 30 MST3K films.
Dates
April 3, 1967, principal photography began
Aug. 13, 1967, the film opened in Seoul
June 19, 2011, Yongary is broadcast on Korean television for the first time in 44 years.
Sept. 1, 1972, the film premiered in West Germany
Dec. 1, 2001, Yongary has its TV premiere in France
March 23, 2004, Yongary is released on DVD in the US.
If you think 58 is old — then you are, my young friend, very mistaken.
I always place it precisely as this — when the show first premiered, I was as old or slightly older than most of the folks originally doing it (Josh was the exception that proves the rule). So late 30’s for sake of reference. I suspect a LOT of the folks writing on this thread on how much they like the show are around that age (or even younger). Yes, there are some *slightly* old folks like you who weren’t quite the “golden” age of the show first arriving, but you were around 10 years younger than me (so millennial age back then). Again, my statement stands — the older you are, the less likely you’ll enjoy what is going on now. Just because a few *somewhat* older guys like it doesn’t mean much.
Now, Mike Nelson and company have definitely speeded up the pacing in Rifftrax, so there’s no doubt older people CAN adjust. But, again, it’s not the original. Just like there were many who liked “New Coke” because they could adjust as well, there was a lot (a lot more, as it turned out) who appreciated the original better.
I’ve said it elsewhere on another thread, but you can get used to anything. I spent a junior high school art class listening every single day to the soundtrack of “The Sound Of Music” (because every other person in class was a teen age girl who wanted to hear it). Let me repeat: Every. Single. Day. Did I get “used to it”? Of course, I did, and I even find myself singing some of the songs (damn it!) But did that make it good? Ahem, not in the ****ing slightest.
Mike…we’ve discussed last week the irony of your complaining about Froggy’s one-trick-pony act of saying “I hate the new series”, while using every week to protest that It’s Just Not the New Series.
In either case, we GET it (at least I go into detail about what the SciFi era did wrong, since it’s an ever-springing well of new, different reasons), and in worst scenario, you don’t want to end up in the same pit as Froggy, do you? At least not after Sitting Duck’s analysis.
And you’ve displayed awareness that we have now heard the Sound of Music story.
I can think of a dozen more Those Darn Millennials reasons why It’s Not the Old Series (Reason #8: I’ve never watched Dr. Horrible, and couldn’t care less if Neil Patrick Harris makes a cameo in another episode) than just “It’s too fast, because they all watch Family Guy”, and since the CC and SciFi episodes all end up on Shout DVD for me sooner or later, it comes down to What Episodes Got It Right, and Which Didn’t. There’s as many Netflix-era that did as those that didn’t, as many isolated riffs that did as those that didn’t–I grade the show on a curve for at least knowing HOW to make riffs that do, even if, like this week, we just don’t get enough of them.
That said, “CAPSULE!” has seemed to become added to this season’s new cult-passwords of the holy, and I had to go back and look up the running gag, because I…couldn’t remember it from the episode?
Just a few thoughts:
1. If you have to go back to figure out where “CAPSULE!”, which *everyone else* seems to very distinctly remember from the show (even the Resident Young Folk Bringer-Upper), perhaps that’s not so much a “cult-password of the holy” thing and you…not paying sufficient attention to the episode? I very distinctly remember where in Space Mutiny The Many Names of Dave Ryder comes in, or (in case you’re not much for the Sci-Fi shows) where in Manos they start mocking Torgo’s voice (as they will for the whole episode, and indeed the series). But hey, maybe you just need to watch these episodes the, oh, 400-odd times you’ve watched the older episodes to imprint them on your memory?
2. The “Sound of Music” metaphor, to me, doesn’t stand up, and here’s why – you’re talking about something that’s entirely subjective (the musical merits, or lack thereof, of the songs from the soundtrack to The Sound of Music) versus something that, IMO, is entirely objective (the riffing speed of Season 11 of MST3K and whether or not it actively detracts from the show). Yes, you can get used to just about anything, but that’s if you feel like you *have to get used to it in order to like it*, as opposed to something where “getting used to it” is no chore at all; at least one person has noted that the riffing speed was jarring, but they worked through it (I know I did; a cursory comparison of Reptilicus to, say, Carnival Magic shows a marked difference). I’ve listened to albums I like many times over, and “getting used to it” didn’t enter the picture. Like, if you don’t dig S11’s bag, man, that’s all good! But I don’t think saying that people can only dig S11’s bag through the Ludovico treatment or whatever really stands.
3. I don’t even necessarily disagree that the older you are, the less likely you’ll enjoy the show, but a) discounting “a few *somewhat* older guys”‘ opinions is, to me, a bad look, and b) whether or not the show is paced towards millenials or not (and it almost certainly is!), I don’t necessarily think that should play any role in precluding you from enjoying the show. Again, if you don’t enjoy the show because you just don’t enjoy it, it’s all cherry, bud. I just don’t know that coming at those darn kids congregating on the grassy space in front of your home or mocking people as “fanboys” (which, rather obviously, carries a derogatory element to it) does anything to win people over or even make people go “I guess he’s got a point”. Shoot, I paid my money as well, I feel just as entitled to rebut.
4. I know older fans that haven’t been able to get into the new season at all and probably never will. I know older fans that have certain reservations about the new season, but are otherwise pleased with it (this would be the group I fall in). I know older fans that are enthusiastic as hell about the new season and have declaimed some episodes as classics up there with anything from the CC/Sci-Fi era. Being part of a fanbase of something else that went away for a while then returned (Phish – twice over, even!), this is *extremely* familiar to me. Fandom is ever thus.
The riff pacing in Season 11 is as fast as an early Marx Bros movie.
Like the Torgo thing, Chief?-McCloud?, Sessions Presents!, or the Crowd Goes Wild (yay), it’s a funny performer/writer shtick that they had fun with in the theater, but that’s pretty much all it is. (For some reason, I was reminded all the way back to Project Moonbase, during the ad-libbing first season, and the villains’ constant repeated orders to kidnap Dr. Wernher–“W-e-r-n-h-e-r.” (“What’s it spell? ‘WERNHER!’ What’s it mean? Diddly!”)
The Brick Hardcheese names were a similar bit of in-theater fun that didn’t really have anything to do with the root of the movie’s problems, but M&tB’s hipster-bile at “punishing” the movie with it was what created the fans’ own cult-mentality to go out into the world and wield it against anything else that bothered them.
The repeated “Capsule!” (or whatever “Come in! Respond!” was in Korean) thing is funny, but it was just too short and improvisatory and passably silly (unlike the aggressive glee of Chief/McCloud or even the Big McLargehuge names) to have stuck in my memory after the first go–So I’m not bothered by the gag, so much as the mentality of the New Kids and the post-SciFi generation that they need New Slogans to emblazon upon their banners. Sometimes a Chief is just a McCloud.
The Sound of Music story is a “Getting used to something is not the same as calling it good” story (like Hulu old-school rerun-watchers, who remember network TV, saying “Just because you CAN binge streaming TV doesn’t mean you HAVE to, just because everyone’s so happy they can do it with their own addiction-favorite”), but it doesn’t quite get to the root of the complaint against “Millennial humor is here now, so get used to it, even if it isn’t always disciplined or funny.”
It seems more like just working out demons against the darn record, and the helplessness at not being able to finally slap sense into a few insularly-smitten fan-heads. Me, I had a second-grade class where another similar girl insisted on playing Carole King’s “Tapestry” at every–every–post-lunch downtime, and I still get eye-twitches at “I Hear the Earth Move” and “So Far Away”, but I don’t let that interfere with my trying to get a ticket for the “Beautiful” musical, if it’s good. (I mean, she did write the Monkees’ Pleasant Valley Sunday.)
When you get past your twenties, and the kids that look like the ones you used to know in high school now call you Sir/Ma’am, you realize that “Older” = “Experienced”. And, unfortunately, that being experienced is better than NOT being experienced, and thinking you’re cool for making it up as you go along on only the neato half of the information.
When you don’t have the Voice of Experience in the room, what you have is the catalyst for dangerous Mutation, and letting things go all to pieces in favor of what looks neat at the time. The new kids who believe that we must not just watch the show, we must Love Big Brother (esp. if he’s Mike) keep asking “If you don’t like the show, why do you post here?” Not liking individual episodes, or not finding favorite fan-tropes funny is not not-liking the show, it’s applying a more experienced set of standards for the ground rules of what works and what doesn’t.
Back when the Vatican was considering Mother Theresa and John Paul II for sainthood, it was revealed that six hundred years later, the Vatican still hires the “Devil’s advocate” to bring up convincing arguments why they shouldn’t. They saw the need for this, because to act as a united group in ascribing holy godlike status, infallibility, and an anointed place in Heaven to something or someone without at least sounding a reasonable, experienced argument why not, or to shout down those reasons out of loving mass displays of holy loyalty, would be to literally create a Cult. And they didn’t want that.
If I was a Full House fan–which I’m NOT–I’d be in equally heated arguments over Fuller House, and the need to have it back or not have it back, and whether or not they’d gotten it “right”. Being smitten on the Olsen Twins as a kid (which I, yeesh, wasn’t) would not in itself be reasons to shoot down the new series, nor would it be a defense of the old series. It would just turn into a debate of why they brought the show back if they didn’t know how, and whether or not they did.
In MST3K’s case, I was successfully convinced of enough reasons why it’s okay they did bring it back, just as the SciFi era convinced me of enough reasons why they shouldn’t have. Again, they’ll all end up on disk sooner or later, so it’s a case-by-case basis.
Yes, I am a long-time fan of MST. No, I am not a millennial, I am a Gen-Xer. No, I do not love the new season of MST. No, I do not hate the new season of MST. Yes, I am tired of hearing that “you have to be of this generation or that generation in order to like this season”.
Humor is subjective. What makes me laugh isn’t necessarily what makes you laugh. And that’s fine. Some adore Firesign Theater. I don’t and that’s fine. I adore WC Fields, but he’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I can live with that.
So I don’t find this season to be that great. It gives me a meh feeling and I find that more disappointing than if it were outright awful. But that’s okay with fandom. Not everything you love always hits it out of the park which is also subjective as well. I love The Who but they had some bleh albums too in my opinion. It doesn’t mean I hate their whole output.
One thing I won’t be is browbeaten into being told that I’m wrong for not absolutely adoring this season. I don’t. I think its heart was in the right place (at least until what Eric Idle would call a “greedy bastard tour” was announced) but that doesn’t mean it would be great in everyone’s eyes. I’m a kickstarter backer too and I’m disappointed.
But that’s just me. People can like what they like. And they can dislike what they want to dislike as well. And as a fan, I can be irrational in my fawning or in my criticism as needed. It isn’t a generational thing. It is a personal taste thing.
And once again you insist on putting yourself on a pedestal and putting everyone else down. Your personal tastes are just that — YOURS. Calling yourself the “Voice of Experience” doesn’t make your opinion some kind of gold standard for what the show must be. Nor does belittling the opinions of those who don’t share your extremely narrow point of view.
Furthermore, your implied statement that only younger, inexperienced viewers find Mike funny or like the newer forms of the show, is provably false, and HAS been proven false repeatedly.
I’m a long-time MSTie, and was born in the first years of what would later be called Generation X. I’m certainly not a Millenial. All I can say is that, on the whole, I like the Relaunch. There are some shows I like better than others, but none that I really dislike. I had a problem with the speed of the riffing at first, but it seems to have eased up a bit, which is what I expected and which I like. There are still a couple of problems, in my opinion, but nothing that would turn me off of the show. And I really hope Season 12 is made.
I’m just speaking for myself. I make no assumptions re: anyone else, not do I hold any dissenting opinions from mine as bad or wrong. I’m too old, tired and secure to argue such points. As long as a point doesn’t get too ridiculous (like if anyone starts using the “raped my childhood” crud in relation to the Relaunch), it’s not worth a fight. It’s just an opinion.
However, wanting that little punk Ichio to suffer some bad karma is a point I’ll defend with great passion.
The original MST3K started at and with nothing. Then by season 2 (which was actually season 3, counting K, 1, 2…) it was finally polished up!
This relaunch is huge compared to the KTMA years, which it should be compared to. Now how to improve it for next season? You have to be surgeon-like, removing and adding titanium and slicing details with a shiny metal… blade. Can you make honest decisions? Don’t mess up and don’t kill the comedy.
Nobody cares about the Mads, they need to get off the screen. All their content is so horrible it’s worse than the bad movies. Frank and Forrester knew this and stayed off-screen to watch their experiment on the SOL. Their schtick is by definition pathetic.
Season 12 should be great!
This one was very enjoyable, probably in the top three of the season. I’m all for more kaiju if there is a season 12. When Yongary dispatched several fighter jets toward the end, is it just me or did those look like F-104 Starfighters? I just looked at the scene on youtube and I think they are. I would’ve made a callback if I’d been writing it. Then again, The Starfighters is among my favorites despite the almost non-existent plot/story.