War of the God Monsters (also known as The Flying Monster in some versions) is a 1985 Korean kaiju film made with some, shall we say, unapproved "assistance" from Tsuburaya Productions?
A scientist named Dr. Kim is attempting to prove to the world that dinosaurs still exists when hibernating monsters suddenly appears from the skies and the seas around Korea. Working together with a reporter named Kang Ok-hee, they're caught in the chaos with Dr. Kim trying to retrieve his young daughter after spending much of the film neglecting his only child.
It's worth noting that approximately none of the film's onscreen monsters (as seen on the poster) are original creations; instead, the producers actually cribbed footage from a bunch of decade-old Tsuburaya works including Ultraman note , Return of Ultraman note , Ultraman Ace note and Fireman note (as well as The Founding of Ming Dynasty, a Taiwanese-Japanese co-production which inexplicably contain dragons) for their monster rampage scenes. The resulting mess needs to be seen to be believed.
Compare Space Warriors 2000 made by Sompote Sands of Chaiyo Productions fame and Ultraman Story, another copy-and-paste stitch job made from recycling monster footage, though that one is at least a Tsuburaya output.
Tropes original to this film (excluding tropes already seen in the various old shows it ripped off from) includes:
- Accidental Suicide: Not-Pestar, much like it's original counterpart from Ultraman, unintentionally blew itself up when rampaging across an oil field. Bonus points for having NO Ultramen to finish it off this time.
- All Just a Dream: While most of the cribbed monster footage at least fits into the movie's context (loosely, very loosely), scenes depicting Verokron are actually part of a dream from Kim's daughter.
- Bait-and-Switch Credits: The opening scenes, which depicts Ok-hee's bumpy bus ride to Dr. Kim's place, is mostly comedic. Which is followed by moments where she interviews Dr. Kim, and some occasional bonding with Kim's daughter, basically nothing that screams "kaiju!" for a while. And then a couple mysteriously gets mauled in Jeju Island...
- Blood Is Squicker in Water: The opening scene depicts a couple in Jeju Island's beaches suddenly getting dragged underwater by some unknown sea beasts (probably Not-Seamons and Not-Seagorath) and getting devoured underwater, with their blood forming a bright red patch on the surface, far too thick compared to how real human blood in water should look like. (The film probably used dissolving red dyes to achieve that effect)
- Death by Adaptation: Not-Seamons and Not-Seagoras gets killed via nuke at the end of their rampage (by showing Seoul getting vaporized while cutting away from the monsters still in the harbor). Their original counterparts in Return of Ultraman survives the events of their episode.
- Giant Foot of Stomping: Not-Terochilus attempts to crush Dr. Kim and Ok-hee underfoot when it appears onscreen, with one of the few non-recycled footage depicting the avian beast's gigantic foot nearly pulping the main characters.
- Giant Footprint Reveal: Dr. Kim comes across a number of gigantic footprints off the coast of Jeju Island during his search for dinosaurs. It turns out those prints belongs to Not-Terochilus.
- Improbable Infant Survival: Despite the amount of carnage onscreen (and plenty of implied deaths off-camera), Dr. Kim's young daughter survives the film.
- No Name Given: The movie pretty much assumes audiences are familiar with the onscreen monsters which they ripped off from various other sources; none of the kaiju (Not-Pestar, Not-Terochilus, Not-Verokron etc.) are identified by any names whatsoever.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: One that's somewhat a little too abrupt, but after Seoul gets nuked, destroying the remaining monsters, the scene then ends with a shot of Dr. Kim reuniting with his daughter, who's currently with Ok-hee, where it's implied they're ready to start life anew.
- Skewed Priorities: Dr. Kim's dedication to proving the existance of dinosaurs... while Seoul is in the middle of a kaiju invasion. Ok-hee calls him out for it.
- Stock Footage: Which takes up at least 60% of the runtime.
- Uncertain Doom: One scene depicts a couple with a baby in Seoul receiving news of the incoming kaiju, and quickly making their way to the evacuation center, but in their hurry the wife somehow took the baby's bolster instead of her baby with her. They realize their mistake when they're in the countryside, much to both their horrors... while the monsters may or may not destroy the home with the baby still inside, said baby will probably die of starvation anyways (thankfully not depicted onscreen).
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- By the end of the film, Not-Seamons and Not-Seagoras gets nuked, Not-Pestar steps on an exploding oilfield, Not-Verokron is actually from a non-existant dream sequence and the two dragons pilfered off a Taiwanese film presumably mauls each other to death. However, no word on what happens to Not-Dorigon, Not-Bemstar and Not-Terochilus, for some reason.
- The. Goddamned. Baby. mentioned above. His / Her fate remains ambiguous by the end of the film.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: One of the film's very few original storylines, which has Dr. Kim's young daughter pinning for her father's return due to Kim being obsessed in his archeological studies and spending too much time away from his only child. When Ok-hee pays the Kim household a personal visit, the young daughter actually cried about how much she misses her dad.
