dragon wars

THE FLICK: Cinematically speaking, the United States has been on top of the world for nearly a century. We have the talent, the resources and most importantly the money to produce 90% of the world’s big screen entertainment. But you’ve gotta love it when foreign film producers try to buck the odds and win one for the home team by going toe-to-toe with Hollywood. I’m not talking about the odd art film or Merchant-Ivory production; I mean an honest-to-god special-effects laden monster-movie extravaganza. And that’s exactly what Dragon Wars (or D-War as it’s known in its native Korea) attempts to do. Much it of it laughable, illogical or just plain lame. But at least 30-minutes of writer / director Hyung Rae Shim is a real hoot to watch, boasting computer-effects that can stand up to anything produced in the U.S. of A. Attempting to reprint the plot is nearly impossible and, honestly, a little embarrassing. Suffice to say that warriors are reincarnated every 5000 years to do battle over something called the Yu Yi Joo, which turns one unlucky 20-year-old girl into a dragon...which then ascends to heaven and turns into a constellation or something. I don’t even think native Koreans know what they hell this is all about, but they responded to it anyway by making it the country’s largest grossing film ever! The duty of relating this legend onscreen is charged to actor Robert Forster, one of my favorite ‘70s method actors who never really amounted to anything, even after Tarantino tried to “reinvent” him in Jackie Brown. In the film, he plays an Obi Wan mentor with wicked fighting skills, shapeshifting into other characters whenever the script calls for it. But thankfully all the actors play a distant second to the dragons themselves, made up of some excellently realized CGI by Shim’s own effects house. From lumbering dinosaurs to flying lizards to the slithering giant snake plastered on the poster, Dragon Wars definitely doesn’t skimp on the monsters. The battle scenes owe a big debt to Lucas’ new Star Wars films and Peter Jackson’s Rings trilogy, but what they lack in originality, they make-up in “gee-whiz!” enthusiasm. A pre-climactic showdown on the streets of downtown Los Angeles actually runs rings around the same scene in Michael Bay’s big-budget Transformers. This is a kids’ fantasy film that really delivers. It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. THE FEATURES: Rather surprisingly, Dragon Wars gets the full Blu-ray treatment. The film itself looks tremendous, along with a TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack (despite the foreign film status, most of D-War is spoken in English). Extras include the 5000 Years in the Making featurette, made up mostly of Shim’s presentation in front of a fan premiere. Still, the story of how the director got his film made and distributed in the first place is very engaging. For those will an eye for effects, an animatic storyboard to screen comparison focuses on some key scenes and a conceptual art gallery showcases some early ideas.