Ladic Posted August 20, 2007 Posted August 20, 2007 The most expensive movie produced by Koreans (with american cast), coming soon to the states Movie Info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372873/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-War Movie Trailer: http://dragon-wars.com/ Movie Poster: Quote
EXO Posted August 20, 2007 Posted August 20, 2007 basically what reign of fire promised to be.... if just a little bit better than that Matthew McConauGAY POS, then it might be worth the rental. Dinkin Flicka! Quote
yellowlightman Posted August 20, 2007 Posted August 20, 2007 The monster designs are pretty awful. Looks like a cross between American Godzilla and Anaconda. Quote
007-vf1 Posted August 20, 2007 Posted August 20, 2007 This looks to me like a hormonally enhanced Dinotopia..which by the looks of it might become a movie in a near future... Is a second try-out to the mostly lame Godzilla.. Quote
Valkyrie Hunter D Posted August 21, 2007 Posted August 21, 2007 Korean made monster movie? Sure, I'll bite. It can't be any worse than than latest Godzilla movies-and my girl sure knows how I love those... Quote
Nightbat Posted August 21, 2007 Posted August 21, 2007 basically what reign of fire promised to be.... Talk about a let down, it was even dissappointing looking at it for free Quote
wolfx Posted August 21, 2007 Posted August 21, 2007 THe previous korean monster flick , The Host, was like political satire. The monster was cool though, designed by WETA. This one....hmmm.... Quote
valkyrie13 Posted August 21, 2007 Posted August 21, 2007 I actually saw the movie on big screen in Korea while traveling on business. (It was late and I had time to kill. ) It was supposed to have cool special effects, most of which you can get a glimpse of from the trailer. But the final scene which doesn't show up anywhere in the trailers was kick-ass (purely in terms of special effects). According to an interview with the director, the movie took 5 years to shoot and 1 year to clean up with CG. Of course, that is because the director was raising funds as he went along and also put all of his personal assets into it. It doesn't come without its shortfall. The acting by both the Korean and the US cast leaves room for improvement. The plot is pretty simple and very predictable and often skimpy as well. This is a blockbuster hit in Korea because it portrays a very "Korean" legend (a monster called "imugi" which is a morph from a snake to a dragon. Every country seems to have a legend on dragons but Korea is a bit unique in a sense that people believe that the wisest and oldest of the snakes are sometimes rewarded for good deed with the greatest prize of "turning into" a dragon. But the real reason that this movie attracted a lot of viewers in Korea is because of the human drama surrounding the director "Sim, Hyung-Rae" (a/k/a Younggu). Director Sim is a well-known comedian in Korea, who started off his career playing a "fool", much like a degraded version of the British Mr. Bean, on TV. I was in grade school when he debuted and he was a sensation to kids my age and under. He amassed a fortune by starring in children's sci-fi movies during the day, making TV appearances in the evening and appearing on stages at night clubs during late nights. In real life, he shares an infatuation for animation, guns, weapons, robots, sci-fi movies, monsters and dinosaurs. He could have just as well lived a very comfortable life but instead, jumped into directing and movie producing. In particular, he spent most of his fortune when he produced a movie called "Yonggari" (which was a knock-off of Godzilla) that flopped. He lost most of his fortune and had to start again from bottom up. I am not sure if it was the smartest thing to do but he prides himself on having copied, improved, created and recreated all of the technology that went into this movie "D-War" instead of outsourcing to ILM, PIXAR and the like. Learning from his previous mistake, he went for 1st tier (although not topnotch) casting in the US and shot the entire movie (other than the intro about the Korean legend) in English. In an interview, he confessed that he had to opt for and incorporate certain elements of fantasy and lore that the West is familiar with and would have a less hard-time digesting (e.g., the smaller dragon-type creatures, which are really not dragons in the movie and evil soldiers dressed up in costume that resemble the Lord of the Rings) over purely Korean content. Note, however, that the dragon that appears at the end of the movie is certainly more true to the Korean (or Northeast Asian) form and style of dragons that you can find in sculptures and paintings. In my opinion, if you're into Godzilla, King Kong or just action-packed Sci-fi movies, it's worth viewing or at the least, renting. I certainly wouldn't mind watching it again on DVD. Quote
Ladic Posted August 23, 2007 Author Posted August 23, 2007 I'm really looking foward to this movie, I expect lots of cheeseeness and lots of mayhem Quote
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