My Thoughts on "Dragon Wars: D-War 🐉"

 

(This is the original theatrical poster for Dragon Wars: D-War 🐉. See what I mean when I say that the poster had both Buraki and the Good Imugi on it? That’s some serious false advertising right there.)

Well, I’m finally doing it, I’m finally talking about Dragon Wars: D-War 🐉, and I’m doing it on May 4th, Star Wars Day. Which is fitting I guess, I mean, I guess this movie is kind of like Shim Hyung-rae’s attempt at making a Korean equivalent to Star Wars, a fantasy franchise to call his own, even if it didn’t pan out the way he wanted. I was inspired to write this after I started re-editing a bunch of clips from this movie that I downloaded off of YouTube, making them go forwards and backwards, or forward and inverted as I like to say. Sometimes I get the ideas for blog posts in the strange places or strangest circumstances, or at the most random times. 

For those of you who don’t know, and I’m sure that’s most of you reading this, Dragon Wars: D-War 🐉 is a 2007 fantasy monster movie that was written and directed by a South Korean guy 🇰🇷 named Shim Hyung-rae, or Hyung-rae Shim as he’s more commonly referred to as.  He used to be a comedian prior to becoming a filmmaker. I don’t know if he was any funny or not. If anyone from South Korea 🇰🇷 or anyone who is familiar with Shim Hyung-rae’s career as a comedian prior to becoming a director is reading this, please me know in the comments if he was any good or not, if he was actually funny or not.

 

(This is the poster for the 2001 release of Yonggary. You see, this movie was originally a 1999 movie, but it was re-issued and re-released in 2001. It was referred to as the “Upgrade Edition,” because it not only supposedly had more upgraded effects, but it had a completely different plot than the original 1999 version. The 1999 version has never been released in any form since it was shown around in the film festival circuit, meaning that it’s lost media now. So, the only version available of this film is the 2001 Upgrade Edition. It was the version that was released in North America, and it’s the version that’s reviewed online or is written about on Wikipedia. They even say on Wikipedia that their synopsis of the film is based entirely on the 2001 version as the 1999 version has been lost to time.

In some ways, this makes Yonggary just like the original Yongary: Monster from the Deep, where the original version was destroyed or lost to time, and the re-edited version is the only version available. It was a little bit different with Monster from the Deep because in that case, when the movie was exported North America to be dubbed into English, the South Korean filmmakers and studio 🇰🇷 behind that movie accidentally sent them the original film negatives 🎞️ instead of a copy as is standard practice, and the Americans 🇺🇸 who dubbed the film destroyed the film prints 🎞️ they were given once they were done dubbing the film, not knowing that they were the original negatives. So, the original South Korean version of that film 🇰🇷 was lost due to a mistake, whereas with Yonggary, we don’t know the reason why the 1999 version wasn’t released on home video, or what happened to it. If it even still  exists. I don’t even know if anyone even asked Shim Hyung-rae what happened to the 1999 version of the film.)

 

People probably know him best as the director of a little 1999 kaiju film called Yonggary, or Reptilian as it’s known in North America. For those that don’t know, Yonggary was a modern reboot of a 1967 kaiju film called Yongary: Monster from the Deep, which was sort of meant to be South Korea 🇰🇷’s answer to Godzilla, although it wasn’t all that successful, and it’s been mocked over the years and dismissed as a Godzilla rip-off. I mean, it was, but that’s what people thought of it at the time. 

From what little I’ve seen of Yongary: Monster from the Deep, it definitely seems like a poorly made movie with a lot of technical mistakes. Like, from the clips that I’ve seen, it definitely seemed like a pretty amateurish production. Which makes sense since the people who made were likely pretty inexperienced making that kind of movie with those kinds of effects, with suitmation and miniature work. But, Yonggary with two gs was meant to bring that character, Yonggary (again, spelt with two gs this time) into the 21st century. It was supposed to be Yongary what Godzilla (1998) was to Godzilla. 

 

(This is the cover art for the North American release of Yonggary, retitled to Reptilian. Unlike Dragon Wars 🐉, Yonggary did not receive a theatrical release in North America, or at least not a wide one. Instead, it was released direct-to-DVD 📀. This was how I was able to watch the movie as a kid. I rented it from the video store. I don’t remember if I rented it from Hollywood Video or if I rented it from Hastings, but I did rent it, and it had this cover on it. You can really the Godzilla 1998 influence with this one, what with the similar font on the logo.)

 

In some ways, you could say that they succeeded because just like Godzilla (1998) was for many years before its recent redemption, Yonggary was poorly received by pretty much everyone, and is usually looked back on with contempt by a lot of people. Except unlike Godzilla (1998), I doubt that Yonggary will ever truly be redeemed, even if there are plenty of people who have nostalgia for it like me. The biggest criticisms being for its special effects, its acting, and its writing and story. And indeed, it is bad in all those departments. Though in recent years, the movie has sort of developed a cult following as a “so bad, it’s good” movie, the kind of movie you watch to make fun of and laugh at as you watch it 😆, usually with some friends. Unlike this movie, which pretty much faded into obscurity, and doesn't have that same level of entertainment value.

But, despite how poorly received Yonggary was, Shim Hyung-rae was not perturbed, and not dissuaded, and decided to follow it up with this movie, Dragon Wars: D-War 🐉, or just D-War 🐉, or just Dragon Wars 🐉. I should probably address the confusion around the title before I continue any further. In South Korea 🇰🇷 and in most Asian and international markets, the movie is just called D-War 🐉. But, when it was brought here to North America, they added Dragon Wars 🐉 to the title, so it was, Dragon Wars: D-War 🐉. Probably so that American moviegoers 🇺🇸 would know that it’s a dragon movie 🐉. 

I mean, D-War 🐉 really don’t give any real indication of what the movie about based solely on the title. A lot of Americans 🇺🇸 would probably assume that it’s a movie about D-Day or something just from hearing the title, and without seeing the poster. I mean if they saw the poster, they’d get it, but still. D-War 🐉 really doesn’t sound that great as a title I’m going to be honest. I think Dragon Wars 🐉 sounds way better.

Some reviewers who have talked about this movie have said that the title is redundant since D-War means the exact same thing as Dragon Wars 🐉, and I do agree with that. Which is why I’m mostly going to refer to this movie as Dragon Wars 🐉 for the majority of this review from here on out.  This would end up being the most ambitious film of his entire career. He managed to secure a $32 million budget 💵 which was more than what Yonggary cost to make, which was $13.5 million 💵.

This already made Dragon Wars 🐉 the most expensive South Korean movie 🇰🇷 ever made at the time, but the movie went way over budget just to pull off the special effects and elaborate set pieces that Shim Hyung-rae wanted to do, and it ended up costing $99 million 💵. So, it really was the most expensive South Korean movie 🇰🇷 ever made at the time, and it still might be. I don’t know if any South Korean movie 🇰🇷  since then has surpassed it or not. If anyone from South Korea 🇰🇷, or anyone familiar with South Korean cinema 🇰🇷 is reading this, please let me know if this movie is still considered the most expensive South Korean movie 🇰🇷 or another movie since this one has surpassed it in terms of budget.  If the movie’s budget did really balloon to $99 million 💵 like the special features on the DVD and Blu-Ray 📀💿 say, then that’s pretty shocking.

I don’t think any American studio 🇺🇸 would ever tolerate a movie going that far over budget, unless it was like James Cameron making an Avatar movie, something that’s guaranteed to make money 💵, lots of money 💵. Like, those two Avatar movies made billions of dollars 💵 a pop. The first movie made $2.923 billion 💵 on a $237 million budget 💵, which is huge, but it’s okay because the movie made its money 💵 and then some. The second movie, Avatar: The Way of Water 💦 made $2.320 billion 💵, which is less than the first one, but still a lot of money 💵.

That’s probably why Twentieth Century Fox and then Disney were okay with the movie going over schedule and over budget to an estimated $350 million to $460 million 💵. No body knows exactly how much that movie cost to make, but what everyone agrees is that it was a lot. We’ll see how the third Avatar movie does when it comes out next year in 2025 (if it even hits its intended release), but I’m willing to bet it’ll probably make a whole lot of money 💵 on a gigantic budget. Cameron definitely likes to spend a lot of money 💵 on his films. He isn’t satisfied until he’s spent half a billion dollars 💵 on a single movie. A movie that in my opinion is just a fake wannabe Star Wars. But anyway, back to Dragon Wars 🐉.

 

(This is the flag of South Korea 🇰🇷 from 1997 to 2011, meaning that this would have been the flag when this movie was made and released.)

 

But, unlike Yonggary before it, Dragon Wars 🐉 would not be a straight up kaiju film, although it still does have kaiju elements within it. It would be predominantly a fantasy epic based on actual Korean mythology, or at least Shim Hyung-rae’s interpretation of it because he wrote this movie as well as directed it. He didn’t write Yonggary, he just directed it. So, it wasn’t entirely his vision. But he did write this movie as well as direct it, so it is his full vision. It was all him.

I don’t know how much creative control he had over this movie, but I assume it was a lot, which crazy to me considering how poorly received Yonggary was. I don’t even know if it was a financial success or not. I assume it wasn’t given how critically panned it was, and how little of a pop culture impact it seemed to have in South Korea 🇰🇷 let alone in the United States 🇺🇸. Speaking of the United States 🇺🇸, like Yonggary, this movie would also feature primarily American actors 🇺🇸 and would be set primarily in America 🇺🇸.

(This is the flag of the United States 🇺🇸.)

 

I really don’t know why Shim Hyung-rae insisted on having American actors 🇺🇸 in both Yonggary and Dragon Wars 🐉, and why he insisted on them both being set here in the US 🇺🇸. The only thing I can really think of as to why is that this was his attempt at trying to appeal to the American market 🇺🇸. Like, he thought that Americans 🇺🇸 would only accept this movie if it had American actors 🇺🇸 and was set pretty much entirely in the United States 🇺🇸. Sort of like what Hollywood thinks about China 🇨🇳, and how they often try to appeal to that market. They think, “Hey, if we just throw in a bunch of Chinese actors 🇨🇳, and set parts of the movie or the whole thing in China 🇨🇳 or Hong Kong 🇭🇰, then Chinese audiences 🇨🇳 will embrace it. Because hey, they live in that country or that city, they know what that is, and they only like things that are familiar to them, right?” But, here it’s a South Korean production 🇰🇷 with a South Korean filmmaker 🇰🇷 doing it, and he’s doing it to Americans 🇺🇸.

While that sort of thing might work for an Asian audience, it definitely doesn’t work for a Western audience, or to be more specific, a North American audience as this movie failed here in North America, making only $10,977,721 💵 at the box office. Making North America the least profitable region for this movie in terms of its theatrical run. And this was the first South Korean movie 🇰🇷 to be given a wide theatrical release in the US 🇺🇸 too, which makes this all the sadder. Though, I should say that this movie wasn’t the first South Korean movie 🇰🇷 to receive any sort of theatrical release in the US 🇺🇸, as another childhood favorite of mine, The Host (2006) also received a theatrical release in the US 🇺🇸 although it was a more limited one. But, this one was the first to receive a wide one here in the US 🇺🇸, as in all theaters across the country for a full run of several months. Movies with full wide theatrical releases used to stay in theaters for a lot longer back then than they do now.

However, what sets this movie apart from Yonggary besides its larger budget and it’s more fantasy oriented plot is that it does actually feature some South Korean actors 🇰🇷 and does have some Korean scenes. There’s an entire flashback scene of this movie that’s set in Korea, and is spoken entirely in Korean. And would believe it? The acting in the Korean scenes are way better than the acting in any of the American scenes 🇺🇸 which make up the vast majority of this movie. At least they gave a shit. But, I’ll get to that later.

Now, I do have a lot of nostalgia for this movie. I was one of the few people who actually saw this movie in theaters when it came out. I first became aware of this movie thanks to my sister showing me the trailer to it. I have two older sisters as well as a younger sister, but she wasn’t born yet, so it was just me and my two older sisters, and it was my second oldest sister that showed me the trailer to this movie. She knew that I was into Godzilla, and she obviously thought that I would like this since it had giant snakes 🐍 in it, and had dragons 🐉, and had things that kind of look like dinosaurs and big lizards, and they fighting the military in the middle of a major city. It definitely seemed like the perfect movie for me.

And to her credit, I did end up liking the movie. I liked it a lot, a lot more than I do now. I don’t know, I think just liked it for all the creature stuff, which admittedly is still cool. I didn’t really care about the story or the characters. It was just yet another cool movie that I saw in 2007. 2007 was a great year for me in terms of movies. You had Transformers (2007), you had The Simpsons Movie, Ratatouille 🐀, War (2007), although I didn’t see War (2007) when it came out, Ghost Rider, Spider-Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets, and this movie. Those were my five favorite movies of that year, Transformers, The Simpsons Movie, Ratatouille 🐀, Ghost Rider, and Dragon Wars 🐉. I also liked Spider-Man 3 and National Treasure 2, but I didn’t consider it to be one of my favorites.

It’s a shame now that I rewatch it as an adult in my mid-20s that I don’t enjoy it nearly as much. I said before in the descriptions for the re-edited versions of those clips that I mentioned earlier, but when I last saw this movie, I found it to be pretty boring. I don’t remember when or how I watched it, but when I did, I didn’t like it all that much. But, I was willing to give it another chance, and see if I enjoyed it more this time around. Sometimes you watch a movie, and you don’t really like it, but when you watch it again at a later date, then you actually end up liking it. That happened to me with The Dark Knight. I hated that movie when I first saw it in theaters as a kid. But when I actually rewatched it on TV, sometime after I saw The Dark Knight Rises, I actually enjoyed it. That didn’t happen to me with this movie. I found it just as boring now as I did years ago when I last saw it.

It’s amazing to me how unengaging this movie is despite all of the decent CGI effects, despite the cool creature designs, and despite all the action and explosions 💥 that are aplenty. I think it a lot of has to do with the acting and the writing. The script is pretty bad, and there are some pretty terrible lines of dialogue in this movie, and the story is poorly written and uninteresting. Almost every actor in this movie feels like they’re on autopilot. Like, they all seem bored out of their minds, and like they’d rather be anywhere else. This is especially the case with Craig Robinson, who looks and acts so disinterested in what’s going on. Like, he lacks the infectious enthusiasm that he has in his other roles.

It’s clear that he only really did this to make a quick buck 💵. Like, he took one look at this script, and went, “Yeah, this shit is trash, but it is a role. At least, I’ll be able to get some money 💵 out of this.” Pretty much the same mentality that Lance Hendrikson and Malcolm McDowell have when they accept roles in these terrible low budget direct-to-DVD 📀 type of movies. Only this was meant to a big budget blockbuster. I bet after Craig Robinson finished his last scene, he was like, “Whew, finally! That’s over. Now I can just go collect my paycheck and go home.” The same pretty much goes for Robert Forester, the other biggest star that this movie has in its cast. He’s a little more enthusiastic than Craig Robinson comes across, and he does lend some credibility to what’s going on, but still, his performance is pretty wooden and the material he was given by Shim Hyung-rae really didn’t give him much to work with.

His character kind of comes across as unintentionally creepy because during the flashback scene at the beginning, when this chest opens up and the young Ethan is exposed to the Imugi scale, his character, Jack fakes a heart attack 🫀 in order to get Ethan’s dad to leave the building (he runs an antique shop, that’s his cover) so that he could be alone with this kid. Even the sound and face he makes when the dad leaves, and sees the boy ♂︎ is a bit sus. If that sort of thing doesn’t set off red flags 🚩, I don’t know what will. Yonggary also had an unintentionally creepy old guy. Like, there’s this old guy in the movie, he kidnaps the female lead ♀︎ and hold her at gunpoint, just so he could take her to a bar and talk to her about Yonggary. Shim Hyung-rae sure likes his unintentionally creepy old guys doesn’t he?

Speaking of wooden 🪵, our two main leads, Ethan Kendrick and Sarah Daniels, played by Jason Behr and Amanda Brooks respectively, are both pretty wooden 🪵. They’re a big part of the reason why this movie is so unengaging because they are such boring characters. Jason Behr’s performance is so stilted and awkward. Like, he has almost no emotion for most of this movie, and when he tries to convey emotion, it comes across as inauthentic and like he’s barely trying. Amanda Brooks’s performance as Sarah is barely better, as her performance is also pretty emotionless and wooden 🪵. The only time she shows any emotion is when she goes crazy in the hospital.

On top of that, they have no chemistry with each other whatsoever. You don’t buy that these two characters are in love 🥰. I mean, they just barely met each other and known each other for a day, and they’re already in love 🥰? I know that they’re star crossed lovers ❤️, and that their fates intertwined, but these particular incarnations haven’t known for each other that long, and haven’t had the time to develop those kind of feelings for each other, and the two actors who were picked to portray them don’t have the chemistry to really sell it either way. Maybe, if they were already friends or acquaintances beforehand, it would’ve a bit more believable that they fall in love ❤️, but as it stands, it isn’t very believable.

Speaking of which, isn’t just the acting that makes the two characters boring, it’s also the way they’re written that makes me not really like them. Ethan doesn’t explain anything to his friend, Bruce (Craig Robinson’s character) why they’re searching for this girl ♀︎, or what’s even going on. He’s very cryptic and bad at explaining things. And he just comes across as kind of a wimp. Like, he hates guns. When Bruce gives him his revolver, Ethan at first refuses, saying that he “hates those things.”

Dude, you’re Sarah’s protector. You’re the reincarnation of a Korean warrior from 500 years ago, you were destined to protect this one woman ♀︎ from Buraki and the Atrox Army. What did you expect to protect her with? A stick? We all saw how good you are with a stick 👎. But, he picks up a sword just fine. You’re telling me that he hates guns, but he’s perfectly fine with swords? Okay, sure…. They’re both weapons, they’re both made with the expressed purpose of killing people, so I don’t see the difference other than one’s a projectile weapon and the other is a melee weapon. He’s terrible in fights, like he pretty much loses every fight he gets into with the Atrox general. The only reason he won the second fight was because the Atrox general stupidly hit the dragon medallion he was wearing around his neck instead of his chest, which pretty much is a deus ex machina.

That thing singlehandedly wipes out the entire Atrox Army, and causes the Atrox general to disintegrate. It’s a wonder why this thing didn’t activate sooner. They could’ve ended this all a lot quicker had Ethan’s necklace just been more cooperative and had not waited until the last minute to unleash its power. Maybe, the medallion’s powered by love and belief, and Ethan didn’t believe hard enough that’s why it didn’t work for him before. Or maybe it didn’t work before because it only activates when the woman carrying the Yeouiju is personally under threaten, and about to be killed, which is what almost happened to Sarah at the end when the Atrox Army tries to sacrifice her to Buraki. It lines up with everything that we see happen in the film.

Sarah isn’t written much better, in some cases, she’s written even worse. She completely lacks personality, and we learn very little about her as a person other than that she lost her entire family at some point in the past. Like, both of her parents are dead, and the rest of her family is also dead. So, she's all alone, and has no one but her friend to rely on. That’s the extent that we learn about her. Shim Hyung-rae must’ve been convinced that simply giving Sarah a tragic backstory was all he needed to make her a fully fledged character. It isn’t. Similar to Ethan, she’s terrible at explaining things, only in her case, she’s bad at telling people what she’s feeling or how she’s feeling to those who care about her, like her friend. It doesn’t even really seem like she cares that much about her friend, even though her friend says at point that she’s the closest thing to a family that she has.

Also, when she’s in the hospital, she starts behaving erratically and starts acting crazy, like she starts screaming, trying to open the door that’s locked for some reason, saying that something bad’s going to happen or that someone or something is trying to kill her. Then, she just starts attacking the security guard that was guarding her room, and the hospital staff, like the doctor and the nurse, like she’s just violent towards them. This is part of which why she gets locked up in another room of that same hospital. Like, gee, if you didn’t want them to think you were crazy and lock you up, maybe you should’ve acted all crazy and violent, huh, Sarah. Not that the guard or the hospital staff were any better.

They just locked her up in her hospital room with no explanation whatsoever. Now, obviously they do it because her friend was killed by Buraki and the Atrox general along with her boyfriend (her friend’s boyfriend) at her house. So, they’re guarding her room since she’s now tied to a murder case, and they want to protect her in case the person that murdered her friend comes for her. They don’t know that Buraki and the Atrox general were the real culprits. But, they told her nothing. They didn’t tell her that her friend was murdered, and that they’re just trying to protect her, nothing. So, they shouldn’t be that surprised that Sarah's so freaked out because they didn't tell her anything! Not only that, but they also think that her dragon birthmark is an infection.

Why do they think her birthmark is an infection? What would make them think that it was an infection and that it would be contagious enough that they’d need to literally quarantine her? It looks like a tattoo, which is what they refer to it as throughout most of the film. Also, I can just say the hospital receptionist at the front desk is a really rude for no reason? I mean, I know that she’s just doing her job, but she does have to come across as so rude and callous?

All the American characters 🇺🇸 that aren’t Ethan, Sarah, Bruce, Jack, or Sarah’s friend, Brandy are pretty unlikeable. Like, they’re all assholes. They’re all either rude, obnoxious, callous, condescending, selfish, inconsiderate, apathetic, murderous, or even just downright rapey. Shim Hyung-rae crafted such a harsh and cynical world in the present day America scenes 🇺🇸 that when Buraki and the Atrox Army do start attacking the city, it’s hard to care. These are all terrible people anyway, so why should we care? 

On top of that, every institution in this movie is portrayed as either callous and evil or just really incompetent. Like, the FBI and the US military 🇺🇸 are portrayed pretty negatively in this movie, likely so that we wouldn’t really feel sorry for them when they get decimated by the Atrox Army. But, it also makes it hard to root for them too. How can you root for a bunch of guys who are either stupid or are just assholes with little-to-no redeeming qualities? It’s a lot like how institutions were portrayed in Godzilla (1998) actually, and in Yonggary which was essentially a rip off of Godzilla (1998). They’re just portrayed as being stunningly ineffective.

Oh, and there’s this ridiculous running joke or subplot, I don’t know if you could call this a subplot or not, involving this zookeeper guy who spots Buraki eating an elephant 🐘 at the Los Angeles Zoo. He reports it the police, but no body believes him, and they all think he’s crazy, and he gets sent to the same hospital that Sarah is at to be admitted into a metal institution. They even tied him up in a straitjacket and everything. The FBI knows that he’s telling the truth, because they know about Buraki, the Atrox Army, and the Yeouiju thanks to their “sophisticated paranormal unit” (X-Files much?), so they could easily corroborate this guy’s story and tell the people at the hospital that he’s telling the truth and he isn’t crazy, but they don’t. They kind of just screwed this guy over and left him to his fate.

Speaking of which though, if no body believes that a giant snake 🐍 killed that elephant 🐘, what exactly do they think killed that elephant 🐘? It seems like the zookeeper is the only one who actually cares about any of this. They just keep cutting back to this guy because it’s just so funny, this joke was so funny that we have to keep seeing this guy even though he’s not a main character and he’s completely unimportant to the plot 🙄. This whole running gag/subplot is a waste of time. You could cut out all the scenes involving this zookeeper, and the movie would literally be no different. In fact, it’d bit a shorter, and a bit better. It’d still be bad, but not as bad. Why didn’t they remove any of these scenes when they edited it down to 90 minutes?

This is in stark contrast to the Korean scenes. The Korean scenes are much better acted than any of the American scenes 🇺🇸. The Korean actors show a lot more passion and enthusiasm for what they’re doing than the American actors 🇺🇸 do, and they turn out a more believable and natural performances as a result. Sure, the material they were given is still not good, but they sell it a lot better than a lot of the American actors 🇺🇸 do. It is as if Shim Hyung-rae was a lot more comfortable directing these Korean scenes than he was any of the American scenes 🇺🇸.

He actually speaks the language, he understands the culture, and thus can communicate with the actors and give them direction without the need of an interpreter which is what he probably needed when he directed the American scenes 🇺🇸. That’s probably why the acting in those scenes comes across as so wooden 🪵 and unnatural. Which begs the question, why even bother with having American actors 🇺🇸 and having an American setting 🇺🇸? Why not just have Korean actors and have the movie be set in Korea? If I ever get the chance to interview Shim Hyung-rae or at least have a private one-on-conversation with him, I’ll be sure to ask him that question myself. I’m not even against the present day setting, it can still be set in present day. Just have it be South Korea 🇰🇷 instead of the United States 🇺🇸.

 

 

(These are the flags of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea. The first on top is the national flag, which used from 1883 to 1897, and the flag on top was the royal flag representing the king.)

 

Since I’ve mentioned the Korean scenes, I should probably talk about the plot a little bit. Basically this whole movie is about this Korean legend involving giant serpents called Imugi (이무기) and a mystical blue orb called the Yeouiju (여의주). In the movie itself, they spell those two words differently. They spell it, Imoogi with two os, and Yuh Yi Joo like that. Likely so that American audiences 🇺🇸 would be able to pronounce them better. But, the actual English spelling for those words are Imugi with a u and Yeouiju. I mean, they look more like authentic Korean words, romanized Korean words, when they’re spelt like that.

The Yeouiju allows the Imugi to turn into dragons 🐉 with near godlike power that they refer to simply as “Celestial dragons 🐉,” because they live up in the Heavens, and have spiritual power beyond anything a mere mortal could comprehend. However, an Imugi must be chosen to become a dragon 🐉, and the Yeouiju manifests itself in the body of a woman ♀︎, and that woman ♀︎ must choose which Imugi she will give the Yeouiju to once she reaches the age of 20, the good one or the evil one named Buraki. Buraki wants the Yeouiju so that he can be powerful enough to take over the world basically since dragons 🐉 have limitless power, and he’s willing to take it by any means necessary.

So, he’s assembled an army called the Atrox Army, compromised of these humanoid soldiers with armor that’s very Lord of the Rings inspired, these flying creatures called Bulcos which resemble European-style dragons, these big lumbering creatures called Dawdlers which only have two legs and have big canons mounted on their backs that shoot fireballs 🔥, and these mounted creatures called Shaconne which resemble Velociraptors with two horns on their heads. Together, they are pretty much unstoppable, and the only that’s standing between them and the Yeouiju is a couple of human warriors with their own special powers, and of course, the good Imugi, who’s actually pretty weak compared to Buraki.

The story begins in 1507 during the Joseon Dynasty of Korea, where the Yeouiju manifests itself in the body of a Korean woman ♀︎ named Narin (Hyojin Ban), who lives in an isolated and walled off village, and is protected by her father, the lord of the village, Lord Yun (Jongman Lee). It’s a good thing she was born into the elite, into a life of privilege, and already has protection by default. Even if that protection isn’t actually very good as we learn during the village attack. But that’s okay because she has extra protection in the form of the warriors, Haram (Hyeon-jin Park/Kyuho Moon) and his master, Bochun (Ji-hwan Min), who were selected by Heaven to protect the Yeouiju, and prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. During their time watching over Narin, Haram develops feelings for her, as one would do if you’re dealing with an attractive woman ♀︎ like her. They’re both pretty attractive people. Haram is a pretty handsome man ♂︎, like I can see why Narin or any woman ♀︎ for that matter would be attracted to him.

However, the peace doesn’t last, and Buraki shows up with his army to try to take the Yeouiju from Narin’s body. But they ultimately fail thanks to Haram stupidly deciding to commit suicide with Narin by jumping off a cliff with her, rather than fulfilling the prophecy, and giving the good Imugi the Yeouiju and ending this right then and there. This causes them both to reincarnate in modern day Los Angeles, in the year 2007, exactly 500 years from when Narin was born. The cycle continues, with Buraki and the Atrox Army showing up once again to try to take the Yeouiju. They will continue to show up so long as the prophecy remains unfulfilled, and the Yeouiju keeps being reincarnated. That Buraki sure is persistent, I’ll give him that.

So, it’s up to Ethan and Sarah, the reincarnation of Haram and Narin, to make things right and make the Yeouiju gets to one of the two Imugi. If Sarah gives it to the good Imugi, the day will be saved and the cycle will be broken. If she gives it to Buraki, or Buraki takes it to her by force, then the cycle will be broken also, but the whole world will be in danger, as Buraki will be powerful enough to conquer it or destroy it. Probably both. It’s funny how these two Koreans reincarnated as two white people living in a completely different country on a completely different continent. Why wouldn’t they have just reincarnated as Koreans? It doesn’t make any sense. You could still have them be Americans 🇺🇸, just have them be Korean-Americans 🇺🇸 maybe. But, I guess it’s better than nothing I suppose. If they were reincarnated as North Koreans 🇰🇵, then we’d really be in trouble.

Now, all of the reviews I’ve seen of this movie on YouTube have said that the plot, and the lore is difficult to follow. Like, they’ve said the legend is overly complicated and hard to even comprehend. But, I really didn’t have that much understanding the mythology, and the basic plot. It’s not that hard to understand if you actually pay attention, and I’m sure if the exposition was delivered a bit better, then everyone else would understand also. All of those YouTube film reviewers who talked about this would’ve gotten it. It’s actually a pretty interesting concept, like it probably sounds interesting from how I’m describing it. It’s just it was poorly executed. This interesting premise, and this interesting take on Korean mythology was undermined by bad writing and bad acting, at least on the American side 🇺🇸. The acting on the Korean side was fine.

This movie isn’t actually that poorly made. Like, it is more competently made than Yonggary was. It actually has good CGI that still holds up even 17 years later, it has amazing music by Steve Jablonsky (the same guy who composed the music for all five Michael Bay Transformers movies), and it has an interesting premise. Like, this could have worked, it’s that the writing and the acting really dragged it down. Everything else is fine, it’s just that script and the acting. Shim Hyung-rae clearly is not that strong of a writer or even a director, or at least, not of American actors 🇺🇸. He does fine with Korean actors, but once he has to deal with English-speaking actors, it all falls apart. Had he just stuck with Korean actors the whole time, instead of insisting on putting American actors 🇺🇸 in there, maybe this wouldn’t have turned out as badly as it did.

In fact, I’ll go as far to say that this is a movie that would actually benefit from being remade. There are a lot of movies have been remade or rebooted over the years, and a lot of them were classics that didn’t need to remade and were perfect the way they were. But, this is a good example of a movie that deserves a remake. A movie that has an interesting concept, has interesting ideas, and has potential to be something good, but just didn’t come together for the first time for one reason or another. How would I approach remaking Dragon Wars 🐉?

Well, first, I would set it in South Korea 🇰🇷 rather than in the United States 🇺🇸, and I would have an entirely Korean cast, rather than a predominantly American cast 🇺🇸. You can still have a few American characters 🇺🇸 here and there, but have the vast majority be South Korean 🇰🇷. Americans 🇺🇸 don’t need to see themselves on screen in order to embrace a foreign film. We’ve seen in recent times that Korean movies and Korean TV shows are utterly unmatched. Like, some of the most successful movies and streaming shows in the past few years have been South Korean 🇰🇷. And none of them featured American actors 🇺🇸 and none of them were set in America 🇺🇸. That just goes to show the power that Korean cinema and television (or streaming rather) has, and that Americans 🇺🇸 are not so shallow and close-minded that they’ll only accept a foreign movie or foreign TV show if it has American actors 🇺🇸 in it. Shim Hyung-rae just didn’t have the vision or the foresight to see any of that.

If not that, then I would have it be set in America 🇺🇸, but focus on Korean-Americans 🇺🇸. Like have Narin and Haram reincarnate as two Korean-Americans 🇺🇸. I’d also inject some humor in there and have moments of levity because this movie is way too serious for its own good, and the few attempts at humor that were in there were weird, awkward, and most important of all, unfunny. I’m not saying that they should crack jokes and quips ever few minutes like in a Marvel movie, but there should be little bits of humor here and there to lighten the mood, and show that movie isn’t taking itself too seriously.

Like, just have fun with it, embrace the ridiculousness and over-the-top nature of the concept, while also showing respect and reverence for what this mythology is based on and where it came from. It should be first and foremost, a popcorn movie 🍿, which what this movie set out to be but it failed. It fails as a popcorn movie 🍿 in my opinion. You might say that’s a tall order, but I’m sure that if you got the right creative team together, you could make something that was truly great. Instead of the boring slog that this is.

I’d also have the Joseon era characters interact with the present day characters. In spirit, yes, but still interact with them. It did bother me on this viewing this time around that once the flashback scene is over, and once we get that little history lesson about Haram, Narin, and Bochun, they’re pretty much out of the story. They don’t really factor into the plot after this, and they aren’t characters beyond this. So, in order to have be more apart of the story, I’d have them interact with their present day selves. Like, take advantage of the fact that these are reincarnations of people from the distant past.

I was thinking that during that scene when Sarah was put under hypnosis 😵‍💫 by that hypnotherapist 😵‍💫 that Ethan just randomly had on dial 📞, and she starts seeing images from both her own past as well as from the distant past in the Joseon era, maybe she could have actually talked to Narin since Narin’s soul became one with the Yeouiju. Then Narin could really explain to her what’s going on, and she needs to do, like telling her she needs to give the Yeouiju to one of the two Imugis to put this to an end, and to not make the same mistake that she did 500 years ago by running away from her destiny and refusing to give the Yeouiju to the good Imugi. You don’t even have to have Narin speak English or Sarah speak Korean, you can just have them speak their own languages, and yet still understand each other since they’re essentially the same person. I think that would’ve really tied the story together nicely, and made Sarah more connected to her past self. I would do that sort of thing if I were doing a remake of this movie, and I recommend whoever was making a remake to this movie to do that. 

Also, maybe instead of being a journalist, maybe you could make Ethan an FBI agent apart of that paranormal unit. That way he’s in a better position to not only know what’s going on, but also have the resources to actually do something about it. Like, he’d be in a better position to protect Sarah than he was as a journalist. No body would've questioned why someone from law enforcement, and federal law enforcement at that, would want to see Sarah while she's locked under quarantine.

That all being said, I do still like Buraki himself. He works pretty well as the main antagonist of the movie, as the non-human main antagonist, which is unique for a fantasy movie like this. Most fantasy movies have villains who at least a little bit humanlike, and this movie does have a secondary villain that is more humanlike. But, the primary villain is completely inhuman. He’s a giant snake 🐍 basically, a giant king cobra 🐍 because of that hood he has. He has a cool design, like his design is probably the thing that makes this movie memorable at least to me, and is the one of the few things that actually holds up. His roar sounds pretty cool too. They gave him a lot of human qualities, like his emotions, his facial expressions, and his actions are all very humanlike. It gives him a lot of personality. Ever since I saw Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, I’ve gained a new perspective on things. I appreciate it now when monster movies give their monsters actual personalities and make them real characters rather than just mindless beasts that either just cause destruction or eat people or both.

I also like the good Imugi, like he has a cool design and a cool roar too, but he doesn’t have nearly as much personality as Buraki does. But, part of that due to him not getting nearly as much screen time as Buraki does. He doesn’t appear until the very end of the movie when they’re in that weird desolate wasteland with the castle, after the entire Atrox Army has been wiped out. I feel like they should’ve had the good Imugi appear at least once before the climax. Like, have him have one-on-one fight with Buraki before the end like on the poster.

The North American theatrical poster for the movie shows both Imugis facing off at each other on top of the US Bank Tower 🇺🇸 AKA the Library Tower—which was erroneously referred to as the Liberty Building throughout the entire film—with all those Apache helicopters flying around them. That never happens in the actual movie itself, but it should have. It would’ve been cool to see, and it would’ve given the good Imugi more of a presence. It also bothers me that they didn’t even bother to give the good Imugi a name. They gave Buraki, but not the good Imugi. They just refer to him as the good Imugi. It makes him seem a lot less of a character without a name.

His dragon form 🐉 looks badass though. He’s an Asian-style dragon 🐉 of course like in the emoji since this is based in Korean mythology and Asian-style dragons 🐉 are pretty cool and beautiful. And his transformation into a dragon 🐉 is pretty unique too. You can tell just how powerful he is as a dragon 🐉 from just how he carries himself and how he moves. His dragon roar 🐉 is also pretty cool. Buraki pretty much stood no chance against him once he became a dragon 🐉, in fact, the only reason the good Imugi was even able to defeat Buraki is that he did receive the Yeouiju and did become a dragon 🐉. Once he was still an Imugi, he was pretty weak, and unable to defeat Buraki, like Buraki almost killed him until Sarah stepped in and stopped him and released to the Yeouiju from her body and gave to the good Imugi, pissing off Buraki to no end 😡.

But, tough luck, Buraki lost and ended up being incinerated by the dragon 🐉’s fireball 🔥. As bad as this movie is at conveying emotion, that moment at the end where the dragon 🐉 looks back at Ethan and cries 🥲 since he has the Yeouiju inside of him, and Sarah’s soul became one with it. So, she’s expressing her emotions through the dragon 🐉, and the dragon 🐉 is conveying the emotions that Sarah wants to express to Ethan before she goes up to Heaven. That was a genuinely beautiful moment in an otherwise lackluster and underwhelming movie. This movie may went out with a whimper instead of a bang, but at least it had that moment, and had one of the best renditions of “Arirang” ever recorded. Steve Jablonsky did a really great job with that one.