Until I saw the featurette "5,000 Years in the Making," I was ready to discount this film, but then I realized how low budget and independent this film was. Essentially, the entire movie was created in Korea under the supervision of Writer/Director Hyung-rae Shim, and all of the computer graphics were created in his studio. Basically, besides the score and Los Angeles filming, most of the movie was developed in a very independent format and it looks pretty good considering those facts.
The story behind the movie stems from an ancient Korean legend that involves mystical beings who need to ascend and become celestial dragons with the help of a spiritual energy that grows inside a chosen girl every 500 years. At the age of 20, this energy, called Yeouijoo, becomes fully realized and she must sacrifice herself to the creature, known as an imoogi, and grant it complete power. If a good imoogi turns into a dragon, it means peace and goodness will reign, if an evil one takes the power, it could mean the end of the world.
The story of Dragon Wars spans two instances of this legend playing out. 500 years ago, the chosen woman was Narin and her protector and lover was a man named Bochun. Bochun was trained from an early age to be the one to protect and help sacrifice Narin when the time came. As you would expect, the two characters fall in love. On Narin's 20th birthday, the good imoogi was chosen by the heavens like always, but an evil imoogi, Buraki, also broke free and vowed to take the Yeouijoo for himself. Instead of allowing Narin to be taken by either imoogi, she and Bochun kill themselves and keep either creature from ascending.
Now fast forward to modern times, about 12 years ago actually. A young boy and his father are visiting a Korean antique shop and the boy stumbles upon an old box with a large strange scale in it. When the shop owner realizes that the scale is reacting to the boy, he tells him of Narin and Bochun. He then explains that the boy, Ethan, is a reincarnation of Bochun, the shop owner is Bochun's teacher reborn and somewhere in the world is Narin who will turn 20 and be in grave danger because Buraki is still out there looking to ascend.
Fast forward again to the present where Ethan (Jason Behr) is a television reporter and he starts to notice signs that the myth he secretly believed in all these years is starting to come true. After some effort, he encounters the woman he believes contains the Yeouijoo, Sarah (Amanda Brooks), and his suspicions are confirmed when the giant snake and his hordes of followers start searching for and attacking the pair.
One of the major aspects of this movie that really bothered me, as far as the story is concerned, is the FBI agents that are following after Sarah and Ethan. Without any real direct contact with these characters, the agents seem to learn and immediately believe in the myth and have no problem jumping to the conclusion that this giant snake is after Sarah and she must have the Yeouijoo within her. The film attempts to explain this with a single line where the FBI agents claim to be members of a paranormal division of the bureau, but this seems tossed in, and quite frankly, the whole side story following the FBI could be thrown out without much ill effect.
This movie apparently did really well in South Korea, but it just doesn't stand up to the films that are released here in the States. I can definitely see this movie achieving cult status, but it is by no means for everyone.
