Cheonsamong

Now I know that many of you who have already seen this will be questioning my sanity, but this is an awesome movie. I must say that it is extremely entertaining and full of unique characters played by a talented group of actors/actresses. Some criticize the film for being hard to follow and lacking any coherent storyline. While at first glance this may be true, the fact of the matter is that the movie is layered with witty satire and clever dialogue. Sure, some characters (re: all) may have almost no lines whatsoever, but the ones they do have are all classic.

The film is also visually stunning with its extraordinary special effects and set pieces. Their society is complete with neon lit dance clubs and industrial looking facilities yet at the same time resembles ancient rome or egypt. The duality between this primitive and advanced society is brilliantly played out as soldiers fight with swords yet they contain the knowledge to produce high powered explosives. There are hidden social commentaries as main character comes from a lower class background yet is in love with the daughter of the Great General. Never before has such a forbidden love tale been expressed so beautifully. Somehow this film manages to merge all these subtle messages together while apparently completely eluding many viewers. This is part of the reason why this movie is so great.

The acting is top notch as all the characters play their parts quite well. Oftentimes the characters never speak to each other, yet their emotions come through something as simple as eye contact. The plot is a little hard to follow and perhaps a little hard to believe, but that is merely looking at it with the wrong perspective. In actuality, this movie subtlety touches upon such subjects as love, betrayal, and perseverance while throwing in some stylish action scenes here and there.

The music is simply fantastic as well. The beautiful scores and piano accompaniment would move any takashi miike fan to tears. The music is appropriately spread from scene to scene which helps to infuse the film with its melancholic and inspirational feel. There are also bits of techno and rock which work very well with the various settings in the movie.

While this movie hasn't won any awards, it certainly should. I would dare to say that it is the best korean film I have ever watched (much better then other korean classics like Friend, JSA, Yupgi Girl, Shiri, etc.) and on par with some of the finest movies of this generation. It is extremely entertaining, especially with a big party, and will probably last a long time in your memory. And that is what makes this a great movie.

Not "confusing" in the sense that, "Gee, this movie is really complex, and thus hard to follow!" But confusing in the sense that, "Gee, this movie really has no idea what it's doing!"

DREAM OF A WARRIOR is a Hong Kong/South Korean collaboration, but it's all utter nonsense. A movie about parallel universes mixed in with time travel mixed in with love story mixed in with silliness.

The film has the type of concept that boggles the mind. Again, not boggles the mind because it's so great and complex, but boggles in the sense that it's so ridiculous and one can't conceive of anyone ever coming up with such an awful premise to begin with.

Nothing in DREAM OF A WARRIOR makes sense, and that's because the whole movie should never have been made. It is quite awful. The only saving grace is the actress who plays the female warrior (not the female lead).

3 out of 10.

It's a pity to throw away such a good idea. The main idea of the movie is travel into past lives which - fortunately - is not a time travel but a journey inside man which has nothing to do with the past or the future. (Maybe they shouldn't be called past lives at all in the film now that I think of it... Another minus, I guess). It's all in the present, in a different space... Very interesting without causing much religious distress.

However, the music is totally repetitive, melodramatic, sentimental and out of place (not to mention "western"!). There should have been more variety and more thought on where there should be music and where there shouldn't. The flashback romantic scenes take a lot of space and running time and are totally unnecessary. The acting is not bad although the language has kept me from understanding better.

I believe the idea needed a little more thought, developing and unfoldment. The inside scenes could have had better background settings because in many cases they seem unreal. As a whole, I would say that this movie leaves a lot to be desired...

Okay, let me start by saying that I did enjoy this movie and that there were some good parts. I want to say this because overall, it was not a good movie and I enjoyed it in a really cheesy flick way.

Synopsis: A scientist has invented a machine which not only allows you to view but to actually visit your past lives. Unfortunately when he tested it on his daughter a religious cult destroyed everything and she was lost. Now he has to send a cop to DilMoon (which is where her past life takes place) in order to free her and bring her back.

Good Points: There were definitely some cool fight scenes. Several actually. You get to see some great wire-fu which seems Matrix inspired but looks cool. Also, the special effects in the movie are great overall. They are obviously computer graphics most of the time, but they honestly pull it off and it just looks plain cool. On top of this, the story has some neat ideas and seems like it might go somewhere with it. It doesn't, but it seems that way.

Bad Points: Well, for starters there are a lot of things that simply are not explained in the movie. It states that DilMoon is an imaginary space that does not exist in the past or the future, yet this is where both of their past lives take place. Do what now? Also, characters will suddenly have crazy powers which were never mentioned or explained, even the cop when he goes back physically. Hunh? Not only that, but the whole opening scene is crazy. One of the girls from DilMoon is apparently a bad guy in this time. Okay, sure. But she looks exactly the same. Well, so does everybody else, right? Yeah, well, she actually has the EXACT SAME TATTOO! Ehhh, okay... Also, NOTHING in this movie is subtle regardless of what you may have heard. The whole plot of the guy's past life character (paralell life character?) and the girl's past life being in love with each other is completely rammed down your throat. I lost track of how many times someone pointed out that they could not be together because she was a princess and he was just a 'lowly warrior'. Over and over and over... And, my lord, it gets SOOO cheesy. There are these horrible montages of all the touching scenes with music playing over them. Two characters that barely interacted get one and the only scenes the can play are him helping her up from the floor and her shooting an enemy in the back to save him. Sheesh. And finally, the whole ending is crazy. I'll try not to totally give everything away, but it probably won't really matter. So, the cop goes to DilMoon physically to save the girl and he only has six hours to do it. Somehow, six hours turns into about ten minutes. The villain knows all about him and (I guess) about the dimensional/time travel. Swords cut through forcefields easily. And, why is she in a forcefield anyhow? What has she been doing for two years? What part of the 'evil' plan does she even play? Who knows?

Conclusion: Maybe if everything were explained it would be better. Maybe if it wasn't so cheesy and melodramatic at times. If you like cheesy Asian sci-fi/action/romance/martial arts movies then see this one. Otherwise, just don't bother. Rating: 2 out of 4 stars.

Actually I should already have become suspicious while readying the plot summary... a time-traveling cop searching for his lost love..? We all have surely heard that before. But since Leon Lai is in it (for whatever reason) I thought 'might as well...'.

However, about 10 minutes into the movie, I regretted my choice. The acting is rather uninspirational (not to mention Leon Lai's strange pronunciation of Korean), the martial arts are as short as are they lame, and the storyline is, simply put, mind-explodingly dumb. Granted, this is a sci-fi flick, but even the least bit of plot logic is nowhere to be found here.

In other words, 'Dream of a Warrior' is absolutely disgraceful. Even if you're interested for the sake of watching Leon Lai or Lee Na-Young, my only advice to you: Stay away from it.