Dream of a Warrior

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...

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.

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.

I and my brother are very big Asian movie fans, so when finding this movie hidden in a shop, I bought this one on DVD, because it sounded very promising and I couldn't wait to watch it. So I watched this movie with my brother and I must say, in the beginning it was very promising. Both of us really loved this brutal ball scene in the first scene. But i guess that was all. There are some interesting fights, but it is not a action movie, as it claims to be. Instead it's a love movie... with the cliché of love so extremely played over the top, even Shakespeare would vomit on this title. Sorry for my language. By the way: The characters act like being picked up from the street and given 100€ for playing in this movie.

Well, I and my brother watched it to the end, because we thought, it can only become better. But, heck, it never did. This movie challenged place #1 on my and my brothers "worst movies ever seen"-list, only followed by "Fantasy mission force" - do not watch this either.

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.