D-War

The same man who made the Yonggary film from 1999 is back for another shot at a kaiju movie: Shim Hyung-rae returns! While Yonggary did not go over well on this blog, we believe in 2nd (or 3rd or 4th or 75th) chances in this house! Like Yonggary, D-War is based in the US and stars mostly American (or at least English-speaking) actors. The most recognizable of these actors are Jason Behr and Robert Forster, but there's some other familiar faces in here too.

The monsters/kaiju in this one are almost entirely CGI, so there's no suit credit to be given. But it is notable that this film pulls from Korean mythology, with the premise being a dragon-like serpent called an Imugi transforming through mystical means into a proper Dragon. The movie spells this Imoogi, so that's what we're going with here. Another significant note for this film is that at the time it was released it was the most expensive Korean film ever made. So, hopefully that investment pays off when it comes to quality!

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- Every 500 years, a woman is born who contains a mighty spirit. Pursued by both good and evil serpents/Imoogi because of her power to turn them into powerful dragons, our main character Ethan is sworn to protect this woman.

- We get the story of the last woman born with this power, and see a tragic love story from 500 years ago where the woman and her protector/lover die after escaping from the evil serpent/Imoogi Baraki.

- Ethan, the reincarnation of the warrior who died with the previous Spirit lady, finds her reincarnation, a woman named Sarah.

- Tasked to bring Sarah to the Grand Cave on her 20th birthday, bad things begin to happen as the evil Baraki arrives in Los Angeles, and some mysterious and clearly evil human figure confronts Ethan (seems like a wizard or something).

- Escaping with Sarah and his friend, they are pursued by wizard guy but hit him with a car. He manifests armor and beats them up, but another car manages to knock him over and allow them to escape.

- Baraki's army rises to give chase, and now LA is under attack by the army in pursuit of Sarah (and Ethan).

- Not managing to make it out of LA before Baraki's army descends upon everyone, Baraki appears to be winning. Just in the nick of time, the military counter attacks and manages to fend Baraki off for a moment.

- We now get to watch Baraki's reptilian army battle the US military, and... it's kind of fun?

- Eventually, Baraki captures Ethan and Sarah and takes them to a ritual site. Once there, the good Imoogi emerges and tries to protect them, but is quickly felled by the powerful Baraki.

- Sarah realizes what she must do, and feeds her spiritual orb to the good Imoogi. She collapses and it transforms into a powerful dragon (even grows arms)!

- After another extremely quick battle, the good Dragon shoots a fireball down the throat of Baraki, who is reduced first to a skeleton and then to ash.

- Sarah is dead, but her spirit lingers long enough to tell Ethan she will love him for eternity.

Kaiju Notes 

- The Imoogi are giant snakes. They look like snakes and they act like snakes. Buraki is darker, so he looks more evil.

- The Atrox army also contains giant artillery bearing Dawdlers, the agile flying Bulco, and velociraptor/utahraptor like Shaconnes.

- Lastly, the Celestial Dragon is a very classic asian dragon creature.

- None of these kaiju designs are particularly creative, if you can't tell.

So, this is a very strange case. D-War is... horrible. And I love it. It starts out cheesy and weird and just doubles down over and over and over until a giant reptilian army is fighting with the US military. This movie has a distinct sense of humor but ultimately plays it straight, and I think its better for it. Despite how nonsensical every event is, the commitment to the bit makes it work despite never being anything resembling a quality film. It's a hard case, and it won't work for everyone. I waffle on whether I enjoy it myself. But at the end of the day for me it lands on the "so bad it's kinda good" side of things in that indiscernible way only movies of this kind.

Beyond that, there's very little that can be said about D-War. It sucks, but in a way that somehow makes it work? I could never possibly recommend it as an even "okay" movie, but find it entertaining. Whether it's giant dinosaurs launching artillery or dragons whipping US military helicopters out of the sky, this movie is just strange, terrible, and entertaining all at the same time. The acting isn't particularly good and the jokes are generally pretty bad but this shit makes me laugh every time. I have no way to explain it, so I'm not going to try. If you're into awful movies that somehow make it work, this is an example (unlike Death Kappa, which just sucks).

Next: Gamera the Brave!