Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins is a Taiwanese live-action adaptation of the popular anime and manga series Dragon Ball. Despite being a low-budget production, it gained a cult following and became a favorite among fans. The film follows the story of Goku, a young boy with incredible strength and the ability to summon a magical cloud, who embarks on a quest to find the seven legendary Dragon Balls and save the world from a powerful villain. Along the way, he meets various allies who join him in his mission, including Bulma, Yamcha, and Oolong. One of the most notable aspects of Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins is its use of role players to portray the beloved characters from the original series. These role players were tasked with recreating the iconic moves and fighting styles of Goku and his companions, as well as capturing their personalities and traits.
When Goku and the others arrive, Goku and Yamcha fight a little, then Roshi settles things with the cloud, and since Goku can ride it, that proves he’s telling the truth, so Roshi gives it to him for keeps. As for Yamcha, Roshi tells him he can’t leave the island unless he surrenders his own Dragon Ball to Bulma. Yamcha agrees, and when Bulma kisses him in gratitude…
He s not a shapeshifter like the real Puar, so he doesn t have a backstory with Oolong, so instead they just argue over who will win the Goku Yamcha fight. I m not sure how he knows that, but he must have seen Pilaf swallow them, or he watched Curse of the Blood Rubies and remembered that this was where King Gurumes hid his Dragon Balls.
These role players were tasked with recreating the iconic moves and fighting styles of Goku and his companions, as well as capturing their personalities and traits. The role players did an admirable job in bringing the characters to life, despite the limited resources and special effects available to them. They managed to capture the essence of Goku's innocence and determination, as well as the fiery spirit of Vegeta.
DUHRAG ✪ N BALL
I’d like to think the Taiwan studio behind this movie saw South Korea’s “Fight, Son Goku! Win, Son Goku!” in 1990, and was inspired to make their own unlicensed film a year later. But despite a number of similarities, the two movies have different styles. “Fight/Win” was a very juvenile kind of film, using puppets and theme-park-style costumes to capture the cartoony aesthetic of the franchise. It adapted Akira Toriyama’s butt-fart-poop jokes and worried that the movie might be too highbrow for its audience, so they threw in a scene where Turtle bites Master Roshi’s scrotum, and several moments where characters grab each other by hooking their fingers in each other’s nostrils.
The Magic Begins is probably also aimed at children, but it has a little more dignity. It’s basically a standard kung-fu movie with Dragon Ball characters and situations. For the most part, it’s a direct remake of the first animated Dragon Ball movie from 1986, what we now call Curse of the Blood Rubies. So let’s be clear about the lineage here.
- First there was the original story arc, covered in the first 23 chapters of the Dragon Ball manga from November 1984 to May 1985. You know the tale: Goku meets Bulma, they go searching for Dragon Balls, and eventually meet Yamcha, Oolong, and Puar, then end up having to thwart the evil scheme of Emperor Pilaf.
- Then, there was the Dragon Ball anime, which retold that same story arc in the first thirteen episodes across the spring of 1986.
- Then there was the December 1986 movie, originally just called Dragon Ball, then renamed “The Legend of Shenron”, and then “Curse of the Blood Rubies”. This tweaked the plot by replacing Pilaf with a different villain, King Gurumes, who was planning to wish for a cure from the curse that had afflicted him.
- Then Korea adapts the anime into “Fight/Win” in 1990.
- Finally you get “The Magic Begins” in 1991, which takes the plot of the ‘86 movie, swaps Pilaf back in, and makes a few other tweaks.
So yeah, if you’re looking for something original out of this film, forget about it.
I always have trouble telling this movie from the Korean one, so I’ve put up a helpful image at the top to remind me. On the left is the flag of Taiwan, and on the right is a white parrot, who played the role of “Snow White”, this movie’s version of Puar. You might be thinking of the Puar puppet that smoked a cigarette, but he’s in the Korean movie. In Taiwan, it’s all about white parrots. Or maybe that’s a parakeet. Who knows?
Everyone got new names in this movie. I don’t know if that was a feeble attempt to protect the studio from Toei’s legal team, or if someone genuinely thought this would make the characters wholly original. I have a hard time keeping them all straight, so I’m probably going to just refer to them by their true identities. But for the record, the aliases are as follows:
First up, we have the Pilaf Gang. Pilaf (center) is known as “King Horn” in this movie. On his left is Shu, aka “Zebrata”, and the blonde on the right is Mai, aka “Malilia.” Shu and Mai act a lot more like Bongo and Pasta from Blood Rubies, but their visuals are completely unique, so I’ll give them some credit here. As for “King Horn”, he looks like Pilaf if he were tall and competent. He also has some super-powers, and he leads his troops into battle, so he really has no connection to King Gurumes at all, except for his role in the plot.
Next we have Son Gohan (left), who is known as “Sparkle”. On the right is his adopted grandson, Son Goku, known here as “Monkey Boy”. During the movie, it’s said that “Monkey Boy” is the 91st Descendant of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King from the ancient story “Journey into the West”.
Then we have Pansy on the left, who is known as “Jade” in this movie. If you don’t remember Pansy, that’s okay, she was a movie-only character who appeared in Blood Rubies, most notable for her all-red costume. As “Jade”, she doesn’t stand out much here. On the far right is Bulma, aka “Seetou”, and standing between her and Goku is Oolong, who is known as “Piggy”.
Finally, we have Yamcha on the left, who is renamed “Westwood”, and on the right is Master Roshi, now called “Turtle Man”. So for the most part, everyone’s pretty recognizable. Roshi has a turtleshell, Oolong looks mostly human but his schtick is unmistakable, and the bad guys may be different but there’s no mistaking them for villains. I think the only point of confusion would be Bulma and Jade, but they’re the only girls in this thing, and Jade is smaller, so it’s not too hard to work out who’s who.
All right, let’s get started. So the movie opens in Jade’s village, where her father, the new chief, receives the village’s prize Dragon Pearl in a ceremony. Then Pilaf’s army invades, and basically mows down the entire population. The chief and the local monks all pray in the temple. Pilaf barges in and takes the Dragon Pearl by force, and kills everyone. Since Pilaf already had a Dragon Pearl, that brings his count up to two. And he already knows where to find the third.
Meanwhile, Gohan and Goku are meditating in their home, when Gohan has a Bad Feeling About This. He reminds Goku of their duty to protect their Four-Star Dragon Pearl, but doesn’t explain why they protect it or what would happen if it fell into the wrong hands. Goku is confident that he can defend the Pearl, as he is armed with his magic staff, which can extend in length when he twirls it around. Also it comes to him when he calls, sort of like the Silver Surfer’s board.
Then Gohan gives Goku a test of his abilities, by which I mean a pretty kick ass fight scene out in their back yard. This is easily the coolest part of the movie. I’m not familiar with the kung-fu genre at all, so maybe this movie is trash by comparison, but I’m pretty impressed with the action. It’s hardly a breakthrough in special effects, and it’s definitely hokey, but it’s still fun, which is something I’ve needed after slogging through all of Dragon Ball GT.
This also seems to be the film’s main contribution to the wider Dragon Ball mythos. We’ve never really gotten to see what life was like for Goku back when Grandpa Gohan was still alive. All we know is based on their reunion during the Fortuneteller Baba arc, and various throwaway lines of Goku’s when he would reminisce about living alone in the woods with his grandfather.
This is the first time I know of where I’ve gotten to see the kind of nonsense they might get up to during the day. We know Gohan trained Goku, and this feels like the sort of exercises they would have had. Just two guys bouncing off trees, shooting fireballs and trying to hit each other in the balls with the Nyoi’bo.
I’m not sure why Gohan looks like Robin Williams playing Harry Potter, but otherwise, it seems pretty authentic.
For instance, at one point, Gohan catches Goku’s staff and uses it to fling Goku into the well by their house. But he doesn’t come up right away, so when Gohan gets concerned and goes to check on the boy…
BAM, Goku suckers him into taking a punch to the face. Cool!
So Goku wins the test of strength, but then he loses a Rock-Paper-Scissors game and has to cook dinner, so he goes fishing. And by “fish”, he means “crocodile”, because Goku doesn’t have a tail in this movie, so instead of doing what he did in the manga, he just swims up to a crocodile and shoves his staff into its mouth to incapacitate it.
On the way back, Goku runs into Bulma, and I think we pretty much know how that goes. She nearly runs him down, but he stops her car with his super-strength, so she starts shooting, but the bullets don’t kill him. Goku thinks she’s a monster or a witch, until she explains that she’s a girl, and thankfully we don’t get into the part where she offers to let him touch her butt. However, once Bulma learns that Goku and his grandfather have the next Dragon Ball she’s looking for, she realizes that Gohan is in danger. A couple of tanks filled with Pilaf’s goons drove past her earlier, and she now realizes they were headed for Gohan’s place.
But by the time they get there, it’s already too late. Mai and Shu have wrecked the whole house and there’s no sign of Gohan. Goku and Bulma chase after the bad guys but Bulma’s jeep gets destroyed. This is playing out pretty much like Curse of the Blood Rubies, except the chase was aerial. Also, when Bulma’s vehicles got wrecked, she would just get out another one from her store of Hoi Poi Capsules. But none of that seems to exist in this movie, so instead Goku recruits an elephant to take them where they need to go.
This leads to the part where Oolong is chasing after Pansy, except… well, Oolong looks very problematic to say the least. In Blood Rubies, he looked like a giant red monster, but here, he’s normal-sized, and the actor is covered in black paint. I’m… pretty sure this is not as accidental as the studio would probably like you to believe.
Fortunately, his true form just looks like a regular dude with a dumb haircut, so we can move on.
Then Yamcha and Puar show up. At first, Yamcha looks like a gunslinger from a Western film, but when Goku deflects his machine gun fire, he removes his hat and poncho to reveal…
Revolutionary Girl Utena? They went to a lot of trouble to recreate the scene from Blood Rubies where Yamcha draws his sword all cool-like.
It’s a pretty cool fight, which ends with them grabbing each other by the nostrils, a la Polnareff and Hol Horse in Stardust Crusaders, but then Bulma shows up and Yamcha loses his nerve.
It’s basically the same as Blood Rubies, although Parrot Puar kind of changes things up. He’s not a shapeshifter like the real Puar, so he doesn’t have a backstory with Oolong, so instead they just argue over who will win the Goku/Yamcha fight. Then, after Yamcha flees in terror from Bulma, Puar mimics Bulma’s voice to terrorize him some more.
Later, Bulma asks Pansy about her backstory, and she reveals that her father was the village chief from the start of the movie. Her parents were killed during Pilaf’s invasion, and before she died, Pansy’s mother told her to flee and seek help from Master Roshi. Oolong has heard of Roshi and knows where he lives. Bulma quickly realizes that Pilaf must be the one behind the attack on Goku’s house, and he must be planning to gather all seven Dragon Pearls so he can summon the Dragon and have his wish granted. Pilaf said as much at the start of the film, and Bulma knows the same legend. What the gang doesn’t know is that both Yamcha and Mai are spying on them, and they each run off to act on what they’ve learned.
As in Blood Rubies, Yamcha plans to get the Dragon Pearls for himself and wish for courage around women, so he can finally marry. Unlike Blood Rubies, he already had a Dragon Pearl in his treasure horde. This doesn’t affect the plot much at all, but it’s treated like it’s important later.
So while he rides a jet ski (!) to get to Roshi’s island first, Mai reports back to Pilaf, who plans his own attack on Roshi and the others to shut them down before they can interfere.
So now we enter into the Roshi part of the movie. I don’t know why, but the people who made this movie really love Master Roshi. I say this because the scene on his island starts at about 42 minutes in and continues until the 65 minute mark. Plotwise, it’s virtually identical to the Roshi’s Island scene from Blood Rubies, but it gets heavily expanded. Here, we actually see Yamcha contact Roshi and warn him about Goku. That’s pretty superfluous, but what’s worse is that they show Roshi even before Yamcha arrives. He tries to use the Magic Cloud, but it won’t obey his instructions. In this continuity, he can stand on the cloud, but he falls off as soon as he tells it to do anything.
When Goku and the others arrive, Goku and Yamcha fight a little, then Roshi settles things with the cloud, and since Goku can ride it, that proves he’s telling the truth, so Roshi gives it to him for keeps. As for Yamcha, Roshi tells him he can’t leave the island unless he surrenders his own Dragon Ball to Bulma. Yamcha agrees, and when Bulma kisses him in gratitude…
His eyes turn into slot machine rollers and they land on hearts. He panics and flees on his jet ski.
But we’re still not done, because Roshi has his own Dragon Ball, and he offers it to Bulma in exchange for nudity. As in Blood Rubies, Bulma convinces Oolong to impersonate her. Oolong agrees, but demands nudity for himself as payment. Bulma’s like “Dude, you can look exactly like me whenever you want. You can see me nude any time you feel like it.” That doesn’t seem to bother her much at all. Anyway, Oolong-as-Bulma meets Roshi on his front steps and they do some weird dance together before she takes off her top.
But we’re still not done, because the gang decides to ask Roshi if he knows where the seventh Dragon Ball might be located, since they now have six accounted for. Roshi is too horny to think straight, so he can’t answer. It’s like they forgot that Bulma has a machine that detects Dragon Balls. Wait, Dragon Pearls. Sorry. Maybe her Dragon Radar got lost when her Jeep was wrecked? I don’t think so.
Then the bad guys attack and blow up Roshi’s house, just like in Blood Rubies, but not quite. This time, Roshi shoots some ki blasts at them, but he doesn’t blow them away like he did with his Kamehameha from that movie. None of his attacks make any difference, as the bad guys can just teleport back into their aircraft once they have the Dragon Pearls. Roshi tells the others to flee on the Magic Cloud while he holds them off, and it seems like he’s killed in the battle…
But no, we’re still not done with this guy, because he shows up to meet the heroes when they regroup on the mainland. And this is where things start to deviate from the plot of Blood Rubies, because in that movie, Roshi refused to help Pansy save her people, because she had already gathered all the help she needed from Goku, Bulma, and the rest. Here, Roshi’s pissed about his house, so he’s rarin’ to give the bad guys a whoopin’. Then Yamcha shows up and asks to join their team because his Dragon Pearl got stolen too.
So now we have five characters–Goku, Bulma, Pansy, Roshi, and Yamcha– each personally connected to a Dragon Pearl stolen by Pilaf. So the whole team has a stake in this, except Oolong, who….
No, wait, it turns out Oolong had a Dragon Pearl this whole time. He said it was given to him by the Pig Fairy, his distant ancestor who had some connection to the Monkey King. Oolong says that he was told to keep it a secret, but somehow he knew these guys were part of his destiny, I guess? Anyway, he says that this was why he chased Pansy in the first place, because he knew it would bring him into contact with the other five Pearl-Bearers. I mean, I’m kind of paraphrasing it, but that’s the way I understood what he said.
So then the good guys just storm into Pansy’s village and start shooting everyone. Oolong takes out a bunch of Pilaf’s soldiers and even kills Mai while she’s fighting Goku and Yamcha. What the fuck? Why is Oolong suddenly so important? Anyway, Roshi fights with Shu, and then Bulma shoots Shu in the back while he’s distracted. This seems a bit underhanded to me. Mai and Shu are ridiculously OP in this movie, but still.
Then Pilaf comes out and reveals he has Gohan held captive, and threatens to kill him if Goku’s group doesn’t surrender the last Dragon Pearl. Goku wants to give in, but Roshi reminds him that they’ll all be killed if Pilaf gets his way. So Pilaf tosses aside his hostage and tries a different trick…
Zombies! I think? He uses some kind of power to put a blue filter over the camera, and then all of the townsfolk appear and start attacking the heroes. Maybe they’re still alive and they’re just being mind-controlled, but Pansy’s parents are included in the group, and Pansy said they were dead.
Things look hopeless until Goku summons the Magic Cloud and rides it over the villagers’ heads, knocking down Pilaf and cancelling his spell. Then all the villagers collapse, so I think they’re all dead.
Then Gohan and Roshi get together and Gohan tells him that the other six pearls must be in Pilaf’s stomach. I’m not sure how he knows that, but he must have seen Pilaf swallow them, or he watched Curse of the Blood Rubies and remembered that this was where King Gurumes hid his Dragon Balls. So Roshi decides that they’ll put the seventh Pearl in his mouth and that way Pilaf will explode when the Dragon emerges. This all made a lot more sense when Bulma figured all this out with the Dragon Radar in the Blood Rubies film.
Anyway, it works, and Goku usess his staff to drive the last Pearl down Pilaf’s throat, so at least he helped kill the bad guy. Then this yellow thing shows up and says it’s the Dragon. I’ll just take his word for it.
Pansy wishes for her village and its people to be restored, and then her parents turn out to be okay, so maybe they were resurrected, but I’m not sure. Anyway, the good guys win.
Then Yamcha turns to Goku and goes “I have one more wish. I wish to fight with you!” And Goku’s like “Well your wish is granted, buddy boy, let’s rock!” and the movie ends with them leaping at each other. Weird how they went with this instead of Bulma and Yamcha getting together, but that plotline didn’t seem to get as much attention as it did in other versions. Also, you’d think Goku would be more relieved to have his Grandfather back.
And that’s the end. Akira Toriyama is completely un-credited here, even though he created all the characters and like 70% of the plot. Maybe more than that, depending on how much input he had on Blood Rubies.
It’s a fun little movie to watch, but definitely not something I’d recommend to newer fans. On the other hand, you can find the English dub of the movie on YouTube, so the price is right.
For my part, I’ve heard about this thing for years, and I always wanted to check it out, and now I’m happy to say that I’ve scratched that itch.
- darkj3 понравилось это
Next we have Son Gohan (left), who is known as “Sparkle”. On the right is his adopted grandson, Son Goku, known here as “Monkey Boy”. During the movie, it’s said that “Monkey Boy” is the 91st Descendant of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King from the ancient story “Journey into the West”.
The fight scenes, although not as visually stunning as those in the anime, were entertaining and showcased the talents of the role players. The success of Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins can be attributed to the dedication and passion of the role players, who were determined to honor the source material and please the fans. Their performances, although not perfect, were a labor of love and a testament to their commitment to the project. In conclusion, Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins and its role players managed to capture the hearts of fans, despite the limitations of the production. The film serves as a nostalgic trip for those who grew up watching the original series, and a unique adaptation for newcomers. The role players deserve recognition for their dedication and efforts in bringing these beloved characters to life on the big screen..
Reviews for "The magic of Dragon Ball: Role-playing the supernatural elements of the series"
1. Amy - 1/5 stars
I found "Dragon ball the magic begins role players" to be incredibly disappointing. The acting was subpar, and the storyline was incoherent and confusing. The special effects were laughably bad and did not do justice to the original Dragon Ball series. Overall, I was extremely let down by this film and would not recommend it to any fans of the franchise.
2. John - 2/5 stars
As a big fan of Dragon Ball, I was excited to watch "Dragon ball the magic begins role players", but it turned out to be a major letdown. The acting was stiff and the characters lacked depth. The fight scenes were poorly choreographed and lacked the energy and intensity of the original series. The low-budget special effects also detracted from the overall experience. While I appreciate the effort to recreate Dragon Ball, this film fell short of my expectations.
3. Sarah - 2/5 stars
"Dragon ball the magic begins role players" was a disappointing attempt to adapt the iconic Dragon Ball series. The acting was wooden and the dialogue felt forced. The storyline was weak and failed to capture the essence of the original series, leaving me feeling detached from the characters. The constant use of cheesy special effects only added to my dissatisfaction. Overall, I would not recommend this film to anyone looking for an authentic Dragon Ball experience.
4. Mike - 1/5 stars
I couldn't even finish watching "Dragon ball the magic begins role players" it was that bad. The acting was cringeworthy and the plot made no sense. The fight scenes were poorly executed and lacked excitement. The overall production quality seemed incredibly low, with laughable special effects and cheap costumes. I would strongly advise anyone interested in Dragon Ball to stay away from this film and watch the original series instead.