"Dragonball: Evolution," released nationwide yesterday, is funny - not because it`s entertaining but because its quality is laughably below expectations.

The film, directed by James Wong, has drawn interest from Korean fans, at least initially. Last month, all major cast members and Wong visited Seoul to promote the film based on the best-selling Japanese series of graphic novels by Akira Toriyama. Moreover, one of the leading actors is none other than Park Joon-hyung, former member of Korean R&B group G.O.D.

But if you`re a big fan of the Dragonball franchise, or have fond memories of the 42-volume manga series, you are strongly advised not to watch the first-ever silver screen adaptation.

The risk is that you might set out to find the seven "dragonballs" and ask the mysterious dragon to remove what you have just seen from your memory.

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The inevitable disappointment the film adaptation will bring to viewers contrasts the unprecedented success of the original series. When Toriyama serialized the graphic novel in 1984 and 1995, he secured a huge number of fans around the world thanks to his addictive storytelling and interesting characters. In Japan alone, it sold about 150 million copies, breaking previous records in manga sales. More than 300 million copies are estimated to have been sold across the world.

Surprisingly, Toriyama has joined the film project as executive producer and yet failed to rescue the film from slipping into the abyss of cliched plot turns and cardboard characters.

The main plot, written by Ben Ramsey, is too simplified to build up any dramatic sense. A high school boy sets out on a journey to collect the legendary dragonballs to save the world from a monstrous creature, which has escaped after being imprisoned for 2,000 years. All the minor characters are conveniently eliminated, interesting episodes mercilessly cut out and fighting tournaments inexplicably shortened. Only a couple of dragonballs (there are supposed to be seven) are featured. It`s a sorry attempt to link the film to the manga series.

In the film, the American boy named Goku (Justin Chatwin) gets personal martial arts training from his grandfather Gohan (Randall Duk Kim), but Goku is treated as an outsider who is timid and weak in the face of high school bullies.

Mysteriously enough, Goku decides to reveal his awesome power when he gets invited to a party by Chi Chi (Jamie Chung), an attractive girl he has a crush on. The film does not explain why Goku endured the humiliation at school for so long, even though he can dodge any attack with his acrobatic skills.

There is no time for throwing in dramatic details. The movie hurriedly pushes Goku to embark on a quest to find his master Roshi (Chow Yun-fat) and other dragonballs. Along the way, he is joined by Bulma (Emmy Rossum) and Yamcha (Park Joon-hyung). Don`t even think about the original series - that`s the whole team in the film.

Chow, who has a huge following in Korea, hits a new low here. He wears a gaudy Hawaiian T-shirt and imitates Roshi`s girl-chasing habit, perhaps to follow the script faithfully. But his performance as Roshi is at best awkward and at worse unbearable. When he utters "qi" ("gi" in Korean) to refer to the mysterious power, he looks like a cheap street vendor trying to sell fake stamina-enhancing drugs.

Park Joon-hyung, who appears in a Hollywood film for the second time after "Speed Racer," delivers his lines accurately, but the garish cosmetics on his lips wipe out any remaining coolness from the minor character, who has only a handful of lines.

When it comes to makeup, though, nobody can beat Lord Piccolo (James Marsters). Piccolo, a character who is complex in the original series, transforms into a not-so-scary imitator of the Blueman Group. The original Piccolo, if he ever watched the film, might commit suicide.

The highlight, of course, is the dragon. Thanks to the film`s poor computer graphics (inferior to the notorious Korean monster romp "D-War"), the dragon looks like a little chubby snake.

One of the mysteries surrounding the film is its bold and misleading subtitle, "Evolution." Considering its crude computer graphics, a disoriented plot and ludicrous dialogue, the big-screen adaptation is not an evolution but a painful step backward.

By Yang Sung-jin



(insight@heraldm.com)