Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins
1991·Action·1h 30m
7.0
★
An unauthorized live-action adaptation of the Dragon Ball manga, it follows a band of misfit adventurers trying to stop King Horn and his goal to collect all seven Dragon Balls, and his wish of ultimate power.
Directed by Chen Chun-Liang
martial arts
shapeshifting
superhero
slapstick comedy
based on manga
lechery
martial arts spoof
based on anime
dirty old man
sexual predator
grandfather grandson relationship
spaceship
unauthorized adaptation
lighthearted
absurd
admiring
anime live-action
supernatural comedy
Trailer
IMDB
N/A
Where to Watch
Cast
Chen Chi-Chiang
Monkey Boy/Son Goku
Jeannie Hsieh
Seetou/Bulma
Pang San
Piggy/Oolong
Chin Tu
Sparkle/Gohan
Crew
Chen Chun-Liang
Director
Liao Ching-Sung
Director of Photography
Akira Toriyama
Characters
Popular Reviews
19 reviews
Luna
5.0★ · 04/24/26
the inexplicable cgi fight scene in the middle that only lasts like a minute and doesn't return until the credits is maybe the best part of the film. that and the explosions that take up majority of the budget almost make up for everything else
the inexplicable cgi fight scene in the middle that only lasts like a minute and doesn't return until the credits is maybe the best part of the film. that and the explosions that take up majority of the budget almost make up for everything else
Bucky
5.0★ · 01/29/25
For some reason this took me a while to finish, but it’s genuinely fascinating how this even exists. It’s an unofficial live action film of Dragon Ball, that takes inspiration from Dragon Ball (specifically the OG series and the Curse of the Blood Rubies film), Star Wars(??), as well as some Asian kung-fu dramas.
This was on Tubi, and it played with the English dub.
In terms of visual and effects, it was sometimes surprising how decent it looked. The costumes looked pretty good for an early 90s knock off film, and I really liked how they handled the Ki blast effects - the use of small explosives setting off one-by-one in the ground actually looked cool af. But there are moments where I was like “okay movie, you didn’t have to make Master Roshi into an actual turtle for this scene”, and not to mention that really bad/unnecessary CGI scene between Monkey Boy and Westwood lmao.
Sometimes this film has the most off the walls funniest/unexpected moments. Oolong charges in full Rambo style with a rifle (where tf did he get that???), and he even kills the only caucasian cast member of this movie - the scene even lingers with her spilling blood from her mouth LMAO!
Like I said before, the story takes a lot of inspiration from the first OG Dragon Ball movie, however the villain’s goal here just confuses me. He’s another generic bad guy that wants to rule over the world, but I don’t understand why he is eating the Dragon Pearls, when the last one will inevitably kill him - at least in the Curse of the Blood Rubies film the villain wasn’t aware of that possible outcome.
As a knock off interpretation, I wish that they didn’t include the pervy moments from Roshi and Oolong in the original source material. I’m glad that Goku isn’t obliviously stupid about gender in this movie, but it feels so wrong with how young the cast is here. It’s unclear how old the person that plays Bulma is in this movie, but apparently Goku’s actor was about 16 when this movie was released… Although Oolong sounds older in the show, he’s actually a kid in the original series - but casting him as an older man, as well as that weird almost blackface pig-look was a certified wtf moment - also him having the pearl, and using Chi-chi to find the others as instructed by his master is some BS.
Overall, it is crazy to believe that a Taiwanese unofficial Dragon Ball film is more faithful than what the US can come up with. The fact that they took inspiration from Dragon Ball properties here, while Fox’s inspiration was probably Raimi’s Spider-Man (2002).
Lastly, for the love of god, I need a documentary on this film. Get all the actors back together and let them rejoice on their memories of this classic.
This was on Tubi, and it played with the English dub.
In terms of visual and effects, it was sometimes surprising how decent it looked. The costumes looked pretty good for an early 90s knock off film, and I really liked how they handled the Ki blast effects - the use of small explosives setting off one-by-one in the ground actually looked cool af. But there are moments where I was like “okay movie, you didn’t have to make Master Roshi into an actual turtle for this scene”, and not to mention that really bad/unnecessary CGI scene between Monkey Boy and Westwood lmao.
Sometimes this film has the most off the walls funniest/unexpected moments. Oolong charges in full Rambo style with a rifle (where tf did he get that???), and he even kills the only caucasian cast member of this movie - the scene even lingers with her spilling blood from her mouth LMAO!
Like I said before, the story takes a lot of inspiration from the first OG Dragon Ball movie, however the villain’s goal here just confuses me. He’s another generic bad guy that wants to rule over the world, but I don’t understand why he is eating the Dragon Pearls, when the last one will inevitably kill him - at least in the Curse of the Blood Rubies film the villain wasn’t aware of that possible outcome.
As a knock off interpretation, I wish that they didn’t include the pervy moments from Roshi and Oolong in the original source material. I’m glad that Goku isn’t obliviously stupid about gender in this movie, but it feels so wrong with how young the cast is here. It’s unclear how old the person that plays Bulma is in this movie, but apparently Goku’s actor was about 16 when this movie was released… Although Oolong sounds older in the show, he’s actually a kid in the original series - but casting him as an older man, as well as that weird almost blackface pig-look was a certified wtf moment - also him having the pearl, and using Chi-chi to find the others as instructed by his master is some BS.
Overall, it is crazy to believe that a Taiwanese unofficial Dragon Ball film is more faithful than what the US can come up with. The fact that they took inspiration from Dragon Ball properties here, while Fox’s inspiration was probably Raimi’s Spider-Man (2002).
Lastly, for the love of god, I need a documentary on this film. Get all the actors back together and let them rejoice on their memories of this classic.
For some reason this took me a while to finish, but it’s genuinely fascinating how this even exists. It’s an unofficial live action film of Dragon Ball, that takes inspiration from Dragon Ball (specifically the OG series and the Curse of the Blood Rubies film), Star Wars(??), as well as some Asian kung-fu dramas.
This was on Tubi, and it played with the English dub.
In terms of visual and effects, it was sometimes surprising how decent it looked. The costumes looked pretty good for an early 90s knock off film, and I really liked how they handled the Ki blast effects - the use of small explosives setting off one-by-one in the ground actually looked cool af. But there are moments where I was like “okay movie, you didn’t have to make Master Roshi into an actual turtle for this scene”, and not to mention that really bad/unnecessary CGI scene between Monkey Boy and Westwood lmao.
Sometimes this film has the most off the walls funniest/unexpected moments. Oolong charges in full Rambo style with a rifle (where tf did he get that???), and he even kills the only caucasian cast member of this movie - the scene even lingers with her spilling blood from her mouth LMAO!
Like I said before, the story takes a lot of inspiration from the first OG Dragon Ball movie, however the villain’s goal here just confuses me. He’s another generic bad guy that wants to rule over the world, but I don’t understand why he is eating the Dragon Pearls, when the last one will inevitably kill him - at least in the Curse of the Blood Rubies film the villain wasn’t aware of that possible outcome.
As a knock off interpretation, I wish that they didn’t include the pervy moments from Roshi and Oolong in the original source material. I’m glad that Goku isn’t obliviously stupid about gender in this movie, but it feels so wrong with how young the cast is here. It’s unclear how old the person that plays Bulma is in this movie, but apparently Goku’s actor was about 16 when this movie was released… Although Oolong sounds older in the show, he’s actually a kid in the original series - but casting him as an older man, as well as that weird almost blackface pig-look was a certified wtf moment - also him having the pearl, and using Chi-chi to find the others as instructed by his master is some BS.
Overall, it is crazy to believe that a Taiwanese unofficial Dragon Ball film is more faithful than what the US can come up with. The fact that they took inspiration from Dragon Ball properties here, while Fox’s inspiration was probably Raimi’s Spider-Man (2002).
Lastly, for the love of god, I need a documentary on this film. Get all the actors back together and let them rejoice on their memories of this classic.
This was on Tubi, and it played with the English dub.
In terms of visual and effects, it was sometimes surprising how decent it looked. The costumes looked pretty good for an early 90s knock off film, and I really liked how they handled the Ki blast effects - the use of small explosives setting off one-by-one in the ground actually looked cool af. But there are moments where I was like “okay movie, you didn’t have to make Master Roshi into an actual turtle for this scene”, and not to mention that really bad/unnecessary CGI scene between Monkey Boy and Westwood lmao.
Sometimes this film has the most off the walls funniest/unexpected moments. Oolong charges in full Rambo style with a rifle (where tf did he get that???), and he even kills the only caucasian cast member of this movie - the scene even lingers with her spilling blood from her mouth LMAO!
Like I said before, the story takes a lot of inspiration from the first OG Dragon Ball movie, however the villain’s goal here just confuses me. He’s another generic bad guy that wants to rule over the world, but I don’t understand why he is eating the Dragon Pearls, when the last one will inevitably kill him - at least in the Curse of the Blood Rubies film the villain wasn’t aware of that possible outcome.
As a knock off interpretation, I wish that they didn’t include the pervy moments from Roshi and Oolong in the original source material. I’m glad that Goku isn’t obliviously stupid about gender in this movie, but it feels so wrong with how young the cast is here. It’s unclear how old the person that plays Bulma is in this movie, but apparently Goku’s actor was about 16 when this movie was released… Although Oolong sounds older in the show, he’s actually a kid in the original series - but casting him as an older man, as well as that weird almost blackface pig-look was a certified wtf moment - also him having the pearl, and using Chi-chi to find the others as instructed by his master is some BS.
Overall, it is crazy to believe that a Taiwanese unofficial Dragon Ball film is more faithful than what the US can come up with. The fact that they took inspiration from Dragon Ball properties here, while Fox’s inspiration was probably Raimi’s Spider-Man (2002).
Lastly, for the love of god, I need a documentary on this film. Get all the actors back together and let them rejoice on their memories of this classic.
Elouan Azibi
3.0★ · 11/08/24
Maître Roshi qui remonte la barre comme d’hab. Mais ils auraient dû espacer les moments de perversion, là ça fait beaucoup d’un coup.
Le reste c’est nul mais on a vu pire
Le reste c’est nul mais on a vu pire
Maître Roshi qui remonte la barre comme d’hab. Mais ils auraient dû espacer les moments de perversion, là ça fait beaucoup d’un coup.
Le reste c’est nul mais on a vu pire
Le reste c’est nul mais on a vu pire
Vanessa
6.0★ · 08/19/24
Sitoe having a new outfit for every occasion despite not having a backpack to store things majority of the time….slay
Sitoe having a new outfit for every occasion despite not having a backpack to store things majority of the time….slay
Skipp
7.0★ · 05/04/24
(Author’s note: Prime Video seems to host this film in surprisingly good film quality. Alas, the studio seems to have messed with the film by adding new, unnecessary computer-generated content. It does not look great. This is a review of that “special edition.”)
Here is the other live action Dragon Ball film, the second attempt at telling Akira Toriyama’s story of Goku and friends (after Korea’s Son Goku Fights, Son Goku Wins and way before America’s Dragonball Evolution), made by a company in Taiwan and also trying to tie itself to the source material while seemingly straying away. In fact, this feels more like an Asylum film before the Asylum, just with more copyright violations and less notable names involved. However, unlike an Asylum movie, The Magic Begins has a lot of actual practical effects - prop animals, flying on wires, and explosion after explosion.
I think the character name changes - “Monkey Boy” for Goku, “Westwood” for Yamcha, “Turtleman” for Master Rossi the Turtle Hermit - make sense. However, other changes - Oolong not being a pigman but a descendant from a pig fairy and Puar (a cat in the comics and anime) being replaced by a fairly useless cockatoo - make very little sense to me. This is where an adaptation like Son Goku Fights makes more sense; it’s more faithful. Even so, The Magic Begins is zany and outrageous packed with action from start to finish. I did enjoy it, shortcomings aside. It’d make for a great party film, I think.
Here is the other live action Dragon Ball film, the second attempt at telling Akira Toriyama’s story of Goku and friends (after Korea’s Son Goku Fights, Son Goku Wins and way before America’s Dragonball Evolution), made by a company in Taiwan and also trying to tie itself to the source material while seemingly straying away. In fact, this feels more like an Asylum film before the Asylum, just with more copyright violations and less notable names involved. However, unlike an Asylum movie, The Magic Begins has a lot of actual practical effects - prop animals, flying on wires, and explosion after explosion.
I think the character name changes - “Monkey Boy” for Goku, “Westwood” for Yamcha, “Turtleman” for Master Rossi the Turtle Hermit - make sense. However, other changes - Oolong not being a pigman but a descendant from a pig fairy and Puar (a cat in the comics and anime) being replaced by a fairly useless cockatoo - make very little sense to me. This is where an adaptation like Son Goku Fights makes more sense; it’s more faithful. Even so, The Magic Begins is zany and outrageous packed with action from start to finish. I did enjoy it, shortcomings aside. It’d make for a great party film, I think.
(Author’s note: Prime Video seems to host this film in surprisingly good film quality. Alas, the studio seems to have messed with the film by adding new, unnecessary computer-generated content. It does not look great. This is a review of that “special edition.”)
Here is the other live action Dragon Ball film, the second attempt at telling Akira Toriyama’s story of Goku and friends (after Korea’s Son Goku Fights, Son Goku Wins and way before America’s Dragonball Evolution), made by a company in Taiwan and also trying to tie itself to the source material while seemingly straying away. In fact, this feels more like an Asylum film before the Asylum, just with more copyright violations and less notable names involved. However, unlike an Asylum movie, The Magic Begins has a lot of actual practical effects - prop animals, flying on wires, and explosion after explosion.
I think the character name changes - “Monkey Boy” for Goku, “Westwood” for Yamcha, “Turtleman” for Master Rossi the Turtle Hermit - make sense. However, other changes - Oolong not being a pigman but a descendant from a pig fairy and Puar (a cat in the comics and anime) being replaced by a fairly useless cockatoo - make very little sense to me. This is where an adaptation like Son Goku Fights makes more sense; it’s more faithful. Even so, The Magic Begins is zany and outrageous packed with action from start to finish. I did enjoy it, shortcomings aside. It’d make for a great party film, I think.
Here is the other live action Dragon Ball film, the second attempt at telling Akira Toriyama’s story of Goku and friends (after Korea’s Son Goku Fights, Son Goku Wins and way before America’s Dragonball Evolution), made by a company in Taiwan and also trying to tie itself to the source material while seemingly straying away. In fact, this feels more like an Asylum film before the Asylum, just with more copyright violations and less notable names involved. However, unlike an Asylum movie, The Magic Begins has a lot of actual practical effects - prop animals, flying on wires, and explosion after explosion.
I think the character name changes - “Monkey Boy” for Goku, “Westwood” for Yamcha, “Turtleman” for Master Rossi the Turtle Hermit - make sense. However, other changes - Oolong not being a pigman but a descendant from a pig fairy and Puar (a cat in the comics and anime) being replaced by a fairly useless cockatoo - make very little sense to me. This is where an adaptation like Son Goku Fights makes more sense; it’s more faithful. Even so, The Magic Begins is zany and outrageous packed with action from start to finish. I did enjoy it, shortcomings aside. It’d make for a great party film, I think.