Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins

Original title: Xin qi long zhu

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

An evil alien searches the Earth for seven "Dragon Pearls" which can grant him ultimate power. A gang of misfit adventurers band together to stop him.An evil alien searches the Earth for seven "Dragon Pearls" which can grant him ultimate power. A gang of misfit adventurers band together to stop him.An evil alien searches the Earth for seven "Dragon Pearls" which can grant him ultimate power. A gang of misfit adventurers band together to stop him.

Director
- Chun-Liang Chen
Writers
- Ching-Kang Yao
- Akira Toriyama
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

4.3/10

1.4K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Chun-Liang Chen
Writers
- Ching-Kang Yao
- Akira Toriyama
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos10

+ 4

Top cast12

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Chi-Chiang Chen

Monkey Boy
(as Charles Chen Zi-Qiang)

Jeannie Hsieh

Seetou

Tung-Chuan Cheng

Westwood
(as Tung-Chuen Cheng)

San Peng

Piggy

Chung-Yu Huang

Turtle Man

Tu Chin

Sparkle

Yi-Juan Li

Jen Jen

Ruan-Feng Su

King Horn

Long-Sheng Jiang

Zebrata

Eveline Oranje

Malilia

Ying-Hung Chiu

Jen-Jen's father
(as Yao Ying Hung)

Yuan-Feng Su

King Gourmeth

Director
- Chun-Liang Chen
Writers
- Ching-Kang Yao
- Akira Toriyama
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The film was loosely inspired by Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies (1986).

Goofs
In nearly in every fight scene, a wire is visible., most notably when Monkey Boy is flying through the Forest, the camera follows him from afar, but that white wire is clearly visible.

Quotes
Son Goku: [feeding monkeys] Hey, take it easy, you guys! I'll bring you bananas every day!

Crazy credits
The Ultimate Edition version's end credits feature a shot of CGI animation of Monkey Boy fighting against Westwood.

Alternate versions
In the Ultimate Edition version, a majority of the special effects have been redesigned by placing CGI over them. While the opening and close credits were both extended and redone with CGI.

Connections
Edited into The Incredible Monk (2018)

Soundtracks
Taiketsu no Toki
from Fight! Iczer-1 (1985)
Composed by Chumei Watanabe

User reviews16

Review

Featured review

7/10

Wacky fantasy action movie

Live action movie based on Akira Toriyama's well-known Dragon Ball manga and anime.

While it's overall appreciation by many doesn't seem anything to write home about, I would like to note that, while some changes were obviously made, it is actually very close to the spirit of the original Dragon Ball manga as well as the original TV series, which itself often got quite silly indeed.

Sure, things got a bit more serious in the DBZ follow-up series, but most of the film's main characters are close to their manga origins, and some of the events in the film are close to the original as well.

That said, this film will probably never win any movie awards, but it is a lot of fun, and a curiosity for all the Dragon Ball fans out there.