Director: Hee-joon Park
Starring: Leon Lai
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Rarely am I so incredibly disappointed with a movie. The premise for Dream of a Warrior seemed interesting. Guy transports through time to an alternate reality to save his love trapped in the other dimension should be a recipe for something great, if done well. The setup finds a terrorist destroying the time travel device shortly after the inventor sends his daughter on a test run. The sets looked like something out of the early Star Trek movies, with slightly better special effects, which offered potential for a very cool feel. When the rescuer arrives in the other dimension, he's no longer the nerdy lab technician he was in the present; he's a heroic swordfighter raised who overcame his common upbringing to become the best in the kingdom. And of course, his love is the General's daughter, who is betrothed to a jealous general. The whole thing seems horribly contrived and the grammatically lousy subtitles didn't help me overcome the cultural barrier of this Korean sci-fantasy love story. The plot moved incredibly slowly, the dialog seemed to be on par with low budget cable adventures, and to top it off, even the fight scenes didn't capture my attention. Dream of a Warrior is the only title attributed to director Hee-joon Park, which isn't horrible as a directorial debut, but certainly doesn't show the promise that early efforts by other young directors deliver. Rent Dream of a Warrior at your own risk, but I certainly wouldn't buy it.
