I had some reservations before borrowing this movie from the local library. I wasn't sure whether to expect a low-budget dragon movie or something with really bad set design. I couldn't have been more off. This movie may have some of the most spectacular sets I've ever seen. No details or expense was spared in creating the visually stunning and surreal backdrop. The plot has a nice forward momentum full of action and trepidation. But definitely go for the subtitles instead of the English overdub. Nothing can ruin a movie more than an awful dubbing in that ridiculous English voice with the accent. You have to hand it to the Japanese - they are much better at making these kinds of movies than Hollywood seems to be.

An absolute corker. Dragon Head is a film I knew nothing about. It starts in a demolished tunnel. A train crash. Three students have survived. 2 boys and a girl. They are unsure as to what has happened. One boy recalls seeing blinding lights outside the windows before the crash. This is the premise of the first 40 minutes, which works as its own film. One boy is hoping to be rescued but then plans his escape, while the other descends into madness. It's like a mini version of Lord of the Flies. I will mention the girl only this once as she is the reason I didn't give this film a perfect 10. She is a whiny character, that screams when someone is attacking her and then screams at the person protecting her. She complains about the scary tunnel, but whines about how dangerous the escape looks. All she does is whine, bitch, moan, and generally irritate. This first 40 minutes serves as all the character development. It's a great idea to build a huge movie in such a confined space.After the students leave tunnel, they find the world is covered in something white. Destruction is everywhere, and it's hard to separate the sky from the land. The effects here are wonderful. It's a fantastical and daring image. As the students walk on they discover some other survivors. These survivors have lost all hope and are planning to end it for everyone. Based on a Manga, the film should be episodic. However, due to the emotional connection developed, each scene has a welcome fluidity that allows it to go from creepy birthday party gone wrong, to helicopter action sequence. As the film begins to wind down, it has no reservations with slowing it all down allowing us to appreciate all the messages. It's a film about hope, where those that give up are the real failures. As some of the characters begin to remove fear, they forget that it's the fear that helps us survive. One of the best disaster movies you will ever see.

There have been great Japanese disaster films like Submersion of Japan, and dreadful ones like Earthquake 7.9. This film falls between the best and worst in the good range.A teenage boy wakes up on a train. He remembers traveling with his class somewhere when something happened, something terrible of which he is one of the few survivors. The first 40 minutes are set in a collapsed train tunnel where the survivors try to come to terms with their situation, both in the tunnel and in their heads. Its an odd way to start a film, but it works since it allows things to be set up and expectations to be dismantled.After the 40 minutes the movie moves outside as the survivors struggle to travel across what is now a truly alien earth. What happened is not clear at least at first, but it was big and powerful and not over.For the most part this film works in spades. Visually this film has set the bar to new end of the world films, and I can only imagine what a live action version of the manga and anime classic Akira would look like in the hands of these film makers. The acting is mostly fine with several eerie performances by several of the supporting cast. I also love the fact that this film is dealing with more than just destruction. There are ideas being battered about, as with the strange pair of kids who's father has removed that part of their brain that allows them to fear. Its trippy and creepy at the same time.Unfortunately the film also has two serious, but not fatal problems. The first the film occasionally moves into cliché a couple of times, as in the crazed soldiers who hook up with our heroes. Why do we need this insanity, even if the film attempts to explain it? The other problem is the pacing is uneven. Sometimes sequences seem to go on a bit too long, while others are too speedy. It grated on this viewer and it felt longer than two hours. As I said its not fatal, but it is annoying because the film as a whole deserves better.I liked this, especially its sense of the new world. 7 out of 10. See it if you get the chance.

Well, if you're expecting a Hollywood blockbusting action style flick, you'll be sorely disappointed. It is based on a Japanese manga, but it's not one of the kill everything type of mangas. The vast majority of people are already dead.The film loses something in its translation to English. It is based on a bleak view of how an apocalypse would affect Japan, or more particularly Tokyo. All I can say is that the characters reactions, psyches and the types of characters involved are typically Japanese in style. The extremities of some characters reactions seems unbelievable, but they are common extreme reactions found in Japanese mangas and other Japanese productions.