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.

What is really disappointing about this movie is that the art direction is so fantastic, it makes the inane acting so upsetting to watch. Seriously, 3/4 of this movie focuses on the main character stumbling around, falling down, and then waddling around on the ground like an invalid. None of the characters act at all rational, and yet they are all surrounded by amazing sets and brilliantly realized visions of the apocalypse. If only the director could have things move faster, or have people stop falling over. I thought to myself, "if I took a drink every time someone falls down to the ground, I'd be dead." It might make a fun time at a party of with some friends, but if you're looking to enjoy a good movie, I would skip out on this tumbling mess.

I really liked this movie. It is a "catastrophe" movie, even though it has nothing to do with the typical western idea of such a happening. It does not indulge in the process of reversing the trauma, it rather centers it's plot on surviving the drama. The characters are not typical western heroes, willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the collective. They are merely humans trying to survive in a world suddenly so different and hostile. It covers the bonds between the survivors, the human will to live, and the human will to just let go. An excellent movie, with some forms of dialogue typical for Japanese movies, and fond of human relations. It has great effects, but it's not a Hoolywood blockbuster movie with stupid plot. The disaster is just described, some ideas are given, but there is not detailed description of what happened. And there is no turning back.

Having watched a huge panorama of movies already, i was pleased to see Dragonhead. It is an Easter-Asian movie, and i decided to watch quite a few others after this one. The special effects are just good, sometimes really good. It is a good approach to such a movie too, because you start to think it's a nuclear disaster at the beginning, and then you find out it's actually something a bit worse than that, when the crust of the earth moves, the Earth's balance shifts. That's true, but especially when the magnetic field gets messed up, our apocalypse will come, or rather will rain down on us without holding back the tears of destruction. When you have a volcano popping up not far from you, and throwing up huge magma bricks at you, that is not nice, i wasn't surprised the humans, well at least the Japanese lost the will to fight for life. But then again, some people have to believe in the future, because there is always a future, no matter how grim things look like. I put 10/10 for Dragonhead, because of its realism, Apocalypse is not about happiness, it is boring, and everyone just needs to find the will to fight on, against all odds. If you like something a bit different than big blockbusters, then this movie is so for you, because in Asia they approach everything from an objective point of view, that is what makes their quality.