The Old School Otaku Lounge

Curiosity has gotten the best of me lately, and I've been attempting to watch all of the various live action Dragon Ball films! With the right mindset, it's not nearly as bad as you might think

However, I've run across a tidbit of information that I cannot seem to confirm. I'm not sure if this originated on Wikipedia (or somewhere else on the Internet), but this is what I'm wondering about:

Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins (新七龍珠　神龍的傳說 Xīn qī lóng zhū Shén lóng de chuán shuō?, or Dragon Ball: Ultimate Edition) Originally released in America as "Dragon's Pearl," is an unofficial live-action remake of the first Dragon Ball feature film The Legend of Shenlong, made in 1986.

I'm familiar with "Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins" and "Dragon Ball: Ultimate Edition", but I've never come across a version of this film called "Dragon's Pearl".

Has anyone out there come across this version? I can't seem to find even a VHS release of it, but maybe it received some sort of limited theatrical release.

The talk page for Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins has an unsigned comment saying, "This movie is called "Dragon's Pearl." It was renamed & rereleased after the anime became popular in America."

For those keeping track, here is the current list of Dragon Ball live action films, let me know if I'm missing any!

-Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins
-Dragon Ball: Ultimate Edition (Alternate version of The Magic Begins with updated special effects)
-Dragon's Pearl (Unconfirmed alternate name/version of The Magic Begins)
-Dragon Ball: Ssawora Son Goku, Igyeora Son Goku
-Dragon Ball: Evolution

Wasn't that the Korean film?

I'm familiar with the Taiwanese live-action Dragonball film, but the only print I ever saw of it - well, okay, I've never seen the entire film, just the trailer - but it was simply titled "Dragonball", with a bit of animation of a dragon curving around the title.

There is a bit of dialog where a character says "Altogether there are seven magic pearls," or words to that effect, which may be where people are getting the idea the film involves pearls instead of balls.

_D_ wrote:Wasn't that the Korean film?

No, the Korean film is Ssawora Son Goku, Igyeora Son Goku. To my knowledge, it has not received any sort of release in the United States.

davemerrill wrote:I'm familiar with the Taiwanese live-action Dragonball film, but the only print I ever saw of it - well, okay, I've never seen the entire film, just the trailer - but it was simply titled "Dragonball", with a bit of animation of a dragon curving around the title.

There is a bit of dialog where a character says "Altogether there are seven magic pearls," or words to that effect, which may be where people are getting the idea the film involves pearls instead of balls.

In the movie, despite the title being Dragon Ball, they actually do refer to them as Dragon Pearls!

This (coupled with the fact that it is an unofficial live-action remake of the first Dragon Ball movie) lends the most credence to this being the original distribution title. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find definitive proof of whether or not it was ever released or marketed under the name "Dragon's Pearl".

Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than myself may be able to shed a little light on the subject.

I don't know Chinese, but through Japanese language study I can read some of the characters. The Chinese name for the Dragonball series is 七龍珠, which you can see in the title of the live action movie. The thing is, 珠's most basic meaning is not "ball", but rather "pearl," and, by extension, it can be used for other similar objects in some cases as well. It probably works out in Chinese to label the dragon balls with this character, and thus that "pearl" would be used when further translating into English isn't surprising. "Pearl" is exactly what comes up on both of the Japanese to English dictionaries I just checked for this character.

I don't know if this helps at all, but hopefully it's interesting nonetheless.

AnimeSennin wrote:I don't know Chinese, but through Japanese language study I can read some of the characters. The Chinese name for the Dragonball series is 七龍珠, which you can see in the title of the live action movie. The thing is, 珠's most basic meaning is not "ball", but rather "pearl," and, by extension, it can be used for other similar objects in some cases as well. It probably works out in Chinese to label the dragon balls with this character, and thus that "pearl" would be used when further translating into English isn't surprising. "Pearl" is exactly what comes up on both of the Japanese to English dictionaries I just checked for this character.

I don't know if this helps at all, but hopefully it's interesting nonetheless.

Wow, thanks for the info! I never would have caught that!!!