DRAGONBALL: EVOLUTION
Year: 2009
USA & UK: Twentieth Century Fox
Cast: Justin Chatwin, Chow Yun-Fat, Emmy Rossum, Jamie Chung, James Marsters, Joon Park, Eriko, Randall Duk Kim, Ernie Hudson, Texas Battle, Megumi Seki, Ian Whyte, Richard Blake, Jon Valera, Rafael Valdez, Mike Wilson, Freddy Bouciegues, Shavon Kirksey, Julian Sedgwick, Luis Arrieta, Gabriela De La Garza, Rich-E Cordobes
Director: James Wong
Countries: USA / Hong Kong
USA & UK: 84 mins
USA Rated: PG for intense sequences of action/violence and brief mild language
UK Certificate: PG contains moderate violence
USA Release Date: 10 April 2009
UK Release Date: 8 April 2009
Synopsis
A global phenomenon, DRAGONBALL: EVOLUTION is the long awaited, live action motion picture based on the popular Japanese manga created by Akira Toriyama. Toriyama's work spawned best selling graphic novels, videogames and an exceptionally successful television series.
Goku's quest - with nothing less than the fate of our world at stake - begins innocently enough in the backyard of his grandfather's home, where Gohan is training the young man in some exotic martial arts moves. It is Goku's 18th birthday, and Gohan's gift to his grandson is a Dragonball, a small, round ball whose surface is smooth and pearl-like, but with a milky translucence that gives it depth. Four stars float inside the ball. There are only six others like it in the world, and it is said the seven Dragonballs together will grant the holder one perfect wish.
Connected to the legend of the Dragonballs is Goku's own mysterious past - he never knew his parents - as well as the coming solar eclipse, which superstitions mark as a sign of a coming apocalypse. Gohan promises to reveal all to Goku at the special birthday dinner Gohan is preparing for his grandson.
But Goku skips out on Gohan's feast, to attend a party hosted by Chi Chi, a fellow student to whom Goku is drawn. As the two teens get to know one another, a tragedy at home is triggered by the arrival of a dark force - propelling Goku, Roshi, Bulma, Yamcha and Chi Chi into a race to collect all seven Dragonballs. The stakes couldn't be higher. Goku will face the deadliest enemies on Earth, master a powerful force called Ki, which marshals the energy of the universe - and learn the truth of his incredible past…and of a potentially unthinkable future.