Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins (1991)
1991 unlicensed Dragon Ball live-action film
- Released
- 1991
- Country
- Taiwan
- Language
- Standard Chinese
- Genre
- Martial arts film
- Director
- Chun-Liang Chen
- Screenplay
- Akira Toriyama
- Running time
- 85 minutes
- Based on
- Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball (Japanese: ドラゴンボール, Hepburn: Doragon Bōru) is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama. The series follows the adventures of protagonist Son Goku from his childhood through adulthood as he trains in martial arts. Along his journey, he makes several friends, becomes a family man, discovers his alien heritage, and battles a wide variety of villains, many of whom, like him, seek the mystical orbs called the Dragon Balls in order to summon a wish-granting dragon.
The original manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 individual chapters collected in 42 tankōbon volumes by its publisher Shueisha.Dragon Ball was originally inspired by the classical 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, combined with elements of Hong Kong martial arts films. Dragon Ball characters also use a variety of East Asian martial arts styles, including karate and Wing Chun (kung fu).
External links
Facts from Wikidata Q712618 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.
Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.