In the midst of the wedding princess Miroslava is kidnapped by a dragon and carried away into his castle on the remote island. Mira left everything behind in the past – family, friends and groom. Now the only things she had were a stone cage and a mysterious young man named Arman … but who is he and what is he doing on that island? Miroslava will know the truth too late: loving a dragon will reveal the bitter truth – love is scary.
– Kamshat Akhmadulla, IMDB
I am Dragon, also called He’s a Dragon, is a Russian romantic fantasy adventure film. It was the directorial debut of Indar Dzhendubauv and was loosely based on Marina and Sergey Dyachenko’s fantasy novel The Ritual. The film was a flop at the Russian box office, only collecting $1.7 million (With the budget of the film being $18 million). The film went on to gross approximately $8.5 million at the Chinese box office.
Some thoughts from me (Potential spoilers below…)
It seems like every time I start thinking “I feel like I’ve already found all the funniest bad princess films out there” I get taken by surprise. Case in point: I am Dragon. This one only fell on my radar after asking for recommendations for international films involving princesses. Someone suggested I am Dragon and I am seriously indebted to them.
I am Dragon is an amazingly cheesy film. Although the North American DVD claims it’s a cross between Game of Thrones and Beauty and the Beast, it’s more along the lines of Twilight, but with dragons instead of Vampires.
As you might suspect from the summary, the mysterious Arman turns out to be Mira’s draconian kidnapper. Arman didn’t intend to kidnap Mira, his dragon-side just takes over sometimes and he’s powerless to stop it. He also can’t fly Mira home, because every time she touches him it triggers his dragon-side. The majority of the film shows Mira and Arman slowly bonding, with Mira trying to help Arman learn how to be a human.
This film feels firmly planted in the Young Adult realm. The consensus among my viewing group was that this was the most “Monster Boyfriend” movie of all time.
One indisputable thing about this film: The costumes are pretty dang gorgeous. Princess Mira’s wedding gowns in particular are absolutely incredible. Take a look at the Russian film poster, just look at all that intricate beadwork!
I’d definitely recommend checking this one out. I think you can either legitimately enjoy it for what it intends to be, a romantic fairy tale, or enjoy it ironically as a cheesy romance between a girl and her tortured-soul-dragon-boyfriend.
Bad Princess Movies 
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