Six Americans, including one killer in handcuffs and one military policeman, are in a helicopter gunship over Vietnam. When they respond to enemy fire from below, they involve themselves in the mysteries of Chinese feng-shui (geomancy), because their return fire strikes a long, low mountain which is actually the forepaw of the Green Star Dragon. When the wounded dragon roars in pain and anger, the resultant unnatural storm sends the helicopter and the men spinning helplessly through time and space into southern China and into the year 1857.

The killer in handcuffs is a member of the Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol in Vietnam, an expert at killing, and he murders his boyish MP guard and escapes. He joins with a pirate-manned 44-gun frigate and begins planning an attack on the remaining four Americans to kill them and capture the helicopter.

The Americans - Fox, Ice Man and Wizard - are led by the pilot, Hard Bones Haggerty, who is, in his own way, more than a match for the escaped killer. The men must attempt to repair the chopper while dealing with the mounting dangers around them. All the while trying to figure a way back to 1968 Vietnam.

After a series of adventures with pirates, feng shui men and the Ch'ing Dynasty military -- including fierce Tigers-of-War and beautiful Taiping women warriors -- the men finally figure a way to repair the helicopter and return to 1968 Vietnam. But they decide they cannot leave the Chinese villagers and Taiping warriors to the mercy of the pirates and Ch'ing military. Abandoning their one chance to escape China in the year 1857, they turn the helicopter around and head back. The film climaxes with a spectacular battle between the pirate-manned 44-gun frigate and the partly crippled helicopter gunship.

In the last scene, as the surviving Americans take one last look at the still burning wreckage of the frigate hissing in the water, the camera tilts up to the sky. The cloud bank dissolves and patches of light are shining through individual clouds, brilliantly backlighting others. The scene dissolves to a match cut and the clouds become reflections on the highly polished, black granite wall panels of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C. Even as we begin to hear the "whumph" of the Huey's rotor blades, the camera changes focus and we see the names of each of the six men, and a cross beside each name (which, on the wall, symbolizes missing in action or unaccounted for).

The script is based on knowledge of and research into Chinese history and square-rigged ships (windjammers). It's also a film that brings a modern sensibility (and American GI humor) to a past period with all that that entails. It is not a Vietnam war film; its attraction would lie in the burgeoning interest in tall ships and in things Chinese; (as seen in the success of the late Patrick O'Brian's novels and in the increasing interest shown in Things Chinese).

Although Dragon Slayer is an action-adventure film set in the late Ch'ing Dynasty, its theme is about character. As Hard Bones Haggerty and his crew learn - in whatever century we live, we still have to live with our own actions and decisions and values.

Dragon Slayer: an original screenplay in the adventure/fantasy-adventure genre.

The writer Dean Barrett lives in Bangkok and has lived in Asia for 20 years. He served as a Chinese linguist with the American Army Security Agency in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War and returned to Asia to become managing director of Hong Kong Publishing Company, ltd. He is a member of Dramatists Guild, BMI (librettists) and the China Round Table.

A horror film with a Chinese cultural twist, a kind of hybrid of Western and Eastern horror genres. Chinese horror films never fully satisfied western audiences’ need for dramatic structure and coherence. Until now. Golden Dragon merges certain Chinese beliefs with a western setting.

The film is entitled Golden Dragon and is set during the 30-day period each year in which the god of the underworld, Yen Lo Wang, opens the gate of hell and allows “hungry ghosts” (often out for revenge) to visit the earth.

Golden Dragon is scary, sexy, sensual and has the Chinese concept of revenge blended into an American-style horror film and would be very low budget to make.

When a highschool prank in a Chinese restaurant goes wrong, there can be no witnesses. The sheriff is related to one of the murderers and it seems all will be covered up and forgotten. But then a beautiful Chinese woman appears and says she would like to buy the restaurant. And very bad things begin happening to those involved in the murders.