Chika does movies-Moon Child

No-I’m not going to start making movies. The fun’s in writing, anyways.

What I’m going to do is every other month, I’ll write about a vampire movie that I like (Or dislike, depending on how vicious I’m feeling). I’ll be doing the basics, a picture, summary, etc. But I’ll also be listing the strengths and weaknesses, as well as what attracted me to the movie, fanfictions that are from the movie fandoms, how I found it, why it reminds me of The Lost Boys, and my score out of ten-also known as fangs out of ten. Hey, it has to be vampy, right? There’ll also be a cheese score, because no vampire movie is a vampire movie without a little swiss or gouda. I joke. But no vampire movie is a vampire movie without cheese.

This’ll be in every even month, because I can’t count on school cooperating every month. Plus, I’m really very lazy.

SO. For the first month, I’m doing Moon Child.

2003, starring Gackt Camui, Hyde Takarai, and Leehom Wang

SUMMARY (IMDB): In the year 2014, Japan has collapsed economically and its people emigrated in large numbers and settled in other parts of the world. In a corner in Asia, there is a city called Mallepa, a big melting pot where Asians such as Hongkongers, Taiwanese and Japanese live together. It was a place where people fought for order, food and freedom. It was there where Sho, raised as an orphan and Kei, who could live forever, met and became the best of friends. However, they were unable to escape from the fight for power involving gangs of different ethnicity on the street of Mallepa.

WHAT ATTRACTED CHIKA AND HOW DID SHE FIND IT?: Back in the day when I was first given a copy of TLB, I was a weaboo. Really. Those folks so obsessed with Japanese pop culture that I cried when I couldn’t see a concert by one the the J-rock groups. (Yes, that really happened.) I was a huge Gackt fan, and in the summer of 2008, upon discovering that he wrote and starred in a movie, I immeditely found it online and watched it. It’s one of two movies (Besides Brother Bear-again, yes, REALLY) that made me cry because the ending was so tragic and beautiful.

STRENGTHS: For one, the male leads-Gackt, Hyde, and Leehom-are all very sexy, and this is never a bad thing. For another, it hints at guy-on-guy action, and THIS is also never a bad thing. It has well done fight scenes, with lots of guns. There are a few things so brilliant that it’s a wonder no one else thought of it first-when you get to any Happy Pizza scene, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Although the movie has only a little English, and is mostly in Japanese with some Cantonese and Mandarin tossed in, there are clear subtitles for all foreign languages besides English. Hyde, who plays the vampire Kei, is angsty about having to kill people without being an Edward Cullen and when we DO see him kill and drink blood on scene, he looks delightfully creepy and terrifying, while managing to look tragic for his fate at the same time. The theme song, performed by Hyde and Gackt (Who were musicians long before this movie), Orenji no Taiyou, is beautiful. VAMPIRES BURN AND SMOKE IN SUNLIGHT, but can tolerate being in sun if covered/and if raining.

WEAKNESSES: Although Hyde walk a fine line between badass and Edward Cullen levels of angst, he sometimes borders too much on Cullen. It would be nice if it focused a little more on the relationship between Kei and his maker, Luka, and it would be nice to know more about his turning other than “He drank your blood and turned you”. Some posters say this was in 1888, but there was no reference to his age in the movie.* The movie timeline is swift and a little confusing at times, but overall this can be figured out. How mortals like Sho age so well is a mystery. It would be nice if it focused a little less on relationships and plot (But that’s never a bad thing to focus on) and a little more on the vampirism, but it is dealt with enough to not be a big deal.

FANFICTION: There are, at time of writing, 282 Moon Child fanfictions. The best one I’d recommend is Breakaway and it’s sequel, Shadows of the Past. Well written and a different approach, while still giving delightful yaoi (Which means guy-on-guy, homoerotic) and deep thought. Their pain is well developed and their characters develop simply beautifully. Even if you don’t see the movie, I recommend this fic just for the story and the quality of writing.

HOW IS IT LIKE TLB: The vampires really don’t care about injury, because they are only going to die in fire or sun. They also like smoking and do so with no abandon or regard for their lungs. David would approve. Kei drinks blood twice onscreen and at least five times offscreen. And most importantly of all, there isn’t a sparkle in sight. Several times Kei starts to smoke in the sunlight and the exposed skin blisters, whereas Luka, his maker, burns and actually is on fire from head-to-toe.

CHEESINESS SCORE: Seven cheddar out of ten. There’s a lot of smushy-ness is the relationship between Sho and Kei, and Kei’s struggle between his vampire and human natures pushes the boundary at times. However, with his desire to die and his willingness to actually go throught with a death sentence (Unlike a certain sparklepire) redeem him of this, as does the kills he performs on screen.

FINAL SCORE: Eight fangs out of ten

*But it should be noted that even in The Lost Boys, it never says how old any of the vampire are. The onyl one we have a clue for is Max and that’s from the extended version of his death, and George Cannom commented that he aged to his real age of 300 years. So the not-knowing bit is fairly minor.