Filho da Noite

Moon Child is touted by its producers as a "wildly entertaining hybrid of futuristic science-fiction, John Woo-style gunplay and Gothic vampire horror." I found it to be one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Terrible acting, writing, and direction prove that pop stars should not be allowed to write or star in movies; the characters are underdeveloped and generate absolutely no sympathy -- in fact, the viewer is hard pressed to care if they live or die; the plot is all over the place; the special effects are cheap. Takahisa Zeze should never be allowed to direct another film. Gackt and HYDE are insufferable -- the movie should have been titled "Hairdressers on Fire."

I did not expect the performances of Gackt and Hyde to be as well done as they were, nor did I expect them to be cast in such an artistic well-developed movie with enough plot to keep you interested and enough diversity to make it original. This movie was an unexpected masterpiece for me, and I'll be on the lookout for the next movie like it. I especially like the fact that it is a vampire movie, but it wasn't a cheesy vampire flick, nor did it over embellish that fact. The characters all had human traits. The way it shows the growth of the characters was incredibly tasteful, and it makes you actually feel sorry for them throughout their lives. I give this movie two thumbs so far up. Definitely the best movie I have seen in the past five years.

I voted 8 for this movie because of some minor childish flaws. Other than that, this movie is one of my favorites! It's entertaining to say the least. The shooting scenes are ridiculous though, and I think Gackt (who wrote the book) takes a little bit too much of his "Matrix obsession" into it. It seems like their enemies just stands there...waiting to get shot at. However, this movie is touching and it always makes me cry. It has a lot of GREAT humor in it so it makes me laugh as well. Gackt is a superb actor I must say..he shows so much emotion. This was Hyde's first time acting and he did okay. The role fits him. Wang Lee Hom is absolutely great. The whole cast is what I would say, perfect for this movie. DON'T MISS IT! YOU'LL REGRET IT!

It may be possible that the cultural difference makes me rate it lower than I would, say, an American film, but really, what a long, boring, pretentious, often ridiculous film!

First you have the two protagonists, Japanese pop singers, both dyed blond, Gackt (please attempt to ignore the name sounds like something a Klingon would eat) wearing blue contact lenses, trying to look cooler than God. I could buy that. Then there is the story setting: somewhere in a fictional Chinese city where a blend of poor Japanese immigrants and Taiwanese and Chinese people live and fight each other. I could buy that, too.

Now it gets ridiculous: all of this is set in the future (2025-2045) and one of the rising gangsters is a vampire. Does that mean we see cool gadgets, special effects, even vampire teeth? No. The whole story could have been set in the 1980's for all the tech and cars. Then there are the gun fights: long coated heroes stand in the middle of rooms and shoot from akimbo guns without moving (or even aiming). Occasionally, they remain out of ammo and reload their guns by throwing ammo clips to one another.

The thing is that if you ignore the vampire angle (which is very very easy, since not much of the lore is used in the film) and the future angle (which is also very easy: just remove the two captions showing the year), then the movie becomes a coming of age, clan gang story. The Godfather this is not, of course, but for that genre and allowing for Asian weirdness and removing about 30 minutes from it, the movie could have fought for an average rating, but as such it is a pretentious borefest.

Update: after reading the reviews of other people I can say with almost certainty that its rating was artificially raised by fakers.

When I first heard about Moon Child, I thought it was a joke. After a few months, I figured I guess it's for real. The few reviews I read that WEREN'T made by squealing fangirls were not very promising.

When I was given the opportunity to watch it, I was fully prepared to groan, wince, and otherwise need to close my eyes to avoid the silliness.

I was more than a little surprised, and in a good way.

Yes, Moon Child has its moments of cheese, camp, and general dorkiness -- I think that's kind of impossible to avoid when it involves Gackt Camui, a man not known for his sanity -- but all in all, it was wholly enjoyable.

No, it is not a work of cinema genius but it is very, very heartfelt, amusing, with fun choreography, a touching score, and a fun cast. I know little of Japanese cinema so I can't really judge the acting but considering the fact that the cast was speaking a language or extreme dialect foreign to them at one time or another and that a couple of them have almost no acting experience, I was rather impressed.

If you can enjoy a good action movie, a good drama, a good comedy, see this film. At least rent it since it's coming to Region 1.

On a side note, there is zero homosexual/homoerotic content in this film. I didn't even see much of a subtext. Don't let people that read too much into things ruin this for you.