Movie-Moon Child (Gackt & Hyde)

[Brittany]

A lot of my friends ran across it at Hollywood video a few times..

Gackt's hair extentions.. ugh. It didn't look natural on him.
Hyde's blonde hair on the other hand.. HOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

[elepop]

I have heard about that movie but never seen it.

I wanna watch 'Last Quater' with Hyde and Chiaki Kuriyama (Kill Bill VOL.1)!!!

[Rebirthia]

Originally Posted by Hazard

Actually, if you're referring to the Best Review(the top one with the gold star) at Yes Asia, that's the beggining of my review. (I submitted it under the name Ryo, one of my other pen-names). Unfortunately, it was cut very short because of the word limit. There's a lot more to it.

i'm waitng for it ^^ so you 're ryo, oh, professional review! congrats!

[Hazard]

Originally Posted by Cutie Honey

i'm waitng for it ^^ so you 're ryo, oh, professional review! congrats!

Since the person who originally posted this thread asked for rants and raves, I'll go ahead and post it here. (Even tough this thread was started in 03...) The begginign is a little different than the one at Yes Asia as I relaized afterwards that the first part was irrelevant. Here is:

If you didn't know, Moon Child is a movie that was released about a year ago, starring Gackt and HYDE of Japanese pop stardom. Moon Child was also co-written by Gackt himself. Well, I'm sure some people would like me to say that it was chocked full of bad acting, cheesy action, equally cheesy dialogue, and horrible music. But that’s not what I saw...
First of all, this is not some cheap-scape attempt at movie stardom by singers with no talent. Both Gackt and HYDE were exceptionally good. Especially considering this is their first time acting. HYDE portrays his lost vampire character perfectly, really making you feel sorry for him. And Gackt blends a reckless humor seamlessly with angst ridden tears. They both portray their respective roles very well.
While on the subject of acting, I’ve heard a lot of people bashing Gackt’s acting in particular. But let’s think about this. If you’ve ever seen Gackt, you’ll have noticed that he doesn’t show a whole not of emotion in real life, so it’s no surprise that he has a little trouble with acting it out. However, where Gackt’s acting shines through is in his voice. Just close your eyes and listen to his lines and you’ll be able to hear all the emotion you want.
The action is different from what most American's are used to, and might offset the casual viewer. But anyone who's seen other foreign action films will be much more familiar and comfortable with the feel of Moon Child's action. It's one part 'gun-fu' that isn't really meant to be taken too seriously and one part uber cool special effect moves. Both work remarkably well together.
Though the story itself doesn't seem too spectacular, there's a level to it that I rarely see. At the heart of it, Moon Child isn't a vampire movie at all. It's more about growing up, friendship, love, and loss than anything else. It's also heavily about life in crime. It just so happens that one of the main characters is a vampire. HYDE's vampire character Kei isn't glamorized like the average 'romantic vampire'. He's made out to be a monster by most(typically) but never actually shows a really monstrous nature. Gackt's character, Sho is an innocent child forced to be become the only thing he can, a patron of crime and killing. As a pair, Kei and Sho are unstoppable. But Kei's love for friend Son's sister Yi-Che drives him away from an equally love-struck Sho. I can't tell you much more without giving important things away.
The dialogue isn't bad. It has that same foreign film feel that the action does and just takes getting used to. The humor is situation orientated and positively hilarious. And the angst is heart-breaking. In fact, the movie can be cut very cleanly into halves. The first half is reckless, care-free, humourous, and focused on character introduction and relationship establishment. The second half is dark, depressing, and serious; a sharp contrast and realistically grisly. This half-and half feel is greatly deepened by the mood of Gackt's character, Sho. During the first half, Sho is childish and naive. During the second half, Sho is, well... He's grown up. There's an equally sharp contrast in Sho's character, mirroring the movie. There's very little martial arts, but lots of gunplay. And despite supernatural elements, Moon Child isn't really a sci-fi movie.
There's also the music to consider. It's true, most of the music is in English. But they're not rip-off American songs like most people presume. They're actually original songs made for the movie. Last Night was even composed, written, and performed by Wang Leehom, another of the main actors(Son). And with both Gackt and HYDE being musical geniuses, they just had to hand their own talents to the movies music. It's theme song, Orenji no Taiyou(Orange Sun) is a gorgeous collaboration between the two stars. After seeing the movie, the song has a lot more depth and meaning and is really reflective of the mood of the movie.
Not to say that this movie didn't have any faults. Of course it did. Very few movies get away without at least some constructive criticism. Some of the dialogue sounded forced(this coming from most of the actors). Yi-Che was really the only one that delivered her lines perfectly. But, then again, she didn't have a whole lot of lines. There were a few editing mishaps. For example, during one of the death scenes it was painfully obvious that the scene was filmed, then voice was put over it. Not that the words didn't match their mouths. To be honest, their mouths weren't moving at all.... But it was all so dramatic that, in the end, it was forgivable. There was also some rather odd poses, mostly coming from Gackt. And all of which were pretty humourous. Imagine this: Gackt in a black ensemble with a white trench coat; head back, hips forward so you got a good view of the arsenal under the coat; head titled to one side with a cigarette and arms out as if to say 'You wan' somma 'dis???" Ya, I thought that one was particularly funny. But still forgivable, because hey! It made me laugh.
The only other faults I can think of are technical ones. Moon Child was released domestically in America by TLA. The sound and picture are perfect. The subtitles, however... Well... Some things are left un-subtitled. Either they couldn't understand what was being said, or they considered the dialogue unimportant to the development of the story. The sub-titles are also a little off key sometimes, but not often. Also, from what I understand of Japanese, the translation could have been a bit better in some parts. Other than that, the production is fine.
Speaking of language, there's something else that must be understood about Moon Child. Because of it's nature and story, it's bilingual. That is, more than one language are spoken throughout the movie. Those languages are Japanese, Chinese, and English. If you can't hear the difference between each, it at least helps to know that there are language barriers going on between some of the characters. This adds depth to the movies feel. The English is un-subtitled and, for the most part, understandable. Some of it takes a few good listens to make out, though. As a note to the English parts, some of them are really cute. Random words and phrases for emphasis. Like HYDE say "Heeey. Good job." or Gackt saying "Ah... Okay..." It's adorable, really.
All faults considered, it was great movie. And I'm not just saying that because I'm one of those 'Gackt can do no evil' kinda people. I tried to view everything as constructively as I could, without bias. Really, I laughed my butt off during some parts(clapping my hands, as usual). And during other parts I could do nothing but cry. I recommend Moon Child not just to Gackt and HYDE fans, but to anyone wanting to see a movie worth seeing. It won't be every bodies piece of cake, but it certainly was mine.

[Rebirthia]

a-ri-ga-tou

[extepan]

thanks

[Rebirthia]

I would add something to your wonderful reviews


I have studied about alman Rushide and his Magic realism.. while watching this movie, I could not help thinking that in this film there is also magic realism in a way, because the magic element, such a VAMPIRE, combines in scene with crude realism, orphans, violence, thieves, and so on… and this realistic part, represented, among others, by Sho, is not surprised at all by this feature of Kei. Instead, he accepts him, in some way, selfishly, a key concept in this film, because he’s alone. The director of the jail, on the other hand, seems to know his secretg but is not susrprised in a negative way, but he is interested in this strange creature.