Moon Child (2003)

Load of rubbish!!

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

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.

Moon Child has become one of my most favourite vampire movies. I first found out about the movie when I became one of Gackt's DEARS. By the end of the movie I had cried my eyes out multiple times and fallen in love with it... and Sho as well, HAHA! It's well written, well directed,and full of very good actors. My favourites of course are Gackt and Hyde. They became their characters so well, made them so real. I couldn't believe that I was watching such a good movie. After I watched it I went and bought it and when I got it home I watched it over and over about 5 more times. I was soon quoting from it, kahahaha!! I highly recommend this movie. It's just too good to pass up!

Unless you are already familiar with the pop stars who star in this film, save yourself the time and stop reading this review after you've reached the end of the next sentence.FORGET YOU EVER STUMBLED UPON THIS FILM AND GO WATCH SOMETHING ELSE.But if you insist on reading, consider: Lame vehicle for Japanese teen idol pretty-boys featuring nonsensical, convoluted "plot" that drags out for an insufferable amount of time until you're ready to scream.Nothing in this film makes sense. It's an endless series of people expressing various emotions, from joy to anger, from happiness to tragedy, FOR NO GOOD REASON. We can obviously see something incredibly "dramatic" is happening, but we just don't GIVE A CRAP WHY 'cause there's no backstory.By the time this film is over, you will be sick and tired of these stupid, lanky, girly stars' faces. You'll be revolted at having spent all this time watching them smile, sneer, cry, look mysterious, be "serious," and any other pointless expression they slap on their faces.That some moron would ever go so far as to refer to this piece of insipid trash as being the "soul" of any of its "actors" should prove to you beyond the shadow of a doubt what the trailer and countless adoring comments on this site will not tell you: Only the "converted," mindless minions will like this film, the majority of them teenage girls with a pathological adoration for anything androgynous. Freud would have a field day.Unless you're one of these mindless "fans," stay the hell away from this abomination.

Moonchild surprised me. Not ever having heard of Hyde of Gackt I was not expecting much. The reason I wanted to watch it was because somebody mentioned that it contained some serious action scenes in John Woo style. Normally I am very careful when this is claimed. There is only one John Woo and till this day there hasn't been one director that comes close to his brilliance when it comes to action. The fact that "Moon Child" would feature a vampire convinced me even more. How can you go wrong with gun blazing vampires. Sounds promising and interesting. The first thing I noticed about this film that the pace was considerably slow. It takes it's time to set the mood.In contrast to that you have some nice Hong Kong style action scenes!Giving the impression that this is a full out action movie.But it's not.The core is a drama about friendship and loyalty. The focus is on the characters and their relation to each other. The pop singers Hyde and Gackt do a good job in acting and are very believable as friends. The only problem I had was with the plot. A couple of times they skipped a few years without explaining what happened and why they had to skip. Example:When one member of the gang dies (very dramatic moment) Alexander Wang sees Kei (Hyde) drinking blood of one of the attackers. Without warning and explanation the movie skips 9 nine years and most of the friends aren't together any more. Also without a proper reason given Son (Alexander Wang) and Sho (Gackt) apparently have become mortal enemies and want to kill each other each time they get the chance to. I know that this is done to add some serious drama. Because of the actors it is very effective but sometimes it felt forced. Apart from the flaws in plot there is an ambiance and slickness that makes it hard not to like Moonchild.It is hard to explain why I thought Moonchild is wonderful. But it just is. The overall experience you get is heart warming and sincere!