Movie-Moon Child (Gackt & Hyde)
 

Has anyone seen this movie? rants/raves.

One of my fave singer Lee Hom Wang is in it and I wanna know how it is. thx.

http://www.moonchild-movie.com/top.html

Yaya!
if anyone would give us a review of it it'll be great!

Here's an english review of Moon Child:

from: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20030417woad.htm

Moon over Mallepa



Aaron Gerow / Special to The Daily Yomiuri

Moon Child (three stars out of five)

Dir: Takahisa Zeze

Cast: Gackt, Hyde, Wang Lee Hon, Zeny Kwok, Taro Yamamoto

Movie stars have always been an otherworldly presence. They seem to dwell in the cinema firmament, high above us poor mortals who, instead of shining on the screen like they do, just passively gaze in the dark at their intense apparitions.

Gackt and Hyde are two such stars, contemporary rock phenomena appearing in their first film. Moon Child--appropriately titled--is very much a star vehicle, and the two stars are celestial presences who cannot be ignored.

At its weakest, Moon Child just duplicates the campily lunar qualities of Gackt and Hyde themselves. With non-Japanese stage names and a policy of refusing to divulge their origins, both stars play off the J-Rock genre of playing extraterrestrial heroes (witness Demon Kogure). That pretentious detachment ultimately unites their personae on and off screen. Neither really acts in this film, although Gackt, who cowrote the script, is self-parodic enough that he can at least act himself acting his character. The clumsier Hyde, however, just offers a series of dour poses that could only satisfy his most devoted fans.

What saves Moon Child is director Takahisa Zeze's decision to make this alienness the subject of the film and use it to play critically with his own stars.

Hyde's character, Kei, is the ultimate alien in this film: a vampire. He is no horror-movie villain or hero because, given Zeze's long interest in transnational mixtures (SF Whip Cream, Rush!, etc.), most of the characters in this film are also aliens, albeit of a different kind. This is a future world where Japan has collapsed and most of its residents have ventured abroad in search of jobs and fortunes. Many live in the Asian city of Mallepa, aliens inhabiting a foreign land. (Moon Child was filmed in Taiwan.)

Kei arrives in Mallepa and encounters some orphaned Japanese street kids, eventually using his own special--and terrible--powers to eliminate a man whose money they stole. Kei thus meets the young Sho, who, while knowing very well what Kei is, grows up to become his best friend. Now a stylish young hoodlum (Gackt), Sho teams up with Kei and Toshi (Taro Yamamoto) to commit a variety of crimes, the group acting with their guns and their bodies as if nothing in the world could hurt them--even though Kei is the only immortal among them.

On Toshi's instigation, one day they attack the office of the Gishinkai, the local mob, to steal the gang's loot, but there they bump into another young man shooting the mobsters. He is Son (Wang Lee Hon), out for revenge after his sister Yi Che (Zeny Kwok), a talented painter, was raped by one of the gang. The bunch team up on the spot, strafe the gangsters, and soon become good friends, with Sho admiring Yi Che--even though she has eyes for Kei.

While this is a multiethnic, multilingual pseudo-family, it breaks up because of alienness and chauvinism. When the Gishinkai returns for revenge, Kei reveals his horrible nature, repulsing Yi Che and eventually driving Son to join the mob.

Sho then battles Son in a cycle of violence that threatens to never end. Zeze underlines that this cycle is like the life of a vampire who must continually kill to live, but Kei rises above the gunplay by virtue of his memories and his desire to end it all.

If it seems Son and the others have forgotten their past camaraderie, Kei has not. The memory is symbolized by a photograph of the five on a beach. Taken in the dark, it is a symbol of cinema, and also reminds us that the most filmic of monsters, the vampire, is still an alien, unable to frolic in the sun.

Zeze's critical response to his lunar stars, if not to cinema itself, is to at the conclusion propel them towards this sun, to ironically eliminate their alienness and otherworldliness in the light after it's all over. In a world of continued discrimination and ethnic violence, Zeze tries to bring his stars down to earth and his audience into the light.


:laugh I can't wait for the movie XD

Oh man, I really really have to see this movie. It better get an international release, although there's not much of a chance :weep

i have watches, is nice! touchingm, gackt is really sexy and what else ? wlh is gorgeoud too! i dscovered him thanks to this film!

Hmph... Moonchild was good. Which was great since it made my step dad appreciate my love for Gackt a little more! XD ((he thought that Gackt was gonna be a HORRIBLE actor--- he wasn't bad))

I also appreciate the song "Orenji no Taiyou" a lot more because of the movie, though ^v^!

It already has an international release. You should be able to buy it at BestBuy, etc.

Haido :D

it's a great movie!

^v^! I bought it from Borders Bookstores!

i think the movie is kinda boring.no offense. but it's nice to see gackt and hyde act. anyway, i have their moonchild photo book.soooooo cute!! mine is the os ver with soft cover. selling at $21. Singapore. anyone? pm me if interested.

Yeah, the movie is a little boring.. but I was paying more attention to Hyde's pretty face more than anything :evillaugh He knows how to make me smile :D

~The photobook is very beautiful :yes

XD yes--- Hyde was very pretty-ful in there. Gackt's extensions annoyed me u.u;;;

:D Made me feel like crying at certain parts...I loved the movie!!! *o* I was VERY touched by the strong bond between Sho and Kei...And the ending..was so sad. And the two bishies were awesome.

You know, the one thing that sorta had we weirded out was... why didn't the car explode all the way at the end? HONESTLY!

((sorry for those who haven't seen it--- spoilers---))


























If they basically combusted, the car should have at least had more damage to it than that. -_-.;;; grr.
























No more spoilers XD

oh havent seen the movie yet i didnt Lee Hom was in this!! i like Lee Hom! hmmm...wonder where i can get this movie

i loved the movie.. it was beautiful :D

You can special order it at most local movie retailers. For the cheapest price, get it online at bestbuy.com

By the way, I have a review of this movie that I wrote. It's very extensive. If anyone would like to see(if you're not sure whether you want to see the movie) I'd be glad to post it.

the film was in vcd version for just 3 dollars in yesasia clearance! i got it! it comes with chinese and english subtitles, of course, if not , i wouldn't got it O_o...now it is at eight or 12 in dvd, is worth the price, don't miss the movie, as i've read in a review in yesasia, you understand more the song after watching the film... i'm interested in your review, although i've already seen it...

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.

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

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

I have heard about that movie but never seen it.

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

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.

a-ri-ga-tou

thanks

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.