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Asian Cinema Drifter

Oh I’m sure all of you out there love Gackt. Yes, every last one of you. I’ve never been a fan of his music, maybe a bit of his band before going solo, Malice Mizer. His image is interesing, but still, a film written by and starring not one but two singers should be enough to elicit a groan on my end. On the otherhand, vampires, gunplay and gangs sound rather interesting, so why not give Moon Child a shot? Oddly enough, whatever story trying to be told isn’t told interestingly enough, and perhaps the most interesting part of the film for me ends up being Gackt’s acting and presence.

Set in a possible future in 2014, Japan’s economy collapses while Sho lives in a tiny city called Mallepa where all kinds of ethnic groups come to live together. Sho meets Kei, a vampire with certain identity issues, and Sho grows up friends with Kei (who hasn’t aged a bit) and they spend their time getting rid of gangs while Kei gets his lunch. In one such encounter, they meet Son and strike up a friendship with him and his sister, but after so high a time, things can only go down.
While Moon Child holds all these commercial elements like vampires, gang wars and stylish action, they all seem to take a back seat to the friendships between the main characters, and what seems to be some commentary on ethnic groups and how we should all just get along. Something about this commentary, and likewise the gang and vampire premises is that they feel a bit on the low side. The film attempts to find equal focus on all these sub-elements, but we are mainly left to look at the relationships at the core as these other commercial elements are used to just keep our interest with a unique scenario. The vampire bit adds some mystique and distinctiveness to the plot perhaps, but the gang wars and ethnic tension is barely existent and seem just thrown in to give some other generic messages and meaning.

Entertainment wise, the film feels captivating early on with an overload of style, until we take a flash forward by a few years and move into a less affecting second half. The gunplay throughout the film is fine, and it has its unbelievably cool moments, such as precision team reloading as Kei throws two pistol clips perfectly aligned horizontally as Sho catches them in his gun handle and just proceeds to keep firing. Other times, the way "shooting gallery-like" enemies miss shots is just pathetic when Sho has no elevated power and manages to just avoid bullets for no reason other than the fact that he’s the main character. These gun fights are still rather fun, and one seems to save the second half, which adds an uninteresting conflict to the story. The characters are not particularly deep, other than an emphasis on family and friendship.

Out of the three main leads, only Gackt can keep his character interesting as the other two drearily drift through the scenes. Hyde as Kei could have had his moments, even if his character called for a dull vampire, but he does virtually nothing to make Kei special. Lee-Hom Wang also has a similar presence and he essentially captures nothing in an already emptily written character. Gackt is the surprise for me, as he visibly changes over time, develops a multi-dimensional character and acts his way through it emotionally.

With characters you don’t usually care about and a declining story, the only things that stand out positively are the circumstances and themes of the friendship, as well as an interesting first-half that never leaves the viewer bored. Once we move into the second half, it feels like an over-extended generic epilogue, until of course, we get the epilogue to this epilogue. And it features Anne Suzuki in her first role as a Hana. How nice.

Reviewed by Tuna

KFCCinema

At the heart of Moon Child, we have a timeless tale of friendships lost and found. From brighter moments and thriving kinships, to an unraveling alliance and heartless fallouts, the relationships formed between the characters in Moon Child are truly the life force behind the story at hand. We have, at our core, the bond between Sho and Kei (Gackt & Hyde, respectively). The best of friends, yet a junior/senior relationship exist who’s deeper nuances fuel the emptiness and desires between the two. In a somewhat weaker aspect of the narrative we find established that Kei is damned to walk the earth forever in the form of a Vampire. This endless suffering, and the knowledge that all those around him will eventually die before his very eyes, is the driving force behind the actions and responses of this character. At times, Hyde’s performance as the weary vamp is played to an appropriate t, but several occasions throughout we find a somewhat fledgling exhibition rearing its awkward head. All in all though, the portrayal is fairly commendable considering the casting of the musician in this, his first thespian endeavor.

While on the subject of rockers turned actors, perhaps the more categorically apt creature of the night should have been the former gothic front man turned pop-rock crooner, Gackt Camui. Instead we find him in the role of the little engine who only wanted to be loved. Striving to be like his mentor/best friend Kei, we find Sho clinging to the love he has grown so accustomed to during his many years with the loveable bloodsucker. Throughout the course of the film we actually find the character of Sho experiencing the most overall growth. We follow him through his early youth as a small child pulling scams on the local triads, to his budding days of adulthood, still pulling scams on the triads (albeit of a more violent nature), and ultimately his position as one of the more powerful yakuza in the area. Gackt’s performance is a bit overdramatic at times, but overall extremely charming and effective. For the viewers out there who may already be fans of Gackt, we are shown a lighter side that is seldom revealed through his typically quiet, brooding demeanor. Fear not though, we are still graced with the signature “cool” that we all know and love. The chance to see Gackt smile from ear to ear as well as contribute to the films over the top gunplay is a priceless treat for any true fan.

The conflict between characters in this film is in part due to the difficulty in coping with Kei’s secret as well as the opposing threat of the triads. In the fictional town of Mallepa it is every man for himself, and the folly of stepping on a rival’s toes is not something to underestimate. A rather weak attempt at sub plot comes into play here in the form of nationalism between the Chinese born Triads and the Japanese born Yakuza. This was hardly entertained though, and it ends up coming across as something that was ill prepared and not very well thought out. Many aspects of the plot actually suffer from this ailment with a lack of flowing continuity, and we end up with a story that comes across as being a bit unbalanced. So much time is devoted at the start of the picture to establishing characters and their relationships that when the struggle for power ensues during the second half, the story ends up suffering from a sense of poor transition.

Overall, Moon Child is a very entertaining, character driven picture about the necessity of friendship. Fans of the film’s stars should absolutely not miss out on seeing their favorite icons perform in an alternate medium. Not quite perfect by any means, but still possessing enough interesting and entertaining elements to satisfy most movie goers. Action, comedy, drama, vampires, guns, Japanese rock stars in leather pants, and Susumu Terajima getting high as a kite and hallucinating gold fish, what more could you ask for?

Reviewed by Brandon Fincher

FilmCritic.com

If you’re a 14-year-old Japanese girl, Moon Child will be without a doubt the best movie you’ve ever seen. But even if you’re not, this teenage yakuza vampire thriller/melodrama starring two of Japan’s dreamiest androgynous male pop stars has enough going for it to hold your interest. As a window into current Japanese pop culture, it can’t be beat.

We find ourselves in an “Asian special economic zone” called Mallepa, a teeming city-state where for some unexplained reason, the Japanese population has been marginalized and turned into refugees and criminals. The year is 2014.

A group of orphaned kids led by Sho (Gackt Camui) and his brother Shinji (Susumu Terajima) have just stolen a briefcase full of money when the hoods they stole it from come in hot pursuit, guns blazing. Luckily, the boys find themselves protected by the mysterious Kei (Hyde), a bum they’ve been helping out and who, they now discover, has the power to fly and dodge bullets. After the gunmen are killed, Sho and Shinji are surprised to see Kei sucking blood from the corpses. Oh, he’s a vampire. Well that explains the superpowers. Kei soon signs on as the gang’s secret weapon though he’s only available for work at night or on cloudy days.

Ten years later, Sho has grown up into a terribly stylish gangster with a beaded ponytail, expensive sunglasses, and eight huge guns that rest in holsters attached to his tight leather pants. Kei the vampire hasn’t aged a bit, of course, but he’s increasingly troubled by the “curse” of his vampire existence. Living off of the death of others bums him out royally.

Setting out to steal from yet another gang, Sho and Kei run into Son (Wang Leehom), an equally good-looking freelance Chinese gangster with whom they soon join forces. Mix in Yi-Che (Zeny Kwok), Son’s pretty but mute sister, and you’ve got a photogenic gang, complete with a built-in love triangle.

But after a few more years pass, things are complicated. Kei, who has disappeared, turns up in prison, condemned to execution for being a vampire. He’s happy to go and suggests that the cops simply leave him outside in the sun. Sho has married Yi-Che, but her brother Son has joined up with an ultra-violent Chinese gang that’s at war with Sho’s crew. You can be sure that the brothers-in-law will engage in a five-minute firefight that burns up more ammo than a typical ten-minute John Woo firefight. You can also be sure that Kei will suddenly show up and use the last bits of his vampire power to try to make everything turn out alright among the old friends. Many pairs of expensive leather pants will be ruined in the ensuing mayhem, but the hairstyles will remain just-so, and no one’s blue contact lenses will fall out.

Hong Kong cinema is full of throwaway movies starring the latest pop idols, and Japan has followed suit here, but let’s give Gackt and Hyde some props. They act credibly, they fight with style, they fight with style, they shoot many bullets, and they even provide songs for the soundtrack. In short, they work a hell of a lot harder than Justin Timberlake probably would under the same circumstances, and there’s no way that Justin would go along with the homoerotic subtext that comes straight from the racy boy-on-boy “yaoi” comics so popular with Japanese girls. When Sho and Kei are parked in a cute white convertible by the beach on a moonlit night sharing their hopes and dreams, Moon Child looks a lot more like a love story than a shoot-‘em-up thriller.

Reviewed by Don Willmott

DVD Talk

A kind of hybrid mish-mash of A Better Tomorrow, Underworld and Interview With A Vampire, Zeze Takahisa's Moon Child is a gangster by way of vampires action horror combination that hits a few high notes during playback but ultimately leaves one feeling pretty vacant. In short, it looks really good and delivers some fun shoot outs and gore effects, but doesn't give us much story to chew on in between set pieces until the last third of the movie, at which point it's too little too late.

In the year 2014, Japan's economy has deteriorated to the point where there has been an exodus of sorts. Japanese people have moved off of their island country into other parts of Asia and parts of the continent have become cultural melting pots. In one of these melting pots, three orphans have grown up, having to fight every day for their food and to scratch out a meager living in a (fictional) city named Mallepa in China that is rampant with gangs and drug abuse.

One of these orphans is Sho (Gackt Camui) who is out exploring a run down old warehouse one day where he meets a strange and slightly older man named Kei (Hideto Takarai) who just so happens to be a vampire. He joins up with Sho and his two orphan pals, Toshi (Taro Yamamoto of Battle Royale) and a speech impaired Chinese girl named Yi-Che (Zeny Kwok). With Kei, a master fighter, in their midst, the four of them start to make their way up the ladder of the criminal underworld, able to make enough money to improve their lives and in turn also keep a steady supply of human blood coming in for their vampire pal. Things are going well for the four friends until one of them winds up dead and Kei mysteriously disappears. Did he kill off one of the members of the gang as would be his instinct or did their ambitions put them on the wrong side of a rival gang who are now making their voice heard through violent means? Or does it have something to do with the girl that Sho has had his eye on, the very same girl that Kei has started to have feelings for?

Zeze Takahisa got his start in low budget exploitation 'pink movies' in Japan and is probably best known to western audiences for his 2001 film, Tokyo X Erotica (which was given a domestic release from Eclectic). It's interesting to see him here working with the two male leads who are very well known pop stars/teen idols in their native Japan making what is essentially a mainstream film geared towards teenagers or young adults in their fan base. With that in mind, it's also surprising that the performances in this film from those two same leads aren't terrible. A lot of times when pop stars are cast in genre films, the results are pretty dire (cough cough Andromedia cough cough) but here it works. There's a lot of posing for the camera and the odd glamour shot here and there but these guys can act and they really don't do a half bad job with the material that they're given to work with.

The movie starts off very quickly, throwing in all sorts of shoot outs and fight scenes with some pretty intense, stylish violence There isn't much character development but the pacing is quick and the movie looks slick. When they do decide to slow things down in the later third of the film, however, it seems to bring what was a completely over the top action movie to a bit of a halt. The drama seems forced and the pacing hurts the movie. That being said, Moon Child does manage to get enough right that, while it's hardly a modern classic, it's still an entertaining movie that is worth a look for those who appreciate a mindless diversion now and then. It's light fare, but for the most part it's fun.

Despite the lack of extras, Moon Child is fun entertainment if you don't take it too seriously. Plenty of style, very little substance, it makes for a decent time killer and the disc is a solid rental, maybe a mild recommendation for fans of the genre.

Reviewed by Ian Jane

Reviews by fans:

The following are some of the reviews done by fans. If you would like to add yours to the website, please contact me at sweiled@ *no spam* eiennoyume.com. We welcome all reviews!

Like Gackt himself, MOON CHILD doesn’t lend itself to being easily categorized into a specific genre of film. It’s a sci-fi vampire film, a mafia film, a comedy, a romance, a socio-political drama, and a wire-action Hong Kong action-style flick all rolled into one. With all these elements struggling to stay in the viewers’ minds, the movie can sometimes feel like it’s trying to do too much at once. We have to suspend our disbelief in more ways than one to really get into the movie and believe that these things could actually happen somewhere in our real world. But, it is just that balance of a million different styles that makes MOON CHILD so unique, and so effective. If it was simply a straightforward drama or action film, it would probably have been completely forgettable; a story that has been told countless times. But with its unique group of characters and sweeping storyline, MOON CHILD manages to pull you into the world of Mallepa and lets you see that world through the characters’ eyes.

Underneath the flashy gunplay and the even flashier jrockers, MOON CHILD presents a story about relationships. Gackt’s character, Sho, is at the center of the MOON CHILD universe, and his relationships with everyone else is what makes up the heart of the movie. The most important relationship in the movie is that between Sho and Kei, played by Hyde. Now, it’s easy to look at this pairing on the surface and dismiss the movie as being aimed merely at Gackt and Hyde fans, but to do that would really be a disservice to both actors. Despite the seemingly prevailing sentiment in the Gackt fandom that he is a terrible actor in MOON CHILD, I for one consider Gackt to be a natural actor who plays Sho perfectly. From the beginning, he sets up Sho to be an extremely likeable character, and despite his many flaws, Gackt has us cheering Sho on all the way. Even when he undergoes his change from being the happy and goofy kid to being the hardened mafia boss, we feel that he of all people deserves some peace and happiness. How anyone can watch the scene where Sho phones Kei at the prison to plead for help and then say Gackt’s acting is bad is beyond me. The way he spoke his lines, showing his vulnerable and frightened side, conveyed his emotions perfectly in that scene.

As for Hyde, I do believe that he is far less of a natural actor than Gackt, and he struggles a bit with his lines. But, with the help of Gackt and his fellow actors, I think he did an admirable job playing a very difficult character. It helps to know the background behind the casting of Hyde as Kei, which involved a campaign by Gackt to get Hyde on board. But even without that knowledge, I think the chemistry between Sho and Kei works in the movie, making their odd relationship believable. Their friendship is so strong, and their loyalty to each other so steady, that they are together even beyond mortal death. I think the fact that they are the final characters shown in the movie, and that they have become vampires, is symbolic of a friendship that can, and will, last forever.

Of course MOON CHILD is not only about Sho and Kei; it’s filled with other relationships between Sho and his friends, family and enemies. The movie shows us what a person is willing to do to protect his friends and family, and how his actions to protect can sometimes backfire. It shows us that happiness can be found in tiny bursts of time, even when we are suffering through the trials of life. It shows us that humans really need each other to survive in this world, and to be truly alone is often too much to bear. There is so much more to MOON CHILD, including issues that were only touched on, like the problems between Asian countries, and every viewing can make you contemplate something you didn’t think about before.

To me, a movie is successful when I am still thinking about it for days after a viewing, and feeling like it has changed the way I perceive things in my own life. MOON CHILD has done that for me, as it has for countless other viewers. Gackt has hinted at what he wants the viewer to get out of the movie, but ultimately he leaves it up to us. I hope that more people can watch MOON CHILD with an open mind and a willingness to see beyond the surface into the heart of a wonderfully affecting film.

Reviewed by Gekka

I came to this movie differently than most fans. I was a fan of Japanese movies before I discovered the great music that was also being produced over there and it was due to a former friend of mine that I found this movie in the first place. To put it bluntly I greatly enjoyed the film upon first viewing just due to its face value. It was entertaining, had a good script and had good acting. I was particularly impressed with Gackt and it was this impression that caused me to look him up on the internet to see what other acting he had done...imagine my surprise when I found out he was a musician and "not just" an actor.
After reading about Gackt and learning about his philosophies towards life and his homeland I sat down for another viewing of Moon Child. The movie at its core deals with friendship and love without beating one over the head about it like a bad sermon. Friendships are made and lost, alliances formed and destroyed but in the end love is always there.
Unlike most action movies you truly couldn't have this story without the exact characters that populate Mallepa. They are the life force of this movie and it feels to me to be more a home movie of friends that really exist somewhere in an alternate universe than it is a simple movie. This is a high compliment. You care about the characters and you want them to find their ways back to each other and recover the friendships that some of them have lost.

Reviewed by Tarogirl

Moon Child is entertaining for the different elements that can be found in the movie. It brings in the usual themes of love and friendship into the movie while addressing the issues faced by the current society, such as the treatment of minority races, racial differences, etc. I have loved the movie since I first watched it. It was this movie that introduced me to Gackt. I have always been fascinated by vampires, but most of the vampire stories out there are ones full of blood and gore. Rarely do we see any books or movie delving deeply into the emotional side of vampires. However, the way Gackt portrayed his vampires, or more specifically Kei, in Moon Child is different. If not for the occasional show of superhuman abilities, one can almost forget that Kei is not human. Gackt explores brilliantly the feelings and emotions of the vampires and the people around them through the events that happen around them.

The two main characters' acting in the movie was also acceptable for me. Certainly not something worth an Oscar award, but it did the job for me. They managed to express their characters' emotions and feelings across to the audience well in my opinion. On the risk of sounding rather biased, I must admit that Gackt did a better job that HYDE. Possibly because Gackt has had more experiences "acting" for his promotional videos and concerts. Gackt likes to tell stories through action and movement and has used it frequently in his concerts in the past. However, HYDE's acting has improved vastly since, as can be seen in his second movie "Kagen no Tsuki" where he played the female lead's love interest.

The development of the story is unpredictable and there were plenty of times when the turns of events caught me by surprise. The jumps between the different time periods might make the movie seem rushed and incomplete, but I feel that it was those missing gaps that make the movie original They do not give us all the facts but allow us to speculate and imagine what happened to the characters in those missing years. The same goes for the abrupt start of the movie. We were suddenly thrown into the movie and joined the life of the characters without being provided an explanation as to their origin. Even till the end, we still do not know where Kei or Luka came from. The way the story is told makes it seem as if Moon Child is but a tiny part of a large and complex story, as Gackt himself revealed when he restarted MOON PROJECT a few years later.

The most brilliant thing about the movie and the reason why it's one of my favourite movies is because you learn something new every time you watch the movie. I never get bored watching it repeatedly because I always see a different side of a character which I failed to see before, or I find myself being able to see certain things from a different angle. When I first watched it, there was simply a sense of satisfaction from having watched what I deemed a very good movie. As I watched it the second time though, I began to notice certain things that supported (or changed) my initial ideas and conclusions regarding some of the events in the movie. It's like a process that never ends. The story of Moon Child is unlimited and endless in that sense, and is fully open to the audiences' interpretation.

Really, all you need to be able to enjoy the movie is a good sense of imagination and an open mind.

Reviewed by Sweiled

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