Search - Moon Child on DVD

Gackt and Hyde

nico_laos | Earth | 07/24/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It really helps if you're already a fan of these two guys. Both are muscians and fantastic ones at that. However some of their behavior and appearances (especially Gackt's) can be a little confusing to those not aware of their personalities. It's not neccessary to be a fan of theirs to enjoy this excellent movie, but it certainly helps.

The story is essentailly about friendship, betrayal, and redemption. It focuses on a group of orphans who've grown up together in the fictional country of Maleppa, an industrial inner-city wasteland made up of immigrants and the conflicts that arise from their co-habitation. Gackt and Hyde give surprisingly great perfomances as Sho and Kei. Surprising because it's easy to consider this a commercial exploitation of the musicians in order to cash in on their popularity. Of course, I don't speak Japanese so I couldn't really comment on their line delivery, however I belived the tears and the screams. The characters show great emotional pain and joy so that's what I'll judge the actors on."

"Moon Child" - A unique and melancholy story

Ziyuan Wang | Pittsburgh, PA USA | 12/16/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I think that "Moon Child" is a very unique moive in many ways. It is not an ordinary vampire movie where the theme is more or less on the lust for the flesh. Yet, it is neither an action gun firing movie where the hero defeats vallain. In fact, many themes coexist in "Moon Child" - the struggle between love and hate, friendship and rivalry; the pain of growing up and growing apart; the choice of eternal life and unexpected death upon all human beings; and so many more.

I think that I should state here that I often review movies based on the feelings they gave me rather than the technical things such as plot and character development. Because, after all, we watch movies to search for feelings that are hard to find in reality, not to criticize how the story is written. "Moon Child" gave me a very different and somewhat melancholy feeling which doesn't usually exist in the happy Amiercan moives.

I didn't know too much about the cast before I watched the movie, except for Lee Hom Wong who took the role of Ah-Sun. I didn't know anything about Hyde and Gackt, which I think made me less biased in judging the movie. It wasn't until afterwards that I found out that Hyde and Gackt were actually professional singers in Japan. By the way, I think Hyde looks way much better than Gackt who often looks more like a woman than man.

Nonetheless, I think Hyde and Gackt's actings were great. Lee Hom Wong, on the other hand, wasn't as good as the rest of the cast, especially when he was speaking his lines in Chinese. I don't know if it was because the most of the cast were Japanese, or something else, but Lee Hom Wong seemed to have a lot of difficulty in fluently spitting out his lines in Chinese. There always seemed to be a little awkwardness in his accent and tone, which made his acting weird.

I strongly recommend this movie. It's worth watching."

More than expected -

Kitana Kiyoshi | Detroit, MI, USA | 10/06/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm already a fan of Gackt's music, and so when I learned of Moon Child I wasn't expecting much more than for Gackt and HYDE to be eye candy (the same thing I thought of the Bujingai game). However, I was wrong.

First, don't listen to what the DVD cover describes. There's not much in the way of romance, period. Gackt and HYDE show more interest in each other at some points than in the female love interest. In fact, depending on your point of view, one could say that it's lacking on both sides of the spectrum.

There's lots of gunplay, but contrary to other reviews I've read, it's not exactly excessive. I did at one point think "jeez, do they ever run out of ammo?", but if you don't think too much about it, you won't have that problem. Some of the action scenes were very nicely executed and are even humourous.

As for the actual acting - HYDE could be a natural actor. The role he plays as the vampire Kei is extremely believable. You can empathize/sympathize with his inner turmoil. Gackt is also believable (not as much so..) as Sho. Sho's a complex character in the sense that his emotions fluctuate so quickly. One moment he's laughing, and the next he's very indignant.

If you're a fan of Gackt, HYDE or both, I highly recommend this. If you're a fan of neither, I still recommend it. You may be surprised to find yourself leaving the movie as a fan."

Surprising

Shana-Marie Pellon | Virginia Beach, VA | 01/11/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First off, pay attention to the synopsis and ignore the product description, it's the same one that's on the back of the dvd and it's completely misleading and the reason this movie was such a surprise for me.

Note that, one, I am a Hyde fan but I'm going to be unbiased here because I'm also a fan of movies, a lot of foreign film too. This movie has pop stars playing main characters, a strange combination of genres (vampire, gangster, sci-fi), and it's directed by an adult film director. I mention this because, if this movie was released anywhere else, I would never watch it in a million years unless I happened to catch it late at night on a movie channel. But I still wanted to see Hyde in action, so I watched it with low expectations. I came out essentially a different person for about an hour or so afterwoods. The movie was that shocking.
I'll first give you my opinion relative to other movies released. Bad news first, the plot is for the most part rushed and has no sense of developement or time progression, ie. you get jerked around a lot and it's a little hard to follow. Some relationships are way too emphasized while others are way too understated. There was so much potential to develop the characters that ended up wasted in order to move the movie along to some other artifical milestone. I believe this was because the director, or the producer was too concerned with getting more Hyde/Gackt scenes in for more fan gratification. With that being said, if they learned their lessons this could make a great TV series. So many elements of the story left me wanting more.
The good news, and the reason this movie gets 5 stars is because of all it's potential and what we actually saw. Surprisingly, with all the "out-there" elements added into the story, in comes across more like a fable than somebody's imagination run wild. Sho is played by Gackt, an orphan living in the streets of a immigrant town, being a petty thief along with his brother Shinji and his friend Toshi. While still a boy he comes across Kei, played by Hyde, who we see earlier in the beginning of the movie lost his fellow vampire friend and I assumed mentor, some years earlier. Kei has become worn, lonely and weak, but after meeting Sho, ends up saving his life from a gangster and feeding off said gangster. Even though Sho realizes what he is, he befriends Kei. The movie continues as Sho and his friends grow older and Kei remains the same. Because Sho is an orphan, Kei has acted as both a friend and mentor to Sho.
The thing that sets this movie apart is the characters. Their situations, no matter how cliche, bring about genuine feelings and in turn genuine acting. One by one, we see changes in Sho's life, happy events, action, excitement and yes, tragedy, and soon Sho becomes just as tortured as the cursed Kei.
There are a lot of underlying themes in this movie that have to be seen, they're not as apparent as they could be. The vampire aspect works in that here we have a young man, wreckless and wanting, with a mentor and friend that has seen and known everything Sho will ever in his lifetime because of his immortality. Hyde makes a great performance as a vampire that wishes to be normal, that's trying to live his life this way, with a new friend, but can he?
By the end of the movie I'll admit I was crying, a lot actually, but I also cry over every movie, book, show, commercial what have you, so I don't know if that says much heh.
Either way, if you watch this movie, watch it with an open mind, no expectations. There are a lot of crazy aspects to the storyline, but they can be overshadowed by the characters and their emotions.
Maybe you'll see what I mean by it possibly making a good tv series. =)

ps. If you think I gave this a crappy review, know that I'm a HUGE fan of Hyde and L'Arc~en~Ciel, there were certain parts I enjoyed solely because of him, but a movie is a movie, no matter who's playing who.

pps. Stop with the whole yaoi Hyde/Gackt crap. He met him when he was a kid for dog's sake, bunch of sickos. And plenty of male pop stars in Japan wear make-up without being gay. There's not much correlation there.
"