By: Michael Yagi
Review of 'Moon Child'
Genre: Action Drama
Director: Takahisa Zeze
Year: 2003
Moon Child, a gangster story set in the future about friends, loyalty
and a lonesome vampire. It sounds like a good idea, but under
Takahisa's supervision, it's a sloppy superficial bore. The film's
future aspect and the vampire story throw-in were utilized poorly and
felt pretty much irrelevant. Part of the film's annoyances was its
excesses. We see sequence after sequence of excess gun slinging
action, too much melodrama and a whole lotta bad acting. The visuals
and some of the cinematography were excellent but that didn't matter
after a point as it was ineffective and it didn't draw me into the
movie itself.
The story is set in the year 2014, Japan has gone through economic
turmoil and has finally collapsed. As a result, the people of Japan
are immigrating to other parts of the world. Somewhere in Asia, a
close knit gang of children steal money for survival in the fictional
city of Mallepa. This is where Sho, one of the children, meets Kei
(HYDE) the vampire (a moping bum at the time). As the children grow up
and everything stays peachy for a while, Kei's increasing loneliness
builds. The fight for power between ethnic gangs and the love triangle
involving Kei, Sho (Gackt) and a Taiwanese girl agitate friendships
and loyalties between everyone involved.
The center piece of the movie is the vampire's relationship with his
mortal friend (which almost seems a little TOO friendly, but that's
just me...). HYDE's performance as Kei was incredibly uninteresting
and non penetrating, which is what you would not expect from an
immortal character who's lived through the ages. The crumby fictitious
future of the story was a setup for one of the story's characters, in
which he betrays his loyalty of his Japanese friends for that of his
own people. This calls into question the necessity or effectiveness of
its use. Takahisa compromised the overall structure of the stories
setting for one character, making this futuristic world lack any
imagination or depth. In other words, I was neither entertained or
intrigued by the development of the concept or story.
The verdict:
3.6 out of 8- I liked the plot. But with its poor development and
accompanying shallow acting, it's unbearable to watch.
Copyright © 2004 Eight Trees CineMANIA
www.eighttreescinemania.com
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X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 1297177
X-RT-TitleID: 1131683
X-RT-SourceID: 1569
X-RT-AuthorID: 10641
X-RT-RatingText: 3.6/8
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