Moon Child is a japanese movie released in 2003 and it was directed by Takahisa Zeze. This movie is set in the world of the near future, where an orphan and a vampire form a friendship that is put to test by a gang ravaging the city. Let's get into the story. In the year 2014, Japan suffers a major collapse in the economy and the people in Japan are forced to emigrate to nearby mainland China. In a fictional city of Mallepa, 3 orphens named Sho, Shinji and Toshi were robbing a gangster at one point. During the process of Shinji and Toshi looking over the money that the gangster had in his suitcase, Sho meets a vampire named Kei. The robber comes back to take back the suitcase that the orphens stole and he shot Shinji in the leg, causing him to carry a limp. Kei saves the orphens from the gangster and both Shinji and Sho found out that Kei is a vampire. Kei questions Sho as to why he wasn't scared of Kei, but Sho answered with a big grin.

The movie jumps from the year 2025, in which Sho is now a young man. While the three orphans still live on robberies and thefts, they have graduated to gun-wielding chaos that makes for dramatic fire fights. Kei is still with the 3 orphens and he serves as a mentor to Sho. Shinji has a limp and he is now a drug addict. Toshi works as a pizza delivery boy and he also helps Sho and Kei for their thievery. During a robbery one night, Sho, Kei and Toshi meets an enraged Taiwanese man named Son and Son is there to take revenge on the gang that Sho the company were trying to rob because they raped his sister, Yi-Che, who has refused to say a word since the incident. So, all 5 of those people have started an admirable friendship and along the way, Sho develops feelings for Yi-Che but however, Yi-Che's interests rest with Kei.

There is more in the story then what I explained. But I'm not going to explain the entire story because if I did, I would ruin and spoil the fun to you guys. But, here's how I feel about the story. The story is good, but it's not a story that I would've expected in this movie. This is the first problem I have with the movie. The story in this movie is not going to appeal vampire fans because the story does not involve vampires like other vampire movies like Dracula, Interview with the Vampire, Blade and those movies. It mostly centers on crime like many crime movies like The Godfather, The Untouchables and those types of movies. And it just kinda turned me off because it wasn't something that I would experience in this movie. Yeah, there are a couple of stuff on here that involves vampires. But for the most part, it's just basically about mafias and so forth. So, the story might not get vampire fans sucked in. But if you like mafia movies, then this movie is for you. But I will say the action scenes in this movie are fun to watched. This movie contains some of the best gun fights I've seen since The Matrix and Equilibrium.

Another thing I want to nit-pick before I move on to the characters is Why are there english-spoken news stations appearing on TV in Japan? There was one scene in the movie that showed this. Now, I don't know if Japan actually aires news stations or whatever that are in english in real life. But if they don't, then why the hell are these non-japanese programs doing on TV in Japan in this movie? I don't think japanese people don't understand english. But anyway, in terms of characters in this movie, the characters are alright. Sho, Shinji and Toshi are good characters. Son is alright. Yi-Che is fine and I have mixed reactions for Kei, for two things. First off, Why is Kei using guns to kill thugs instead of his own fangs most of the times? Whenever Kei gets involved in gun fights, I'm thinking Why can't Kei use his own vampiric abilities to finish off criminals that are shooting him and Sho. I think he is too scared to use his fangs to finish off enemies. I mean other characters like Bloodrayne, Selene of Underworld and others use might have used both their guns and their vampire abilities to finish off enemies. Now, there was only a couple of times that Kei used his vampire abilities to bite people and drain their blood. But for the most part, you mostly see him using guns.

And speaking of fangs, Kei does not have no fangs at all in this movie. This is the same problem as the movie, Twilight. Without fangs, that person isn't a vampire by no means whatsoever. I don't know why the staff of this movie didn't even put fangs on Kei. That is such a total letdown for me. But at least, he burns whenever he gets in the sunlight unlike in Twilight, where they shine like walking diamonds. I'm sorry, but that is not how vampires are when they get in contact by sunlight.

I can't say much on the settings or whatnot. But the settings in this movie do look pretty good. The acting in this movie is fine. 3 of the actors in this movie are musical artists. Sho is played by Gackt Camui, a member of the band, Malice Mizer.Son is played by Lee-Hom Wang and Kei is played Hideto "Hyde" Takarai of some rock band called L'Arc-en-Ciel. The one odd thing about the acting is that sometimes when the people that get's shots by guns, they don't do any shaken body movements, for a better way to describe it, the minute after the bullet hits their chest. But besides that, the acting is pretty good in this movie.

The music is good. One thing that kinda bothers me is that this movie mostly uses songs that are english rather then songs in Japanese. With the inclusion of having english spoken songs in a japanese movie, it makes this movie feels like it came from America rather then Japan. Granted, the theme song in this movie is sung in Japanese and it's performed by the two guys that played Sho and Kei. But besides that, the songs are mostly in english. I don't think Japan, in real life, would ever have english songs.

In the end, Moon Child is a good movie, but it's a disappointment in my opinion. It's one of those movies where it's going to be as what you expected. But the minute you watched it, it's going to be nothing like from what you wished to be. And that's how I felt about this movie. I thought it was going to be a kickass japanese movie that centers on vampire throughout the flim like Dracula. But it's a bit of letdown for me. But does that make Moon Child a bad movie? No, the story is still good and the action scenes are fun to watch. So, here's on how I would suggest this movie. If you like mafia movies like The Godfather, The Untouchables, Goodfellas, Scarface or whatever, then this movie is definitely for you. If you are the sort of person that is looking for a movie centering directly on Vampires, then this is not the movie you are looking for. You'd be better off watching Dracula, Interivew with the Vampire or any other Vampires movies out there that centers on Vampires more so then Moon Child.

7.5 out of 10

Chapter 12:

For real, this time.