Moonchild

I will tell you a story. At one point, it is a ridiculous story— since its theme is just plain preposterous. But whatever it is, it is a story bearing a somewhat morbid Gothic title—Moonchild.

Suspense tak?

Ufufufufufufufu…

Recently, I watched a Japanese movie entitled Moonchild and was quite struck with few points in the movie. Well, be prepared people…this is one massive, gargantuan dose of spoiler, so don’t blame me! You have been warned! Oh boy, this is going to be a loooooooong one.

Well, Moonchild is actually a movie starring my best V-Kei boys, HYDE and Gackt S. Camui. Interfering along the great names are Wang Lee Hom (yes guys, Wang Lee Hom who sang my personal favourite Mando-ballad: Kiss You Goodbye) and no-name actress that V-Kei fangirls hold their deepest grudge against—Zeny Kwok (I know, I never heard of her too).

Moonchild set in 2025, where immigrants of Japanese descents were abundant and co-exists with Taiwanese and Hong Kongers in a slum-like  fictitious place called Mallepa.

The story revolves around a vampire (laugh if you dare!), Kei (HYDE) who always hunts along with another vampire-partner, Ruka (entahsiapaaktornye) for their daily needs (i.e. blood/darah le!). One day, Kei found Ruka strangely injured (vampires aren’t suppose to be injured, peeps) and upon Ruka’s request, brought him to nearest beach available at the crack of dawn. Fishy…

Ruka had a plan of his own, definitely. At the first sunlight, Ruka sat down at the shore and POW! There you go…he’s engulfed into flames and the vampire who’s immune with fatal injuries and suppose to live permanently died by just a mere exposure to sunlight…Takde ketahanan UV betul!

And so Kei who witnessed the event lost his will to live—and being a solitary vampire doesn’t give him any hope or opportunities so one encounter with a kid named Sho (Kanata Hongo yang comel…I suspected he’s barely 7 or 8 at that time!) just changed everything. Kei wishes to terminate his life so he exposed himself to sunlight and reacting to the act of destruction, his skin basically flared and whizzed out smoke. Seriously, this scene made HYDE looked like some kind of human salami (sorry, HYDE). Seeing this, Sho naturally wants to save him from the extreme sunburn so he dragged him to the hideout he shared with his brother, Shinji and a friend, Toshi.

FYI, they are orphaned-cum-street kids who basically commit every possible crime to fetch some money. So it is justifiable find a crook visiting your hideout when you intentionally swindle out money from their boots. Tch. Kids are just kids.

So this crook shot Shinji on his leg and made Toshi ran helter-skelter into nowhere. When Sho went out to fetch Toshi, he heard a scream and when he returned, he saw Kei drinking some nice dose of blood from the crook. Yummy. Ala-ala Raja Bersiong lebih kurang.

But brave Sho was not intimidated by this, unlike Shinji. Even when Kei asked him, ‘Aren’t you afraid?’ with a blood-smeared mouth, Sho just laughed it off. Eerie, strange kid, sure he is.

Then some friggin’ ten or fifteen years passed. Sho (now, it’s Gackt since Sho’s grown up, obviously…) is a well-trained crook too—a ‘hade’ one (it means ‘flashy’ in Japanese since he sported braided blonde ponytails with off-white leather jacket. Ugh…who’s idea izdat?? HYDE too commits the same fashion crime when he had baggy leather pants matched with nude-coloured tight shirt and long FLAMING red overcoat…don’t ever hire the stylist anymore!) 

Well, Sho basically spends his life with Kei (please, don’t interpret their relationship into something illegal, if you please) committing crime with some gravity-defying gun actions…! Woot! They obtained help from also grown-up-already Toshi (Yamamoto Taro) who drugged delivery pizzas before both Sho and Kei stormed into action.

They continuously commit this act (berdosa lah! Tak tau ke?) till one time when they are about to ambush a gang with the same method. Drugged pizzas followed by some revolver-actions.

But aha! Here comes the interference of Son (Wang Lee Hom! He was properly dressed. Maybe he had another stylist as a hidden card or something) who claimed that the gang raped his mute sister Yi-Ce (a poker-face  in the entire movie; Zeny Kwok). But instead of immediately declared themselves enemy against each other, Son-Sho-Kei amazingly used their brain and collaborate to defeat the gang. Ahahahaha…Beauty with Brains. Oh…! At this point pay great emphasis on the rifle-exchange scene. It screams greatness!

But as cliché as it may sounds, Sho was immediately struck by Yi-Ce, and practically trying to woo her in some silliest but cutest scenes ever! But Yi-Ce found her peculiarly drawn to Kei. But the incident where Toshi was killed and Kei went berserk and lashed his vampire fang to Toshi’s killer was her dumbstruck point. Then Kei went missing after that and the story again leaped for few years forward.  

We immediately saw Sho holding a little kid, and Yi-Ce next to him. Yes, peeps! He was married to Yi-Ce and they had a daughter named Hana! Dang! One day he met with Son who’s employed by Chen, a gang-boss who’s responsible for Toshi’s murder. Yelp! Holding the ultimate grudge, Sho was more outraged when he learnt about the death of Shinji, killed by Chen’s henchmen. He even swore to kill Son! Awawawawa~~~ but this was immediately stopped by Yi-Ce who reminded him of the nice, good old days when everyone’s happy, alive and kicking. For the sake of those memories, no killing should be allowed. Kkeut. So adhering the queen, Sho cancelled his plan. But he knew the next time he saw Son again, they’ll be mortal enemies.

Then the story leaps again! I know…this is the obvious lacking in the movie, where the transition of scenes is connected by mere editions of fast-forwards. Coming back to the story, few months later Yi-Ce was diagnosed with brain tumour. She gradually lost her memory, due to this. What hurts Sho the most is when she started to introduce him as Kei to everyone! Bitter and broken, Sho somehow connected Kei and told him of the situation and his wishes.

His wishes that his wife is to be turned into a vampire and have Kei unconditionally love her for the rest of his life.

As a sensible and reasonable vampire (ahahahaha…) Kei disagrees. ‘Ore wa bakemono da! (lit. I’m a monster!)’ as he said. So the last thing he wants is to turn someone into ‘something’ like him. Oh, I forgot to mention that Kei was also once a human. It was Ruka who turned him into a vampire. To turn someone to a vampire—this is according to Kei, guys, this is not the ultimate real way to be one!—a vampire needs to suck the blood of the aspiring vampire before stopping near the death of the victim.

Sho definitely showing exasperation in living—he even entrusted Hana to Kei’s possession if he’s to die. Then Kei accompanied him to their ultimate battle. Guess for what? To revenge Shinji and kill Chen, of course!

But Kei is always a victim of every possible situation. Sho took out a shot gun and began firing the rooftops apart, allowing the sunlight to come in. But he stopped firing when Kei managed to find himself a secluded corner away from the piercing light. Basically through this Sho impliedly stated—‘stay away and let me finish MY businesses.’

Then the epic battle of Son vs. Sho commenced. They both are tough cookies! Exchange of shots resounded until only one bullet was left in each revolver. Uwa! So things like Russian roulette eventually started. Holding each other at gun point, they fired. No, I mean, Son fired. Sho chooses not to do so. Why? I dunno. Maybe thinking of his Queen of Conquer sick on the bed, he refused to kill his brother-in-law. Maybe.

On the other hand, in some weird occurrences, Kei managed to escape from the recluse. Discovering his best friend lying on the pool of blood, Kei immediately shot Son and came to Sho’s rescue. As so it seems.

Again, the story leaps twenty years forward. Blame the scriptwriter, not me! Hana (in case you forgot, Hana’s Sho’s and Yi-Ce’s daughter) already grew up to one young woman. All these time it was actually Kei who took care of her! Shoot. Hana’s one lucky girl to have HYDE as her foster parent and Gackt as a father!

Oohhh!

But it turns out that Sho was actually not killed during the battle with Son previously. He was ‘saved’ by Kei who turned him into a vampire. D’oh! Twist? Anti-climax? Huhuhuhuu? For sure, it’s quite a surprise. Don’t you think so?

Sho chooses to stay out of the limelight, thinking that Hana will be perplexed seeing her father did not suffer from a single wrinkle when she’ll be a kerepot nenek. I think that’s the reason. Macamlah si Hana tu tak terkejot bile Kei langsung tak mengalami proses penuaan (bahasa baku siot!). ape2lah.

So then these 2 friend went to the beach—the same beach where Ruka chose to end his life at the crack of dawn and spent the night there. Kei even highlighted that he’s too tired and wishes to sleep. So then they slept at the shore and eternally slept there when the sunlight literally ignited these two friends into flames.

Drama kauuu!

Despite of the flaws, I love the plot development Takahisa Zeze (tuan direktur) has portrayed in the movie. And also the transition of Sho’s character. Initially, Sho’s a bright, fun man but circumstances in life turned him into a grim and taut person. I think, people do change to such point. Also, one more bonus! We can hear HYDE and Gackt muttering whatnots in Mandarin and Cantonese! FUUUUH! Berhabok wa cakap!

HYDE’s ‘Ni shi shei?’ still ringing in my head. Surprisingly, they are booth good in handling foreign languages. Maybe being singers and sang in English (as in the case of HYDE) helps A LOT.

Whatever it is, I recommend this movie. Ignore the silly details and you’ll actually have quite a feast. I know that the movie received mixed reviews (I understand perfectly well why) but it still depends on you to determine whether you’re a right-winger or the left-side. Whether you’re a Southern or Northern.

It’s a 3 and ½ for me!

some stills and eyecandies:

the revolver-exchange scenes! look how short but cute HYDE is!

The poster.

The DVD jacket.

'hade'.

'hade' again.

the screenies.