Arigato, Japan
A few weeks ago, Mike and I paid a friendly visit to the leader of his improv troupe (Smike) and his wife, Melinda. They enjoy video games, asian things (seriously...a lot), and snakes. Though I didn't hold their snakes this time, they did introduce me to the wonderful world of Samurai Champloo and Read or Die. They also threw a handful of asian films at me when I left their house.
Last week Mike and I watched Versus. This is a movie about reincarnation, samurais, zombies, and guns. Though the plot was a bit thin, I did enjoy the outfits and the artful blood splatter. I actually did like the film more than I thought I would. It was funny and the main guys were engaging. I don't really want to ruin anything, so I'll leave it at that.
Tonight I watched Moonchild. This is a film starring two Japanese rock legends, Hyde and Gackt. Hyde plays an extremely emo vampire (Kei), and Gackt plays the kid who finds him and befriends him (Sho). The movie actually isn't about Kei, he just pops in and out for poignant scenes and help with bad-guys.
It's really about Sho's hard life on the streets of a future Japan (which is taken over by Taiwanese for some reason). Now THIS was an interesting film. Not for the plot, which was again, so/so, but for Gackt/Sho. For the first half of the film he wears a pound of makeup, and for the second half he looks so much like a Final Fantasy character that I was beginning to wonder if I was watching a video game. He's very attractive in a..pretty...sort of way, and he's at least somewhat bisexual in real life as well. He'd admitted to being attracted to Hyde behind the scenes on the set, and that really shows in the chemistry between Sho and Kei. It has some homoerotic elements, to say the least.
Overall, even with a semi-contrived plot, the character development and pacing was excellent. Plus I like when guys can be openly attracted to other guys. Yay for Moonchild! And it made me feel a bit vindicated ( about my FF/video game reference of Gackt) to see that he actually WAS the insipiration of Cloud and Tidus. Here's the trailer for the film. I was gonna just paste in a picture, but it's better to see the action.
PS: I'm making 9 different types of cookies for Christmas this year, wish me luck!
Last week Mike and I watched Versus. This is a movie about reincarnation, samurais, zombies, and guns. Though the plot was a bit thin, I did enjoy the outfits and the artful blood splatter. I actually did like the film more than I thought I would. It was funny and the main guys were engaging. I don't really want to ruin anything, so I'll leave it at that.
Tonight I watched Moonchild. This is a film starring two Japanese rock legends, Hyde and Gackt. Hyde plays an extremely emo vampire (Kei), and Gackt plays the kid who finds him and befriends him (Sho). The movie actually isn't about Kei, he just pops in and out for poignant scenes and help with bad-guys.
It's really about Sho's hard life on the streets of a future Japan (which is taken over by Taiwanese for some reason). Now THIS was an interesting film. Not for the plot, which was again, so/so, but for Gackt/Sho. For the first half of the film he wears a pound of makeup, and for the second half he looks so much like a Final Fantasy character that I was beginning to wonder if I was watching a video game. He's very attractive in a..pretty...sort of way, and he's at least somewhat bisexual in real life as well. He'd admitted to being attracted to Hyde behind the scenes on the set, and that really shows in the chemistry between Sho and Kei. It has some homoerotic elements, to say the least.
Overall, even with a semi-contrived plot, the character development and pacing was excellent. Plus I like when guys can be openly attracted to other guys. Yay for Moonchild! And it made me feel a bit vindicated ( about my FF/video game reference of Gackt) to see that he actually WAS the insipiration of Cloud and Tidus. Here's the trailer for the film. I was gonna just paste in a picture, but it's better to see the action.
PS: I'm making 9 different types of cookies for Christmas this year, wish me luck!
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