To me, this movie is perfection.

Takes itself way too seriously

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

It may be possible that the cultural difference makes me rate it lower than I would, say, an American film, but really, what a long, boring, pretentious, often ridiculous film!First you have the two protagonists, Japanese pop singers, both dyed blond, Gackt (please attempt to ignore the name sounds like something a Klingon would eat) wearing blue contact lenses, trying to look cooler than God. I could buy that. Then there is the story setting: somewhere in a fictional Chinese city where a blend of poor Japanese immigrants and Taiwanese and Chinese people live and fight each other. I could buy that, too.Now it gets ridiculous: all of this is set in the future (2025-2045) and one of the rising gangsters is a vampire. Does that mean we see cool gadgets, special effects, even vampire teeth? No. The whole story could have been set in the 1980's for all the tech and cars. Then there are the gun fights: long coated heroes stand in the middle of rooms and shoot from akimbo guns without moving (or even aiming). Occasionally, they remain out of ammo and reload their guns by throwing ammo clips to one another.The thing is that if you ignore the vampire angle (which is very very easy, since not much of the lore is used in the film) and the future angle (which is also very easy: just remove the two captions showing the year), then the movie becomes a coming of age, clan gang story. The Godfather this is not, of course, but for that genre and allowing for Asian weirdness and removing about 30 minutes from it, the movie could have fought for an average rating, but as such it is a pretentious borefest.Update: after reading the reviews of other people I can say with almost certainty that its rating was artificially raised by fakers.

In 2014, Japan's economy is in ruins. In the slums, orphan boys meet up with an injured man, who then saves them from a victim of their robberies. Learning he is a vampire who says he has no reason to live, they accept him as one of their own and spend years together climbing the Japanese gang ladder. Adventure and thrills are the only things these men live on. However, when one of them falls in love with a girl whose brother also has gang ties, tensions rise between now brother-in-laws and only . So when all the former orphan boys start dying from rivals, the question is how to band together and whether living life immortal is worth living at all.

Oh I absolutely LOVED this movie! When I first rented it, I didn't know that Gackt and Hyde would be the starring roles, and after watching it, I was happily surprised at how great their acting was. Besides the characters, the story is very good, with parts romance, and parts comedy and action/violence. It was an all around great movie, especially for those who like Gackt and Hyde, and/or Japanese culture. For me, I am in love with Gackt. He is usually quite shy and quiet, but in this movie you get to see a different side of him. The beginning of the movie can be a bit confusing if you don't already know the slightest general plot. The only thing about this movie that made me sad, is that it left me wanting more! It was so good that I just did't want it to end! I recommend everyone interested in any Japanese to watch this movie, and everyone else as well!

I picked this up in the 'Danger After Dark' box set, and watched it solely because of my interest in the performance of Hyde and Gackt. I expected a corny horror film that was a huge gore-fest and with very bad dialogue. Which is exactly what it would have been if it had been made in America. Instead I found myself intrigued by the good development of the characters, and the way that Sho (Gackt) develops through the movie as a person. The acting skills of both stars was surprisingly good, considering they aren't professional actors, and the director did a marvelous job with it all, setting it in the future minus the flying cars and holographic billboards.On a side note, Taro Yamamoto's performance was very surprising. The only other film I've seen him in is Battle Royale, where he plays Shogo Kawada, and in this film he seems to be the exact opposite of Shogo. Toshi is bright, exuberant and hyper, serving as a sort of comic relief with his antics. Shogo was the big tough guy on the island who killed without thinking anything of it. So, watch out for his performance, if you're familiar with Battle Royale, you'll be very surprised by him.But don't be thrown off by the summary on the back of the box, because this isn't really a vampire movie. It's just a movie with a vampire in it. That Hyde's character is a vampire is almost a background fact with what's really going on in the foreground, and you guys will love the last scene. It's a really moving picture at some points, the photography is really well done. It's definitely something to pick up the next time you're at Blockbuster.