Moon Child (

Starring:
Hideto Takarai ... Kei (as Hyde)
Gackt Camui ... Sho (as Gackt)
Lee-Hom Wang ... Son
Taro Yamamoto ... Toshi
Susumu Terajima ... Shinji
Zeny Kwok ... Yi-Che
Seiji Chihara
Koji Chihara ... Wani
Yosh
Kanata Hongo ... Young Sho
Ryo Ishibashi
You Kurosaki ... Jun
Anne Suzuki ... Hana
James H. Thomas ... Rick
Etsushi Toyokawa ... Luka

"Moon Child" is a sci-fi action drama starring HYDE (of the band L'Arc en Ciel) and Gackt, two of Japan's top rock musicians with a strong fan base throughout Asia. Filmed on location in Taiwan, it features an up and coming cast in a truly unique, pan-Asian glimpse of the future. In a chaotic, strife-filled city where everything is up for grabs, fate brings four orphans into the life of KEI, a man with eternal life, a vampire.

The story follows the five tough yet vulnerable characters as they struggle to find love and friendship in a world of conflict and horror. Caught in the web of violent times, they end up at war with one another in a bitter sweet mix of love hate and gunfire.

It is the year 2014. The Asian Special Economic Zone, "Mallepa" is bustling with people of different races and nationalities. It's a boomtown at the frontier of the modern economic system where dreams can come true overnight...for some.

SHO, who has just turned eight, is one of a gang of kids known as the "Mallepa Orphans" who eke out their lives on the streets. Together with his brother SHINJI and their buddy TOSHI, they survive by petty thieving and picking pockets. One day Sho gets acquainted with KEI, a young man with the cursed fate of a vampire. Trying to help the wounded Kei, Sho takes him to their hideout.

A vicious thug storms the hideout to retrieve his briefcase which the gang had stolen earlier. They try to flee, but Sho and Shinji are cornered. Sho sees his brother gunned down. But nothing matches the horror of watching Kei arise and tear the thug to pieces then drink his blood. From that moment on, this terrible secret is a bond between them.

...Ten years later, Sho and Toshi have matured into hoodlums who plan to hit the local Taiwanese mafia and make their fortunes. Kei, not having aged a day, tags along with this group of friends.

As they launch their attack on the mafia HQ, they encounter SON, a local guy there with exactly the same plan in mind. They team up and become stronger than ever.

Later, at Son's house, they meet his sister YI-CHE who was once raped by the mafia thugs and left for dead. Struck dumb by the trauma, her only mode of expression is in the painting of a giant mural in the park where the gang hang out. Sho falls for her silent beauty, but it seems she is smitten by the mysterious presence of Kei.

Against the hidden longings of this latent love triangle, the following period is one of true happiness for the gang. For the first time in their bleak, young lives they know what it is to cherish each day. However the peace is fated to be short-lived. At the opening exhibition for Yi-Che's mural, hit men from the top-level of the mafia gang barge in, guns blazing.......



I'm going to start off right to the point. This movie is a total must-see. I've got tears streaming down my face. It was a beautiful story. Who would have thought a story about a vampire would be so beautiful. It was an emotional story that Hyde couldn't have played better. And surprisingly enough, Gackt rocked!! Kei (Hyde) starts off by becoming a sort of father figure to Sho (Gackt). As Sho grew, it was more of brother love. It was a bloody, enduring, hopeful story of friendship beyond imagination during a time of gang wars and racial discrimination.

This movie has got to be a sleeper hit. I really don't know but I'd never heard of it before but yet I've read other reviews to this movie and it was given above average marks. I have to say that I agree whole heartedly and then some!

I'll admit it was a bit fast in the time changes but yet it fit so well. We see the growth in Sho as he matures into an adult while we watch Kei struggle with life as he never ages and knows that eventually they'll all leave him behind.

The end was shocking and left me with a "huh?" then a "WTF?" to an "OMG!" then progressed to an all out sob fest. Man, the Japanese sure do know how to make me cry! Damn them! LOL! Kidding folks!

I'm immediately going to download this movie as soon as I can!! So should you!!

Hyde

What a pretty backside....*wink, wink*


Gackt

Ummm? Oooooh-laaaaaaa-laaaaaaa!

Are those really his blue eyes.....or contacts?

OMG! If I post any more naked pics of Gackt...I'm sooooo in trouble. The man is not afraid to pose nude (with a certain appendage covered discretely). Any more pics like this.....might have to rename my site Mada Mada Hentai....LOL!

Last Quarter (Kagen no tsuki -2004)

Starring:
Chiaki Kuriyama ... Mizuki Mochizuki
Hiroki Narimiya ... Tomoki Anzai
Tomoka Kurokawa ... Hotaru Shiraishi
Motoki Ochiai ... Masaki Miura
Simon Britton ... Evil Eye Bassist
Ayumi Ito ... Sayaka Kamijo
Takanori Jinnai
Reika Kirishima
Maki Meguro
Anna Nakagawa ... Sayaka's mother
Ken Ogata ... Doujima
Nao Omori
Hideto Takarai ... Adam (as Hyde)
Yasuko Tomita
Tsuyoshi Ujiki

Last QuarterOn the night of her 19th birthday, Mizuki (Chiaki Kuriyama) is celebrating in style at a club with her boyfriend Tomoki (Hiroki Narimiya). Their blissful scene is ruined by a friend who reveals that she has been sleeping with the habitually promiscuous Tomoki, which shocks Mizuki profoundly. After the suicide of her mother and her difficulty adjusting to her father's remarriage, he was the only person in the world that she felt she could rely on. Utterly dejected, she flees into the night and stumbles upon a dilapidated estate bathed in the ethereal glow of the moon in its last quarter. Drifting on the still air is a strangely familiar melody being played on a guitar, emanating from somewhere inside the mansion. She follows the music inside to a darkened room and a mysterious young man named Adam (HYDE). He claims to have written the song especially for her even though she has never met him before. Feeling an inexplicably strong bond to this charismatic stranger, Mizuki returns home and collects her belongings in order to begin a new life with him but is involved in an accident. Suddenly she finds herself back at the gates of the mansion, unable to leave its precincts, and with no memory of what has happened or who she is.

Hotaru (Tomoka Kurokawa), an inquisitive young girl recently discharged from hospital, is searching for her runaway cat, followed by her reticent school friend Miura (Tomoki Ochiai). They enter the overgrown grounds of a deserted manor and hear piano music coming from within, enticing Hotaru to venture inside where she discovers a solitary young woman suffering from amnesia who claims to be awaiting the return of someone called Adam. When Miura enters the room, they are astounded to find that this girl can only be seen by Hotaru and is prevented by some strange force from leaving the mansion. Together they try to discover her identity and unravel the mystery surrounding her, and gradually come to the realization that it is all somehow connected to the tragic past of a family who once lived in the mansion, a rare phase of the moon that occurs only once every 19 years, and an enigmatic musician by the name of Adam...



This was the most bizarre love story ever! BUT....totally different in every way. I wasn't sure this story was even going to work. First, we all know how I feel about infidelity. Tomoki cheated on Mitzuki with her best friend, Aya. Second, it was creepy-ish. I'm not big on horrors. Thankfully this wasn't a horror movie, at all. Third, two of the characters were "goth" like. Nothing against Gothic genre, but that's not my "cup'a tea".

Instead, this movie became a eerie mystery. A girl suspended in the "middle" world. Not dead or alive. One girl, who just happened to have an accident the same night as the girl who is suspended-like, can see her.

Feeling guilty, and just realizing he had made the most biggest mistake of his life, Tomoki eventually realizes that Mitsuki's spirit has been taken over by another and helps the goth-like teens figure out how and why this has happened. I loved the story.

This was the first movie that I've witnessed Hyde's acting capabilities. I have to say he fit Adam to a "T". His ethereal freakiness was perfect as the haunting ghost of the mansion. And might I add that I will be youtubing him after I finish this review because I love jrock and haven't quite really heard him sing with the exception of the theme song to this movie and it was quite good.

Hyde


Narimiya Hiroki