Vampire (2011)

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

about solitude, death and relationship. a parody, a social analyze or only new image of serial killer. in fact, only a mirror for the importance of life, for the new forms of dialog, emo generation, internet importance and a poetic form of happiness.a Japanese air and almost unrealistic/confuse story. only an exercise to define a world. interesting, amusing, cold, realistic. a film who can be really bad for the expectation of young viewers or only metaphor for another. a story who not seduce but can be an inspired picture for many usual situations. and this is important. a Kevin Zegers who does a not bad role, exploring many of his character nuances, dialogs as smoke circles, crumbs of a kind of documentary and bizarre end. a film about a vampire. the only victim, different by usual definition/ expectations.

Well I have to admit this is one of the strangest movies I had the opportunity to see in last few years. It's obviously not a horror or supernatural flick as title might have suggested - but it's a full pledged slow burning drama that almost has the 'art movie experience' feel to it. First and foremost - this is NOT a movie for average film-goer. It's slow paced, disturbing, unnerving, a true psychological drama with after burn effect that's not even particularly fun to watch but has that kind of hypnotic quality that holds you throughout the movie.The way the movie is shot is sort of semi-documentary style and while some shots do look relatively cheap (it was probably filmed on shoe-string budget), the way the camera moves and shots are placed - there's almost a voyeurish characteristic to it, like the director Shunji Iwai is forcing us to observe what happens to these women and to our main character, and although we might be repulsed by it - we can't look away. It's also a novel way to dive into the world of suicide and strange obsessions and even though we can't feel much empathy for Simon and the way he's using suicidal girls for his own 'vampiric' urges - it all has a deep, profound sense of tragedy that it's not just black and white or right or wrong. The question of morals is left as a gray area here; we are merely observing what is happening and drawing our own conclusions. Acting is minimalistic, but it does serve the movie well - the scarce, empty locations and deeply melancholic orchestral soundtrack only enlarge the feelings of sadness, nihilism and the impossibility of belonging or fitting in.In short - this is a really special kind of movie, one that will stick with you for a long time as you dwell on the fate of it's protagonists and also leave you to fight with your own feelings of insecurities, sense of abandonment and questions whether life is worth living that sometimes creep on us in our darkest moments through life...Well-worth seeing but a duly warning: not meant for the faint of heart.

I am a hard core film lover of the umpteenth degree and will always give a film, especially a film festival/art house film, a second and third chance at proving and redeeming itself. I've never walked out on a film. Until now. Reasons: The dialog was insipid with what appeared to be little thought in creating; the story was eye-rolling (how many suicides do you happen to run into? This leading man, who seems to invite death, has them happening all around him; how fortunate); and, the act of raping and murdering a young woman unnecessarily was put in, in my opinion, just for the purpose of filming it. And that's unconscionable. If you wish to see director Iwai masturbating on screen (not literally, folks), knock yourself out with this film. For any serious moviegoer who has a love for film and respect for all those connected with the creation of it, this movie is not for you.

This is not a vampire flick. It shouldn't really be necessary to point this out, after all the summary makes it very clear. But it would seem that the reason for this film's overall cold reception is precisely that it doesn't feature supernatural, love-lorn beings to satisfy inhibited sexual desires of self-destruction. Rather, it presents an altogether uncomfortable view on real-life blood-thirst and a controversial look at suicidal obsession.If you're familiar with Iwai's work, then neither the subject matter nor the style come as much of a surprise. Iwai's staple theme is alienated youth and the thin line between friendship and destruction. In 'All about Lily Chou-Chou', he explored bullying and underage prostitution against a backdrop of how virtual and real-life personalities differ, 'Swallowtail Butterfly' dealt with the ups and downs of a group of misfits bonding and betraying each other, and 'Hana & Alice' showed a close high-school-girl friendship with elements of rivalry over a particular boy.'Vampire' follows a story which actually happened in Japan: a man convinces young women in suicide chat-rooms to die together with him, eventually tricking them so that he may consume their blood. The focus isn't so much on why he wants to do this (apart from ambivalent references to the quest for immortality), but rather why these women want to die - and this is where I see a continuity with Iwai's other work. It's not so much about the story itself, which takes somewhat unfathomable turns and ends up in a confusing mêlée, but rather the visuals, which create a mystified, surreal and at times even humorous perspective on death. The proverbial 'vampire' is actually seen as a perversion of this theme, which becomes obvious in a rather gory parody of the 'serial killer' image, complete with fangs and cape.If you wonder what a Japanese film with American actors may look like, then this one may be very well for you. To me, it's been worthwhile just for seeing that the styles of Japanese cinema - character vagueness, visual rendition, and most of all quietness - can be translated into English rather well. However, if you really expect a vampire flick, better wait until the next 'Twilight' segment.