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Toyoo Ashida's 'Vampire Hunter D' is one of many movies featuring vampires. The movie is based on Hideyuki Kikuchi's novel series by the same name. What makes this vampire movie stand out from the rest is its western elements. And by western I do not mean the entire western hemisphere - I'm talking about the western film genre.
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D is a classic western hero. He is a man who speaks few words, whose past history is secretive, and who does everything he can to save the damsel in distress. In this case, the damsel is Doris. D is interesting in that he has a talking hand and is very skilled in combat.
Other western film elements present in 'Vampire Hunter D' are dramatic and emotional pauses. Just as traditional westerns have shots of characters glaring at one another with dramatic music played, 'Vampire Hunter D' features the same. There is an early scene where Doris is standing still and just glaring towards the horizon. The wind blows in her direction, and the scene shifts between her glares, the horizon, and the wind.
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The vampire lord, Count Magnus Lee, is slightly interesting as the 10,000 year old antagonist. Living for such a long time, Lee has grown bored. To entertain himself he sometimes marries humans, and this time around he is to wed Doris. Lee's story involves some slightly Shakespearean elements regarding Lee and his daughter, Lamica. The nobel Lee family is very important to Lamica, and she believes in keeping the purity of the Lee bloodline. She is highly against her father marrying a human, but the Count doesn't care.
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To be honest, the 'Twilight' series interests me more than 'Vampire Hunter D'. I don't know why I even enjoy the 'Twilight' films, because they're not that good. But something about the films hold my interest and make me enjoy watching.
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In honor of vampires, I'm embedding a trailer for a vampire spoof movie, called 'Vampire Sucks'. I haven't actually seen it yet, but the trailer amuses me.
I will agree that the story was rather lacking, the idea seemed interesting but the movie didn’t exploit it enough to create a decent plot. Due to that, I was convinced that if I wished to know more about D’s back story, then I would have to either read the novels or the manga to get the whole idea. I’ve heard positive comments about Vampire Hunter D from other anime enthusiasts, though they were probably referring to the books, not so much the movies. There is an anime series currently being made, which I think would clarify SO MUCH MORE than this movie has. I will admit there were things I liked about it, but again the movie was lacking. Though I’m probably one of the few people that will look into other Vampire Hunter D media to get the gist as to why it is a classic. Overall I’m a sucker for fantasy. Lol. I usually find it interesting to read your reviews though. It reveals to me things I usually don’t catch the first time around.
ReplyDeleteKent, I agree with everything you said about the movie. It was a very poor moive and one that I would never imagine to see again. The western aspect of it was okay, but that only kept my attention for so long. In a bigger sense, vampires are just boring to me. Vampire Hunter D just reminded me how much I dislike vampires. Even if I did like vampire movie, I still would recommend this movie to anyone else. I really just think the screen writers could made this movie more attractive from beginning to end. I also agree that the talking hand was cool. At first it was just plain freaky but as the movie went on, it became funny. Nevertheless, I enjoyed watching the first few scene because it was something different, but as you said this movie was very poor. However, the western features were okay enough.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you just about everything you said of this movie, not film. Because the plot was so very simple hunter saves damsel in distress, and evil loses in the end. Also I kind of wondered, but i felt like the movie was very silent in a way. The characters were not saying anything very interestin, but the talking hand was I think my favorite character in the movie. He is kinda funny, but unfortunetly doesnt talk much during the movie even though thanks to him D is saved from dying.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing is that the hunter instead of using his full powers since the beginning to kill the count, he keeps them hidden and gets hurt in the process. And this is not the only time people do this in anime, it happends constantly. The hero gets hurt from the villain and suffers unnecessary damage. Finally the graphics were maybe not the best but they really focused on the organs. You cold see this when the count kills the mutant and D cuts in two the bug creature.