Synopsis
They're dying to keep him alive.
An outwardly normal schoolteacher preys on suicidal women to slake his overwhelming thirst for human blood.
2011 Directed by Shunji Iwai
An outwardly normal schoolteacher preys on suicidal women to slake his overwhelming thirst for human blood.
Kevin Zegers Keisha Castle-Hughes Yu Aoi Adelaide Clemens Trevor Morgan Amanda Plummer Kristin Kreuk Rachael Leigh Cook Jodi Balfour Ian Brown R. Nelson Brown Kyle Cameron Samuel Patrick Chu Dustin Eriksen Herod Gilani Teach Grant Katharine Isabelle Chad Krowchuk Paul Piaskowski Mandy Playdon Ryan Robbins Klodyne Rodney Gerry Rousseau Gale Van Cott
Vámpír, ヴァンパイア, Vanpaia, Вампир, 뱀파이어, 吸血鬼, 吸血達人
(CN: Brief discussion of suicide)
Is there such a thing as ethical consumption of human blood for the purposes of personal sustenance?
Vampire confronts a non-supernatural species of vampirism through the experiences of an empathetic, mild-mannered, and seemingly well-adjusted man (Simon). Here, the procurement of blood–even when obtained compassionately–is presented as an ethical dilemma.
Given how the vaaaaast majority of vampire films feature a creature condemned to an existence displaced from humanness and dwell on exploits rooted in fear and gruesome violence, I personally found this unglamorous and restrained approach that subverts much of what we typically associate with traditional vampire lore to be refreshing.
Our protagonist, in a way, is positioned as a Dr. Kevorkian type who provides hope…
hard to pinpoint how it happens that someone can make multiple masterpieces then something like this then back to the masterpiece day job like nothing happened. The Smiths were amazing because of their insistence on putting one dogshit song on each album, and it’s because of this song that everything works
"Now I really want to kill myself."
This is not a happy movie. Nor is it a standard vampire movie. There is nothing supernatural going on, just a young man who wants to drink human blood, for reasons unknown. He befriends suicidal people online and convinces them they should kill themselves together, except he always offers to go second.
Was not ready for this, it was a random selection chosen because of the cool looking vampire poster (the one on IMDB, not this one here). Instead, I got this unusual story. It's sort of like Vampire's Kiss, only darker and far less funny. This movie bummed me out, the subject matter is bleak, but it's also slow and quiet, which…
this depiction of a kind of unremarkable whiteness, through the lense that provides a scope which such lives are never deserving of in most forms of cinema, is what allows for the deceivingly aesthetic mediocrity of the film to tap into what many revisionist vampire films fail to elucidate. in my view that is the impact of how the ennui of modern life is already draining the vitality for life out of everyone who are forced to live such secluded lifestyles. perhaps inadvertently creating bonds that are created through an agreement and awareness of the banality of not only life, but the act of dying as well. iwai rewards the suicidal with the view they have of their own lives—horizontal…
Valentines day and I'm watching a vampire befriend girls he's found on the internet that want to commit suicide. I initially say he grooms them, but I actually think he is invested in getting to know them.
It plays a little slow, it is his pace, not the crazed loon he meets, not the mass suiciders. The girls are all lovely. The blood talk did make me go a bit wobbly. Have you ever given blood? I'm in need of a sweet juice and a sit down.
As for the balloon harness, I wonder if that would stop my Juno jumping up on people.
Shunji Iwai has always been an interesting filmmaker, and was once one of Japan's hottest chroniclers of the nation's adolescent generation. It's fair to say that he peaked around the millennium, however, and while he has continued to work, his output nowadays seems more introverted and experimental, less connected to the wider audiences. Cue Vampire.
Ostensibly his first English-language film (but not really, Swallowtail Butterfly is largely in English, albeit heavily accented), Vampire was shot in Vancouver way back in 2010, but has only just recently become available outside the festival circuit. Suffice to say, it's been a long wait, and it's a rare film that can stand up to three years worth of expectations.
And, of course, Vampire can't.…
been a while since i saw anything this tender, and i think something that makes films like this or the ones by nick ray or ida lupino or douglas sirk tender is that they don't /need/ to be. some would say that there are certain levels of empathy that are too much, and i mean yeah sure if taken to logical extremes i agree, but these directors are all masters of taking these downtrodden, oftentimes reprehensible if not horrible people and looking at them with looks not of stern but of pity, and that's how this movie treats its titular vampire. i'm surprised this isn't more well-liked - perhaps iwai's mumblecore-isms are a turnoff for some? - but this is pretty much essential stuff as far as i'm concerned.
Shunji Iwai update of Romero's Martin (reimagined here a creepy dude who preys on depressive women on online chats so he can assist suicide them on let him dry their blood) is overlong, episodic, very solemn affair. Shot in a generic US without much sense of place and filled with unespecific characters. It is a film much more interested in individual moments than narrative momentum and a few of them click with Iwai usual imagination, longing and empathy, but the world is just far too flat to sustain them. There's some suggestion that Iwai's filmmaking and his lead vampirism are connected, but it remains underveloped.
i'm really not one for misery cinema. as soon you strip away that layer of fiction and confront me with some shit thats a lil too real you loose me. it's like a violation to me when my medium of choice assaults me in that way and makes me loathe life.
i'd rather you give me some leftovers, some LOST (funny how the first examples that come to mind are two tv shows when i'm talking bout film but hey, all hail lindelof right?) and i'll weep about the human condition but still feel good about myself and still smell the roses and that's how i like it!
now that that's out of the way, this ones actually just just…