 |
| Image taken from molleytanzer.com |
The movie of the week was Vampire Hunter D (1985). I would say it is like most action monster movies because there is a hero and a bunch of baddies he needs to demolish before rescuing the girl in trouble. It may not always be a female that needs rescuing but the stereotype of such movies usually portrays that. In other cases it could be an entire town, friend, or even family. The villains also range for human masterminds to demons of some sort… in some cases aliens. But I digress.
 |
| Image taken from banonsroar.com |
The focus here is the movie Vampire Hunter D and the aspects of it that I found to be interesting. First off, the main hero is not ordinary. In fact, he’s a half breed because his father was a vampire and his mother human. I find it rather strange most anime or games I like tend to have a half breed main character. To name a few: InuYasha from InuYasha (half-demon), Dante from Devil May Cry (half-devil), and Yusuke from YuYuHakusho (half-demon). They all had human mothers, while their fathers were of the supernatural. Perhaps the Japanese loved adding these hybrids to their anime collections.
As far as vampires go, it depends really. I like the stories about noble ones and not so much the rampaging killers. It’s a better story when they have some kind of elaborate plan even if the main idea is one that resulted from boredom of living for thousands of years. The count in Vampire Hunter D wasn’t exactly randomly mass-murdering people, instead he selected one beautiful girl to I guess “have fun with” and dispose of her when he grows bored of her. This displays the perverted aspect of vampires. In some novels I’ve read about vampires, they considered themselves to be of noble blood and held manners, while any humans they transformed would just become mass-murders with no sense of self-control. In very few cases, vampires with a “heart” tried finding alternatives to human blood… like animal blood or using blood tablets in water. Sadly, it was rare to find any vampires that transformed into bats.
 |
| Image taken from awn.com |
 |
| Image taken from nautiljon.com |
As for the story in the movie, I thought it was entertaining. D was a classic hero and his hand was just hilarious. Doris was the stereotypical damsel in distress, along with dressing in innocent colored clothing (though the style of clothing had an ultra mini skirt apparently). Count Lee was just all around odd. He had a block face, was all wrinkled, and just old in general… most vampires usually have a seductive appearance. He was quite the opposite, but not completely hideous I suppose. His face didn’t look decomposed or anything. His plan for entertainment was beyond weird. Marrying human females out of boredom… I’m pretty sure that is something I’ll always laugh about when thinking about the count. His daughter fits the usual description of what I see noble vampires to look like; though she was a half-breed like D so overall she wasn’t even a full vampire. She was a better person than her father though. Overall, it was an action filled movie, a little comedy. It was based around a horror theme due to all the monsters depicted in the movie. The plot itself was rather simplistic. I enjoyed it nonetheless despite the very few gory moments. I’m considering looking into the novels and manga whenever I have free time again.
The half breed or demi-god characters are the way they are because of reliability. To a youthful child still naive to the constant constrains of reality the half breeds give them the hope that someday they might be meet with extraordinary talents and sudden enemies, as well as a damsel in distress crush whose precocious nature constantly leads her into your enemies path. Its a life so eventful, from sitting in some boring class to having a nemesis. I know I myself had a few of these day dreams.
ReplyDeleteI liked it how Count D was portrayed, his age, his depraved perversion, and his all around dark portrayal of an antagonist. There were times when his image would rattle me a bit. All in all this was a interesting and rather enjoyable film with enough action to keep you awake and just enough latent content to make you think a bit. I also enjoyed your post it was well put together and it made me laugh and as long as I am laughing I am happy. Good post!