Moon Child 2003

In 2014, when Japan’s economy collapses and many people head toward mainland China, the story introduces two vampires, Kei and Luka. Luka’s fate is sealed by sunrise, a grim reminder of the immortality they chase and the price they pay for it. The tale then follows three orphans who survive in a fictional Chinese city called Mallepa, a true melting pot of Asian communities. They are named Shō, Shinji, and Toshi. The moment of their meeting is humble and raw: a theft gone wrong ushers in Kei, a vampire who looks like a young man, and he drags them back to their hidden den. When a man they robbed corners them and is attacked, Kei reveals his true nature by killing the assailant and feeding, but Shō approaches him with a calm, almost fearless curiosity.

Years slip by in a world where survival hinges on stealth. Shō, now in his twenties, leads a small gang that includes Kei and Toshi. During a robbery against another gang, they cross paths with a Taiwanese figure named Son, who pursues the gang because their leader raped his sister Yi-Che. The crew becomes a loose, dangerous family, and Shō’s awkward, charged infatuation with Yi-Che slowly threads through the group, while it seems she bears an unspoken attraction to Kei. The bond is brutally tested when Toshi is murdered by the local mafia after helping them—drugged pizza is used to sedate targets, and the act marks a brutal escalation of the city’s criminal power.

Nine years pass, and the rhythms of life have changed. Kei has stepped away from the gang, while Shō runs his district and remains married to Yi-Che. Son has joined Mr. Chan, the rival mafia’s formidable leader, and has become Sho’s enemy in the ongoing power struggle. Kei—now revealed to be imprisoned for murder—pleads for death and questions whether survival is worth the cost. During a tense prison visit, Sho reveals that Yi-Che once proposed to him but chose Kei, and their daughter, Hana, has grown up in the shadow of Kei’s world. The revelation leaves Kei with a complicated mix of relief and regret, and he admits fear—that Sho, once reckless and unbound, may not survive the life they’ve chosen.

Around this tense personal history, Yi-Che’s health deteriorates: she is diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor. With her illness looming, Sho’s men are killed on the streets in broad daylight when Sho himself is away, and Sho’s brother Shinji is killed when he fires a gun at Mr. Chan while in a drugged haze. The crisis pushes Sho to call Kei back, and Kei, who has been slated for execution, engineers his own rescue to return and stand by his friend. Sho pleads with Kei to turn Yi-Che into a vampire so she can live on for Hana; Kei flatly refuses the offer, but agrees to face Mr. Chan alongside Sho and vows that, if anything happens to Sho, he will take care of Hana.

The confrontation with Mr. Chan escalates into a brutal, almost ritual, shootout. Mr. Chan is shot by his own lieutenants as Sho confronts Son on the street. The duel collapses to a stark moment of fate: a count followed by a lethal shot, but Sho’s gun misfires and he is struck in the chest by Son. Kei arrives, furious at seeing his friend in peril, and he shoots Son in a blaze of righteous anger. He then reaches Sho, who dies in Kei’s arms, a poignant end to a friendship welded by violence, loyalty, and shared survival.

Time leaps to 2045, and Hana is grown, headed to college. She says goodbye to Kei, who has raised her in Sho’s absence and who, by now, the viewers likely understand, is a vampire. Before she leaves, she senses someone watching her and hints at a world beyond ordinary sight. Then Sho returns as a vampire, thanking Kei for taking care of Hana and for preserving a sense of humanity in the life they share. The two men drive to the beach and wait for the sunrise together, a ritual they once thought impossible. The film closes with the entire crew gathered at the shore in daylight, suggesting they have found a form of peace—whether in an afterlife, reincarnation, or some shared transcendence—where they are briefly and wonderfully reunited under the sun.