Versailles' Short Movie
The three limited edition versions of Versailles' new major debut single 'Ascendead Master' each came with one part of a little movie the band made to go with the theme of the song. Of course, it involves vampires, eternal life, roses, and the "descendants of the rose" story that they've created as their fictional historical background. Happily, and somewhat against my expectations, the movie isn't too bad! It's good quality and well shot, with actors who do a fairly decent job of their performances, and though all the members appear, they don't make any overly forced attempts to act much in the film themselves (since let's face it, acting is generally not a strong point for rockers >_<). Only Kamijo has actual lines (in English) that he says himself, though Jasmine You has a creepy English voiceover to speak for him (by the way, I found the role he was cast in ironically funny XP). Kamijo's English is...interesting, and rather heavily accented, but I suppose it works with his role as a vampire. ^_^;
So, overall I'm glad to see Versailles were smart with their choices in directing this little movie, though they had a hell of a team of people working on this, as you can see from the credits. The short plot has some holes and isn't the most believable story ever, since the length is limited and was obviously created to fit around the concepts of the single, but is surprisingly well-thought out for what it is, and you have to give them credit for putting in this much effort and trying to make it somewhat deep. Though the movie neared the borders of ridiculousness in the third section with all the drama at the press conference [the part from 3:00 is epic lulz], I didn't find it horribly silly or trite overall, so props to Versailles for keeping it relatively sensible. I think of the many mini-movies made by visual-kei bands over the years (e.g. Malice Mizer, An Cafe, alice nine.), this is perhaps the best. Here are parts one, two and three.
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Comments
The voice acting reminded me of anime English dubs: it was either the lines were simply read without being comprehended which makes them sound flat or they were completely overdone which makes them sound fake.
Jasmine Jyou's voice over was entirely creepy and Kamijo's accented English...well, it started off good sounding like a foreign vampire 'from eons past' and then just went downhill from there...I had a hard time understanding what either of them were saying. XD
Considering the whole PV and Versailles overall, I actually did expect part III, 3:00 to be epic and completely overdone but not so much as the words "world domination" would come to mind! The whole scene where they have the press chanting, "We are Versailles!" to Kamijo and co. perched on the balcony really makes me think they are after just that. XD
The voice work was certainly lame and cheesy, but not as intolerable as some English dubbed anime I've come across...they can be really horrific sometimes. It did sound like the actors were just reading off something and not putting much active expression into it, though.
Oh, and a lot of people have complained about how unintelligible Kamijo's English was. XD I also barely managed to get it despite having heard a lot of bad engrish before, and I even had to look at the Japanese subtitles a few times to understand what he meant.
Still, these things make the movie amusing and even more entertaining in a way...it's part of the charm of these v-kei band-produced mini-movies. I mean, it would be shocking and almost strange if they were too perfect and made an amazing feature film quality piece, you know?
"I mean, it would be shocking and almost strange if they were too perfect and made an amazing feature film quality piece, you know?" <-- Besides looking prettier than most girls and being musically-talented, it would be another thing that J-rockers could add to their list of things they excel at, lol. XD No, but seriously, I understand what you mean. It's the first short film by a band I've seen and I think they did a good job with it considering the band has a very distinct theme that allows for this sort of thing. [I can't imagine what an alice nine. or an cafe short movie would be about...DX]