DRACULA UNTOLD

by “The Cansinos”

SUMMARY: The movie is about a man named Vlad. When Vlad was a young boy, Turks, by the orders of their sultan, took him from his home, Transylvania, to be trained to fight for them. When he grew up, he returned home to Transylvania and claimed his throne as prince. During the Easter celebration of the Transylvanians, a Turkish soldier arrives unexpectedly and Vlad offers the usual tribute of silver coins but then the soldier declares that the sultan demands an additional tribute of 1,000 boys. Vlad refuses but his army is weak compared to the Turkish army so he approaches the Turkish sultan, Mehmed, and offers himself in place of the boys. The sultan refuses and demands Vlad’s son in addition.

Out of desperation, Vlad goes up into a high mountain cave to seek help from the vampire who cannot leave the cave. The vampire gives Vlad his blood and tells him drinking it would give him the powers of a vampire for three days but will also give him an intense thirst for human blood. The vampire tells Vlad that if resists the urge to drink human blood in those three days, he will turn back to a human but if he does drink blood, the vampire will be free from the cave and Vlad will forever be a vampire.

Vlad returns home and uses his powers to defeat the incoming Turks then he sends his people to a monastery to escape from them. During the journey through the forest, his wife learns of his curse but accepts that he will regain his mortality after defeating the Turks. Then, a mysterious man appears and proclaims himself Vlad’s servant and offers his blood but Vlad resists the urge and leaves the man alone. As the people near the monastery, they are ambushed by the Turks but Vlad and his men successfully drive the Turks away.

The next night, the Turkish army marches on the monastery and Vlad uses an enormous swarm of bats to repel them but the army turns out to be a decoy so several Turkish soldiers could infiltrate the monastery and take his son. His wife tries to defend their son but falls from the edge of the monastery wall and Vlad, even with his superhuman powers, fails to save his wife. His dying wife successfully pleads with him to drink her blood before the sun rises and he loses his powers so he could save their son. He permanently becomes a vampire and goes back to the monastery and turns a small group of survivors into vampires and together, they storm the Turkish camp with black clouds covering the skies. They vanquish the Turkish army and Vlad kills Mehmed and saves his son. The vampires confront Vlad and demands his son be killed for he is human but a monk keeps them at bay with the Christian cross. Vlad orders the monk to take his son and uses his power to clear the black clouds in the sky. The sunlight turns the vampires to dust and Vlad into a burned corpse.

Then the mysterious man from the forest who seemingly knew about Vlad’s curse takes him into the shadows and revives him. In the present day, Vlad meets a woman with a striking resemblance to his wife and they have a conversation about a line of poetry they have in common. The vampire who cursed Vlad watches him from afar and anticipates his future saying, “Let the games begin.”

Adrian’s rating: 4/5 stars

REVIEW: The movie doesn’t tell Dracula’s story but remakes it and Dracula himself. The movie changes Dracula from an evil bloodsucking monster into a good prince and a loving and caring father and husband who would do anything to protect his family and his kingdom. Aside from that, the plot was good. The actors really acted out their part really well and the special effects looked real.          

5/5 starsArvin’s rating:

REVIEW: The movie portrays a side of Dracula that isn’t seen in its other adaptations. For one, the movie focuses on Dracula’s humanity more than his monstrous side that people commonly know about him. He is a father who loves his family to the point that he risked the safety of his kingdom just so his son wouldn’t suffer as he did. In the movie, Dracula has shown fear and desperation, both very human emotions that other interpretations normally don’t portray him having. He showed fear that the Turks will attack his kingdom and fear that his family would get hurt. Yet, he also showed desperation when he confronted the vampire in the cave in order to gain the power to save his kingdom, and more importantly, his family.

                Near the end, the movie showed Dracula “dying” since he didn’t want to be a monster. This is a contrast from other adaptations and even the text since Dracula was previously portrayed to love being a vampire and not someone who wants to die. In my opinion, this more human side of Dracula was refreshing and made Dracula Untold unique compared to other interpretations of Dracula.

Maui Dimagiba                                                                                           October 12, 2014

Migo Fernandez

Emman Salcedo

9D

Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends

The Legend Ends is the third film in the Rurouni Kenshin trilogy, based on the Japanese manga series of the same name. The entire series revolves around Kenshin Himura, a wanderer whose mission is to protect the people of Japan to redeem himself from his sins as a former assassin known as Battousai the Killer. The trilogy is one of the many adaptations of the original manga, including an anime and a video game.

The third film follows Kenshin after his defeat at the hands of the Shishio, a heavily disfigured warrior who was originally a replacement for Battousai the assassin, hired by Kenshin’s employers but soon becomes a madman whose goal is to take over Japan. Kenshin is separated from his love interest Kaoru during his climactic battle against Shishio at the end of the second movie, and ends up diving into the ocean from Shishio’s battleship in order to escape his wrath. At the start of The Legend Ends, Hiko Seijuro, Kenshin’s mentor and trainer as a child, finds Kenshin washed ashore, and takes his unconscious body to Seijuro’s home. When Kenshin wakes up, he decides that he needs to train more in order to defeat Shishio, and asks Seijuro to teach him one final technique, the ultimate technique that can be used against Shishio to end his plans to conquer the country.

Visually and aesthetically, the film is absolutely breathtaking. The set for Shishio’s ship, which was the main battleground for the climax, presented a sometimes claustrophobic, sometimes cramped, but always gleefully destructible environment that was the perfect place for the film’s final battles. The visual effects were also great, making up most of the film’s heavy but stylish violence, from the blood oozing from a character’s wounds to the explosions from a firing cannon. The film was also beautifully designed; no matter where the characters were, the set they were in would always complement the scene, whether it’s an elegant background for a solemn conversation between characters or a small and destructible space for a violent clash. Even the costumes added to the film’s authenticity, from Saito’s neat dark grey uniform as a Meiji Government official to Kenshin’s graceful red and white shining “armor”.

The story itself doesn’t fall flat in any way and actually makes for a decent set-up for the film, but it does take the film down a familiar path of retribution and justice without taking any groundbreaking or at least different steps along the way. Even the characters cannot make up for it; not much is given about the characters, and though the film gives a substantial amount of flashbacks to the first and second movie to be able to let viewers who have not seen the first two installments of the trilogy comprehend the story, the members of the audience who have not heard of Rurouni Kenshin might have trouble caring for the characters.

That being said, even with a story that’s all too familiar and a lack of character development, the best thing about the film, the thing that perfectly makes up for its flaws, is the fight choreography. Though the film is filled with stylized visual effects, it still leaves enough space for the audience to appreciate a battle between characters. Each battle is thrilling and violently raw, from Aoshi and Kenshin’s battle in the forest to the climactic clash of Kenshin and Shishio. The choreography is the main centerpiece of the film for casual viewers, and it definitely adds to the movie experience for Rurouni Kenshin fans. Though this type of fast-paced and intricate fight sequences are common in other foreign films such as The Raid, albeit in a modern setting, it cannot beat the authenticity of having a samurai action sequence in a realistic 1870’s Japanese setting.

Maui’s score: 9/10

Migo’s score: 8/10

Emman’s score: 9.5/10

Consensus: The final installment of this fast-paced, manga-inspired trilogy is spectacular, not only for its violent, raw, and sometimes unsettling sequences of clashing swords, but also for its ability to be breathtakingly beautiful at the same time.

Good morning, everyone.


On Wednesday (October 15, 2014), we will be meeting at the library discussion room for our org session (3 to 4 p.m.). See you there and please spread the word to the other org members,


Mr. Hidalgo

Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno by Migo Fernandez

First things first, it’s a Japanese movie based on an anime, so don’t expect to understand what is going on if you haven’t seen the series. With that out of the way, let us continue with the review.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. The main character, who was previously a killer, decides to be a hero this time around because he has seen what he has done wrong. However, he still fights those who pose a threat to his friends, using a back-bladed katana to paralyze enemies instead of killing them.

I also enjoyed the movie despite its being in Japanese; the action scenes were pretty well done because of the great effects. The humor in some scenes was actually funny (like when Kenshin’s friend decided to help him fight, but with a huge blunt sword, while swearing in Japanese).  Another thing is that I think the make-up was really well done because from what I’d seen, the actors really transform into their characters.