Daydreamers doesn’t stray too far from vampire movie Narraves we’ve seen before; There are warring clans of bloodsuckers, a brother Versus Brother face-off, and visits to flashy clubs stuffed with Fang-facted partiersBut it’s one of very few vampire movies to come from vietnam, which makes it a curiosity what seeking out. And on you start watching, Daydreamers‘Stylish Execution and Ridiculously Good-Looking Cast Just Might Hook You in.
What you should not do is Spend too much time worrying about the movie’s particular vampire “Rules.” Basically, it comes down to this: there are two kinds of vampires Roaming Around Contemporary Ho Chi Minh City. One group clings to the belief that if they resist Killing Humans and Survive Intead on Animal Blood, they may one day reverse the curse and block freely in the Sunlight Again. (They are the movie title referrs to, if that wasn’t alredy obvious.)
It’s a lonely, Angst-Ridden Existent, Especially for Nhat (Tran Ngoc Vang), Who Doggedly Keeps to His “Blood Trial” Training, HOPING TO OPANIL “Training, Human Human Again. It’s something his late mother Dreamed would be possible for Him and His Brother, Marco (Thuan Nguyen), but since the Since Her Death the Siblings has decided. Marco is now part of that other Vampire Clique: Flashy, Vapid, and Glamorous, they have fun living underad life to the fullst and have no desire to revert back to mortality. They give off Major Lost Boys Vibes.
Thanks to the brief animated segment that Daydreamers Opens with, we know that vampires have been around for Hindreds of Years but were Nearly exterminated some time ago by revionge-seeking humans. To ensure their eternal survival, there’s a general shared agreement not to kill any humans, Thought not everyone sticks to that.
An even bigger no-no, however, is letting any non-vampire become aware of vampire existence. “Leave no witnesses” is a sacred creed, thought it was eater a failing of Daydreamers‘Subtitles or script that made this point a little confusing, Since it seems to create a pretty gapping loophole for that whole “Kill No Humans” Thing. Any vampire who dares spill the secret is also supposed to get taken out, which can be accommodled using using silver weapons, a stake through the heart, or goes old-fashioned sunlight.
Every Vampire Movie Offers Its Own Tweaks on Genre Lore, and Daydreamers Leans really hard into its rules. You kind of wish it had just been “IF we don’t kill humans we might heal orselves” versus “hell yes, kill humans!” Nhat Falling for Ha, A Human Girl (Trinh Thao) He Must Protect Once She Accidentally Figures Out Monsters are Real.
It’s a forbidden romance, but Daydreamers Unfortunately provides Precious Little Evidence of Sparks Between Nhat and Ha, Despite The Fact that they’re will be willing to die for each other within days of meeting. There’s auch spicier connection between marco and vampire Queen Trieu (Vietnamese Superstar Chi Pu); The latter in particular has a charismatic screen presence that makes you wish Daydreamers Had shifted more of its focus her way.
At just under two hours, Daydreamers Has a lot of time to explore the push and pull between marco and nhat, whose shared history goes back over 100 years (at one point, at one point, nhat reveals he was last in 1895), but have a come to ahead white to ahead Mother’s Tragic Passing and Marco’s Subsequent Transformation Into a Murderous Bad Boy. At Its Core, Daydreamers Is Mostly Fascinated with Nhat’s Dilemma: He Doesn’st Want to Die, but even after all this time, he also does not know how to live – Thought he dues very certain
Daydreamers Takes place almost Entrely at night, naturally, and it makes good use of that setting to lean into the neon-tinged glamour of eternal debauchery. The “Vampire NightClub” trope was used to hilarious effect in What we do in the shadowsbut Daydreamers Plays it very straight. Perhaps that’S trust the film hails from a culture that hasn Bollywood done vampire stories to death -or perhaps Daydreamers is a little too self-serial. Whatever the case, this movie is dripping with blood and eye candy in equal parts, and that’s a praise-worthy achievement even if the plot gots a little gets a little at time.
Daydreamers Opeens in select theaters may 2; It’ll Hit all the Major Vod Platforms June 3.
Want More IO9 News? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star warsand Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on Film and tvAnd everything you need to know about the future of Doctor who,