Martin (John Amplas), a young man who looks around 20-years-old, boards a train in Indianapolis, Indiana for New York. At night, he breaks into a sleeping car and sedates a woman with a syringe full of narcotics. She struggles, but he tells her not to struggle or be upset because she wont feel pain. After a few minutes, the woman falls asleep, and Martin has sex with the unconscious woman. Afterwards, he slices her wrists with a razor blade so he can drink her blood. The woman bleeds to death in her sleep.
In the morning, the train stops in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where Martin disembarks. He is met by Tata Cuda (Lincoln Maazel) an elderly and hostile old man who claims to be his cousin from the Old World. Together, they travel by another train to the town of Braddock, a dying industrial suburb. They walk to Cuda's large house where he shows Martin his living quarters. Cuda then accuses Martin of being an 84-year-old vampire from his old country. He has taken in Martin because he is family, but tells him, "First I will save your soul. Then I shall destroy you." Martin denies being a vampire and implies that Cuda is merely his uncle rather than his cousin. Cuda then puts up strings of garlic on the doors to his and his granddaughter's room, and then holds up a small cross when Martin approaches him. Martin takes away the cross, and even takes a bite of the garlic mocking these attempts by saying bitterly, "There's no real magic... ever". Cuda tells Martin that he can come and go as he pleases. But he also warns Martin that he will kill him if he kills anyone in Braddock. He also tells Martin to stay away from his granddaughter Christine (Christine Forrest), whom arrives home from her job that evening.
Cuda introduces Christine to Martin, but also warns her to stay away from him. But Christine instead strikes up a friendship with Martin who confides in her about his vampire heritage. When Cuda later confirms Martin's claims to be a vampire, Christine, not surprisingly, refuses to believe either one. She thinks that Cuda and the other members of her family have driven Martin to insanity by making him think that he is a vampire. It is never revealed if Martin really is a vampire, or just a shy and lonely youth with troubled issues. Christine is the only person that Martin gets the courage to talk to. When Christine's boyfriend Arthur (Tom Savini) arrives at the house for dinner, Martin stops talking and backs away despite Arthur's attempt at a conversation. Christine later confides in Martin that she hopes to leave Braddock someday with Arthur, even though Martin points out that Arthur treats her badly and is both verbally and physically abusive towards her.
When Christine sees that Martin won't talk to anyone else, she buys him a phone which he installs in his room. Martin begins to repeatingly call a radio talk show where he describes what it's like to be a vampire. He becomes known on the radio as "the Count" to all the listeners. But the patronizing host (Michael Gornick) thinks he's just crazy.
Martin gets a job at Cuda's grocery store of stocking shelves, hauling boxes around, and even gets to be a delivery boy for some of the customers. One of his customers is a certain Abby Santini (Elyane Nadeau), who becomes taken in with Martin. She is a very friendly young woman who is depressed when she tells Martin that her husband is unfaithful. But Martin still does not have the nerve to talk with her, so she is happy to have someone to confide in with her life problems. Martin phones the radio show host to describe his infatuation with the housewife and senses that she wants to have sex with him. When the radio show host asks Martin if it is a sexual problem that he has involving women criticizing him during sex, Martin replies that he has never had sex with a woman who was awake.
One day, Martin travels by train to outside Braddock to look for victims. At a supermarket, he follows a young woman (Sarah Venable) home to her posh suburban house. He sees the woman's husband (Richard Rubenstein) leave for a long business trip, and Martin decides this would be the right time for more feeding. Martin returns to the house after dark and breaks in through the garage door. But it is Martin who gets the surprise when he bursts into her bedroom to find her in bed with her adulterous lover Lewis (Al Levitsky). After a vicious struggle, Martin jabs both of them with hyprodermic needles with narcotics, and waits for the drugs to take affect. He drags the unconscious body of Lewis from the house to a clump of trees across the street where he kills him by shoving a broken tree branch into his neck and drinks his blood. Martin returns to the house where he has sex with the unconscious woman. But out of compassion and pity, he decides to let her live.
Martin begins to have romantic monochrome visions of his vampire past (real or imagined), where he drained blood from a young woman and was chased through the streets of a nameless European town by a torch-lit mob.
During one Sunday at church, Cuda brings home Father Howard (George A. Romero) who asks him about the possibility of exorcism and demon possession. Father Howard calls upon the elderly Father Zulemans (Clifford Forrest, Jr.) over at Cuda's request. Together, Cuda and Zulemans confront Martin his bedroom and attempt to perform an exorcism on him. At this point, Martin remembers (another real or imaginary flashback), in the Old Country of people trying to perform an exorcism on him, and he flees them. Martin then flees from Cuda and Zuelmas as well. A little later that night, Martin terrorizes Cuda in a children's playground when he puts on a Dracula cape and puts false fangs into his mouth to pretend that he really is a vampire.
One day, Martin finally musters the courage to talk with Mrs. Santini during a routine delivery to her house where he tells her that he's aware of her attempts to seduce him and wants now to have sex with her. After having sex for the first time, Mrs. Santini becomes more depressed for she tells Martin that her husband just left her because she discovered that she cannot bear children, and that her desires towards him are based on sex and nothing else. But Martin wants to stay with her and help her move on with her life. Martin tells the radio show host about his affair with the housewife and that he no longer has the urge to attack other women.
Meanwhile, Arthur meets with Cuda and tells him that he wants Christine to leave town with him so they can get married and start a family. But Christine becomes angry at Cuda when he tells Arthur that insanity runs in their family and he shouldn't consider having children with her. Shortly afterwards, Christine packs up and leaves Braddock for New York with Arthur despite Martin telling her that Arthur is abusive towards her. But her mind is made up. Before leaving, Christine tells Martin that she really has no ill feelings towards him and just wants to make a fresh start with her life. She says goodbye to him and promises to write. But Martin knows that with an abusive and possessive man in Christine's life, she probably won't.
Depressed over losing his one true friend, Martin phones the radio show host and tells him that he's getting "shaky" and wants to go out looking for more victims. That night, Martin travels to a rough crime-ridden area of Pittsburgh and attacks two derelicts in a alley, injecting them with narcotics. He kills one of them by silting the bum's wrist and drinking his blood. Martin is about to kill the second one when a police car shows up and gives chase. Martin narrowly escapes during a long chase on foot which leads from the garbage strew streets and through a local store. Martin runs into an old warehouse where a drug deal is going down. A shootout between the two cops and the three thugs begins where all of them are killed, leaving Martin as the sole survivor who casually walks away from the carnage.
One day, Martin finds Mrs. Santini dead in her bathtub, after she had slit her writs with a razor blade. Martin anonymously calls the police to report the body and leaves. He phones the radio show host one final time to say that he really doesn't need friends or people to talk to for he is his own person. But when Cuda learns about Mrs. Santini's suicide, is mistakenly thinks Martin killed her and made it look like a suicide as he's done before. Cuda walks into Martin's room while he is asleep and kills him by hammering a wooden stake through Martin's heart.
Cuda buries Martin's body in his back garden, while over the closing credits various voices from people are heard talking to the radio show host asking the whereabouts of "the Count".
好看。覺得劇本和表演都非常扎實得讓人珍貴，也很難得。作為幾乎同齡人，看到反叛心理的姐姐真的很有帶入感。03年的氣息撲面而來。最喜歡的細節是爸爸在樓梯間哭時手上拿著的那個鑰匙扣
无论是故事的时间、谈论的议题亦或是传递的价值观都过时得像10年前的电影，都什么年代了还在做美国梦🙄女儿摊上个这么作精作怪的妈真可怜，还不分青红皂白被当爹的扇了一巴掌😤最后一场戏也像经费不足一样草草收尾。
逻辑不通，虽然入围了7个奖项，名声大噪，但是故事就是非常刻意的，有意的，故意的让人不好受。
伤害了父母却不自知。学会了说话，却没有学会爱。
期待太高了，内心毫无波动。不要白天投屏看🥲好暗好暗。
关于疫情的作品，台湾连续两个，还是不同时期，不同程度的，有一种呼应，更是一种对比。片中呈现出鲜明的大陆台湾文化同宗性，然而这一种相似性令人喉咙堵塞，心惊胆颤。中式教育的权威性、压抑性弊端明显，它让小孩害怕、畏惧、胆怯，不能表达自己内心，不快乐，大人说什么是什么，父母说什么是什么，老师说什么是什么，便于塑造与管理的同时，也失去了创造与豁达。这一家人，就是这种文化的缩影。听这家人说话的方式太难受了，通篇压抑，也来源于自己儿时的感受记忆，不想接触，一分一秒，都排斥。主人公的境遇，最初想起的是《小花的味增汤》，但观感，实在是两个极端。
上中学最叛逆的那段时间，恨过讨厌过我妈。今年30了，我很感谢我妈，很爱她，终于懂世上只有妈妈好。也许有时候会被当作妈宝，那是因为她太强了，我崇拜她，我觉得她说的很多事都是对的。希望妈妈会活很久很久，一直一直健康平安，一直一直很幸福。有一句话我想这辈子都不可能当面说出口，I LOVE YOU，Mom。
影片开头你看到了大量的东亚文化控诉（借以美台环境对比之名），展现了标准的东亚家庭亲子之痛，叠加代际文化等因素，最关键的演讲稿的出现，琢磨着扔个大炸弹，结果掏耳朵虚晃一枪以为喷的是男权（讲真的，这片子里爸爸就是牛马），其实核心还是亲情之爱，但确实是很台湾的方式了。最后呈现了以小见大的台湾家庭情景小品。
文化、经济和病症的重重包袱之下，各有各的委屈与不适，生活就是这样啊。爱是最简单的也是最有力量的。
用一种很细腻的方式呈现了在非典背景之下，一个移民/癌症家庭的困境——小孩有小孩的迷茫与恐惧，大人有大人的无力与痛苦，无法沟通，无法理解对方，所有的情感都只能通过愤怒发泄出来。因此女孩与马的互动成为一则寓言——无法驯服对方，但放弃驯服，便能对视，并在这种对视中看见彼此，理解脆弱，达成身份与关系的和解。虽然也许可以有一个更好的结尾，但并不妨碍它是一个很好的故事。
给五分主要是个人经历类似。成绩差，在学校被体罚，到陌生的国度无法融入，如定时炸弹般的家人，难以面对的现实。
2022.3.3 今天上线的 本来是想先看昨天有很多新熟肉的造王者的(其实我还是想等字幕组的熟肉)但是这部分更高就先来看这部了 好看..好久没看这么真实 这么朴实无华的片子了 可以说是近些年我看过的国语片最佳之一了..全员都在飙演技 为啥大陆的演员就做不到呢..其实主要还是表现受过西方文化熏陶的女孩从美国回来后与别的女孩的格格不入 其实是很真实的表现了中国人对于美国来的人 以及那个年代对于美国的想法了 原来还有台客这种蔑称 发生在民国92年也就是03年非典的时候 就这样看 那时的非典跟现在的新冠很像啊 唾液检验跟核酸一样 也要隔离15天 女主演技是真的太好了..小女主不懂事写了有多恨自己妈妈的演讲稿还要参赛 一心想着回美国学校里没朋友 二女儿得非典 妈妈得癌症 最后爸妈都因为这些突发状况哭了
这种不好好说话的状态我在我妈身上见过太多次，很难说是因为电影里写实台词带来的的情绪共鸣还是它就是没那么好带来的抗拒，我三只手都选瀑布。
虽然讲的家庭，其实更多的是触动了一部分人的怀旧吧，2003年当时台湾怎么有还不如我在武汉的感觉。
琐碎的生活对话和冲突没有表现人物更深层的心理变化，对社会问题探讨也是浅尝辄止，这点不如《瀑布》，少女恋马的情节和《鱼缸》里很像，p.s.林嘉欣还是好好看哎
人是慢慢学着长大的。
感觉可以和《瀑布》对照来看。中年人濒临崩溃时于四下无人处的哭泣太真实了。林嘉欣真美啊……最后陈绮贞的歌也很穿越
关于疫情的作品，台湾连续两个，还是不同时期，不同程度的，有一种呼应，更是一种对比。片中呈现出鲜明的大陆台湾文化同宗性，然而这一种相似性令人喉咙堵塞，心惊胆颤。中式教育的权威性、压抑性弊端明显，它让小孩害怕、畏惧、胆怯，不能表达自己内心，不快乐，大人说什么是什么，父母说什么是什么，老师说什么是什么，便于塑造与管理的同时，也失去了创造与豁达。这一家人，就是这种文化的缩影。听这家人说话的方式太难受了，通篇压抑，也来源于自己儿时的感受记忆，不想接触，一分一秒，都排斥。主人公的境遇，最初想起的是《小花的味增汤》，但观感，实在是两个极端。
影片呈现的家庭关系与情感与本人的现实生活有好些相似性 与瀑布相比似乎更加现实更能击中人心
親子矛盾/身份認同/成長陣痛… 在2003Sars的背景下，社會的不安映照著這四口之家的焦慮… 每個人都有自己承受的壓力，爸爸宗輝肩負全家經濟來源又要照顧妻女… 媽媽莉莉忍受化療病痛…妹妹芳安也活在巨大的不安全感中… 劇情主要從大女兒芳儀視角切入，離開美國的好友和白馬，回到新店，剪短髪/被體罰/資優生變成全班最後一名…這一切，都是因為媽媽罹癌造成的?… 文化和生活的不適應只是表層，類似爸爸對芳儀說的''如果一直逃避，去哪都不會變…'' 芳儀渴望獨立又恐懼與媽媽分離的矛盾心境，青春期的混亂與衝撞，全世界都不懂自己的孤獨感… 一個原本很容易拍得窠臼的故事，編導通過細膩的情感經營，讓觀眾可以共情每個角色，全片充滿著淚點和時代'回憶殺'… 母女情 拍的比[瀑布]要戳心😭… (2021TGHFF)
Copyright © 2015-2023 All Rights Reserved
