Bara no Konrei~Bridal of Rose

I was surprised to find that my favourite band, Malice Mizer, had made a film in their years together, so I watched it, and I loved it! The film was just like their music; dark, gothic, and beautiful, with religious imagery!

Bara no Konrei is a silent film loosely based on Bram Stoker's Dracula and other vampire tales, with Japanese and English captions for dialogue. Klaha, Mana-sama, Közi, Yu~Ki, and Terumi Nagayoshi star in the film. Malice Mizer's final album taking place in the Klaha era, Bara no Seidou, serves as the soundtrack for the film, with the song Zenchou~ from the album Voyage ~Sans Retour~ included in one of the scenes. I was really impressed by the music in this film, so much that I downloaded the album.

The storyline isn't particularly anything new, but I still like it nevertheless. Klaha plays a character similar to Jonathan Harker from Dracula, who goes on business to Transylvania where he meets Yu~Ki (the Earl of Dracula). And Mana-sama was a female vampire nun, who was meant to be burnt at the stake for being a witch, but was saved. These two were my favourite characters, although Yu~Ki as the womanizing vampire was actually kind of funny in a twisted, strange kind of way!

My favourite parts were the music soundtrack, and the beautiful costume design! There are Victorian-styled clothes for Cecil (a woman kind of like Mina from Dracula) and Klaha, slightly more gothic Victorian clothes for the Earl of Dracula, a gorgeous gothic nun costume for Mana, and some Tudor/Stewart/Baroque-like clothes for Yu~Ki. The costumes in the film make me wish to become a costume designer for films and music videos even more (as well as an author)! Basically, it was beautiful in an odd kind of way, and the gothic music made it really special.