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".
印度电影从不会让我失望！前三十分钟就非常好了。去年光看了简介我就没什么兴趣，到2022年想想2021整年都没看过好的印度电影，无奈看看这部。对不起，2021我错过了这部电影。原来是共产主义电影。想起国内那个偷窃的妇女，被带去警察局，她的幼女饿死在家中的故事，也是security系统的问题，可以拍
很多人在嘲笑印度！对嘲笑。 在我看来韩国的飞速发展和他们直面问题脱不开关系，就算现在的韩国依然问题一大堆，所以作品层出不穷，可这并不妨碍他们的发展。所以佩服印度能拍出这样的电影。
每位渴望成为艺术家的内地新导演，都应该好好学学本片是如何设计场面、调遣运镜、丰富调度的。舞狮这样的传统文化成为了合理的叙事背景，不止是知识普及，更通过阿娟这样的弱小个体提炼出精神层面的坚定。而在美轮美奂的画面下，才是本片最出色的部分——城市的快速发展和传统文化的衰落是并行的。发展的代价太大，落在了人、文化、环境等方方面面。影片末尾的舞狮大赛，鲜艳的各色狮头背后是苍凉的阴霾城市，舞狮的凝聚力激荡人心，却也抵挡不住遍地的寒意。留守儿童的命运往复，很可能就是社会未来模样的缩影。影片彩蛋绝妙地点出了这层内核。当然，从叙事表达上，影片有着强烈的周星驰灵魂覆盖，对话的遣词用句可调整的地方也很多，是比较明显的遗憾。最感叹的是监制张苗多年来判断项目的眼光，市场进步不可或缺的一份子。
木棉、民工、雨、粤语、南方混混、舞狮、咸鱼等南粤元素与五条人、九连真人的配乐共同描绘了一幅庶民图景，比官方话语富有生命力多了，非常动人真实。
目前心中最棒的国漫。虽然在看之前就能想到大致剧情发展，但是电影一开始我还是被画面色彩构图以及男主的发型深深吸引了，运镜也好棒，在天台那一段真的被戳到…结局的留白也很喜欢。爆夸插曲和片尾曲，打算二刷。ps：眼睁睁看着前排大哥电影看一半就拿起手机豆瓣打了一星！（因为他手机屏幕实在太亮，仿佛手电筒举在了我面前😭）心碎呐喊：我刀呢？
我们熟悉的印度片老调子，不过煽动情绪这块，国产商业片真该好好学
粤语版极佳。狮头虽然挂在擎天柱上，但现实却还是让你跌入水中。哎，底色还是小人物的困苦，无奈和悲哀。
印度版《辩护人》，剧情真实，但依旧非常不习惯歌舞。当然，不敢对比。
真正的现实主义底层叙事从来不等于贩卖情绪主题先行的比惨哭片，只是这几年越来越被消费敷衍玩坏了，庆幸当年有人开先河现如今有人也回过神掰回来，很了不起了。细节出真知，即使有配乐过满台词喊口号结局缺少离场感的问题，但种种细节铺陈是真切的人文关怀，是真现实反而就没有共情，只觉得惨和无能为力，那是血淋淋无法改变的状况。除此之外的一大意义是填补了动画电影的题材空白，其实写实题材动画在其他国家非常多，而国内还享受着把老掉牙的神话传说翻来覆去讲的舒适圈。用动画形式去触及真人电影无法直接展示的议题，也是中特行为一种了，尤其在当前所谓“共富”背景下。有现实意义也有行业意义，某种程度上都很“新”很“奇迹”，一个关于“怎样才能有奇迹”命题，这边建议又名《奇迹》吧来个粤港少年梦幻联动，北文不死哈哈哈哈。
画面：风景是美的、写实细腻，但人物的动作总有很浓的游戏感？
咸鱼店夫妇叫阿强和阿珍，预告片主题曲又是五条人的。所以我期待了一整场《阿珍爱上了阿强》。
为啥少一颗星呢，紧张程度还是少一些。全靠剧情支撑。印度黑暗，一点点再改变，希望我们也是。
～～～～～
20220203 02：00 和老姐观影在家
我们惊叹电影真敢拍的时候，现实却比电影残酷得多
年度最过誉影片。
2021年度真正黑马惊喜之作，画风与故事的写实走向，代表国漫内容视角的全新飞跃，兼具中国独有的人文与民俗情怀，又不乏爆笑、热血、感动之观感。开篇水墨动画讲述舞狮历史与文化，已预感此片了不得；中间唢呐吹响、鞭炮轰鸣，交织励志少年的成长谱曲；最后咸鱼翻身、雄狮舞起，彻底奏响扶摇直上九万里的生命乐章。每次狮头直立、鼓点响起，胸口便会被点燃一团火，唤醒我们心里长存的一声吼。最后半小时太会抓观众痛点，燃到飞起，个人今年华语片Top3。“一山总有一山高，世界上总有达不到的奇迹”，没人踩的擎天柱，提醒舞狮人保持敬畏，而影片结局告诉我们，《雄狮少年》已无限接近这个奇迹。国产动漫原创IP难出佳作，5星是鼓励，更是值得。
心中有鼓点，“世界万变，也不失这志气”…音乐用的很妙啊，已知歌单：《道山靓仔》五条人乐队、《纸飞机 Fly Away》廖颖轩、《世间始终你好》甄妮/罗文、《Rollin' On》椅子乐团、《今夜无人入睡》、《莫欺少年穷》九连真人、《无名的人》毛不易
真的很烦什么都要吵到乳化上，你这么容易被乳你是什么玻璃？叙事节奏放在真人电影有很多瑕疵，但是放在动画上还能接受。传统题材和底层叙事结合得也很棒，音乐都是我的菜。而且能在中国大陆自己的片里看到真实的乡村，不是诗化也不是丑化的真的很不容易好吗。
可以拍得更好，但是这类电影实在太难拍了，因为一个案子背后是无数个不公正的累加，而且层层递进。很容易想到斯坦福监狱实验，但是更深刻的是不公正的本质究竟是什么？面对这个拷问，我们似乎只能寄希望于德性与良心。
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