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".
2.5/瑣碎的家庭生活呈現已經讓我感到肉疼，但正因為劇目將舞台局限於家庭本身，關於疫病/東亞式教育/cultural shock/生死等問题才無法被真誠且有效的回應(/解答)。
它远算不上完美的电影，移民和SARS的背景都用得不算好，但换一个角度，背景只是背景，它是生活中必然面对的变化与挫折，一个家庭如何处理，如何面对，如何和解才是这部电影真正想讲的东西，它不算好，但它太真实了，太像会发生在我们家中的事情，而电影在一个稍微失真的和解中戛然而止。但，结束了吗？不，生活仍会继续，挫折与变化是人生永难回避的境况，怎么办？4星。
“如果这已经是你妈妈能做的最好了呢？”
爸爸辛苦养家，妈妈得了癌症，女儿想回美国，一家人似乎永远处在“一切人对一切人”的“战争状态”中。在一个四口之家，生动地上演了一场有关代际冲突与文化隔阂的家庭战争。最为悲哀的是，其实互相都是有爱的，只不过以争吵的形式不适当地表达了出来。
小女孩把胸部发育当肿瘤，哈哈。不过这桥段有点刻意了，因为在西方的生理教育不可能那么蔽塞，我记得他们有个动画，很小就普及性知识了。
PS.中二的小棉袄漏风，当真很麻烦！
非常赞！把日常冲突感情纠缠的生活片段事无巨细的展现，主演是母女两的表演太好。和最近那部瀑布很相似的题材，但都具有高质量的品质。
TA的恐惧变成了我的恐惧，TA的软弱成了我的软弱。
“我只是希望她能做得更好一些。”
2021年度最佳华语片。比期待中还要好。节奏平稳，没有故意煽情。最后半小时开始哭到不行。东亚家庭的孩子都会有的共鸣。导演真的很棒，在生死议题的大框架下，有文化的碰撞，有文化的对立，有家庭里成人与小孩的无法沟通。从任性的不给妹妹妈妈开门，到结尾的主动打开门。用了一整个影片的时间来告诉我们在东亚文化里，爱，是如何被表达的。导演将自己要表达的点，融合得非常好，每一个节奏的交替都是那么的平稳自然。有时候爱真的就是一体两面的东西。爸爸在最后，蹲在楼梯间里哭泣的戏份，让人内心被狠狠戳中，一个父亲的眼泪，一个怕失去妻子的丈夫的眼泪，是那么的难能可贵。的确有时候有的时候我们总觉得父母不能做的更好，可有没有想过，这已经是她们能给我们最好的了。最后，她明白了家的概念，也明白了原来，爱是那么的无声
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。
华语区青春家庭伦理片标配都是打孩子吗。。。文化冲突部分太符号化了，我倒宁愿看一家子好好吵架，不过well，不懂得好好吵架也算是华语区亲子关系集大成体现了
这导演竟然是90年的，敢碰这样的题材可能跟她自己是留洋海归有关，好处是细节确实很细腻能戳到点，也许跟其自身经历有关吧，缺点就是你知道她想讲什么，却又每个部分都少了点什么，还是能力上差点火候
林嘉欣44了感觉没怎么变样，这么多年半隐退是真可惜，这种题材和角色对她来说太简单了，不过也是纳了闷了，怎么这种角色都爱找她，好像真就没演过多少精神没问题的
华人家庭的内核感觉放在任何社会背景讲的都是一样的故事，所以如果剔除疫情、患病、海外归国这些背景的话，剩下的一切，不知道是不是可以用李安在《喜宴》里唯一的一句台词来总结
小女孩好，这个故事能完整能入戏一大半靠她的表现，可惜辨识度不高，再过6/7年长次了就可惜了
那时候台商在大陆还很吃香，东莞正在世界工厂的高峰。而台湾本岛却是暮气沉沉。人望高处，所以丈夫想去大陆赚钱。今天很多台厂已经转移到东南亚尤其越南。
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。
没有谁对谁错，只有家庭关系里的互相磨合，我们都是这么长大的，等到为人父母了，有些事自然就懂了。
青春期遇上更年期，美国开放自由文化碰撞中国古板教条文化，还有同样对死亡的恐惧。马应该隐喻自由。
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