Evan even then I think that the silver can only kill them when it makes contact with a wound that is bleeding, it has been a while since I read the book since I read it and I might be wrong. It also mentioned that breaking a neck and decapitation can kill the werewolves in that story too, but once again it has been a while since I read it so I might be wrong again too.
The amount of chocolate a human can casually consume is just a way higher dosage to a dog's smaller body. Eating the equivalent amount of chocolate by weight that kills a dog would kill a human too.
Morgan Young makes sense cutting off heads, always seemed a bit odd that only silver would kill werewolves, if u don’t have decapitation and dismemberment always seemed like a good alternative to me
@@trishapellis not true, they can't process theobromine to the same levels as a human and what they can process is done much more slowly, allowing it to bioaccumulate. Even larger dogs like Mastiffs, which can be upwards of 200 lbs, can be seriously harmed by eating far less chocolate than a human can handle; less than 5 ounces is enough to kill them. That's about 2 chocolate bars.
Romanian here, born and raised in Bucharest, and I want to say I really enjoy all the location shooting in the film. If nothing else, the director nailed the look and feel of Bucharest. Except for bone churches, those arent a thing in any part of the country
The BFG might actually be one of my favorite childhood books (And I heard that they made a movie about it, and I am just going to pretend it doesn't exist), and it has man-eating giants in it. Though Charlie and the Chocolate factory is more of just a morality play, and gives us an important message of don't let your kids be brats in public. Though, if you really want to get into the creepy Dahl books, I am not sure you can't beat the Witches. The Witches is a book that more scary because of the implications though.
I wish more Human/Inhuman romance novels could be more like Spice and Wolf, and actually show a proper and developed relationship that isn't built on abuse and the need to constantly have sex.
@@StormgemThunder It's a series of romance novels by Isuna Hasakura. The story focuses on the travels of a merchant named Lawrance, and his companion Holo, a harvest goddess with the ability to transform into a massive wolf. The story is very simple, with no real encompassing plot tying each book together. It's mainly about their journey, the people they meet along the way, and the trouble they get into as they go from town to town. There's even a spinoff series called Wolf and Parchment, which focuses on their daughter Myuri, and Col, a young boy who Holo and Lawrence picked up about halfway through the original series.
I read this book in middle school and actually really enjoyed as an adult, of course, I now see all the issues with it. And pretty much every book aimed at teenage girls to be honest. Can we all take a moment to recognize the fact that the media gives all of us some pretty fucked up ideas about romance? Great review by the way.
GwendolynRaine Im not sure how I feel about Blaming the media when its books promoting this kind of shit getting insanly popular & only then getting the spot light
I've read some REALLY bad books about teenage "romance". If I remember correctly, the book Hush Hush is another "abusive behavior is sexy" book. That being said, the majority of teenage romance novels are NOT like that. Just, for some reason, most of the popular ones are.
TableWrens Yeah thats rather interesting dont you think? Personally I think its a problem of taking the Beauty & the Beast idea but getting it wrong. Seriously think about it most of these books are like somebody saw Beauty & the Best. Thought "oh girls like damaged abusive types, they need to Look for those" which was not the point of that story
It really is shocking the staggering percentage of media that reinforces and encourages harmful behavior. I have had to stop watching a number of tv shows because what starts off as a story with a strong female character inevitably sacrifices that character to make the story about an abusive man. The most disheartening thing is perhaps the lack of awareness that fans of these stories have. I think it's important for people to think critically about the media they consume, from books, shows, movies, music, it's important to take a moment and question what message the source material is sending.
It's romantic to have a man follow any tiny trace of you, pursue you at all costs, get you or die trying... IF YOU HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED BY SOMEONE ELSE. Seriously, I don't get it. You want the brooding, protective urban caveman? Give him something to protect the heroine from besides her own agency, or men who look at her ever.
@@janerecluse4344 Perfect reasoning why I'll never get the appeal of the Angel/Buffy relationship and why everyone, including Joss Whedon, seem to think it's somehow romantic.
I mentioned this briefly in a different comment in another thread but for some reason our society seems to have difficulty understanding the difference between a strong protector and and aggressive dysfunction possibly obsessive or abuser. Sadly in the area where I live "macho"/"men's men" are highly regarded as the ideal... Which also sadly means that I have a speed dial for reporting domestic violence - and practically have handwritten brochures with crisis centers ect ready to slip through a window or car door...
I know right?? I knew a girl once who was in an abusive relationship with a gaslighter for years. When she finally left him & started dating again, there was one situation where she was like "oh, you don't have to walk me home, it's nearby, I'm fine!" and the guy was like: "oh, well, ok, if you're sure....". And afterwards, she thought he was probably not the guy for her, because he didn't even walk her home. And I told her: "Wait, so you met a guy who actually listens to what you say, and respects your opinion, and you're saying it's a bad thing and he should have basically ignored whatever you said & forced his way?" I know in this situation, it's about an innocent thing, but usually guys who are waaaay too 'insistant' on doing anything, regardless of what you say, don't turn out to be great guys to be in a relationship with...
So the reasoning behind the film was basically... Hey! We can get tax cuts if we film a movie in Romania. What can we film? Well... Twilight is popular so what film rights can we get for cheap that contains angsty teenage love and vampires and/or werewolves? Blood And Chocolate? That's awesome! And we can also get viewers who heard of that critically acclaimed Chocolate film! Wait, the chocolate was a lame metaphor and features in no real other way in the story? Pffth have her be a confectionist or something, I don't care! I too can be a Hollywood producer!
Why? Why all media directed at young women has to have such incredibly creepy "romances"? Is this really how we want the future generations to envision a "perfect" relationship to look like?
I've noticed a lot of people complaining about these days is the starting point for the problem of promoting the creepy romances but it's the old days that started this shit. In example; my grandmother told me that my grandfather literally beat the shit out of her date once and that's what persuaded her to date him after telling him over and over again she was dating someone else. It's this weird dominance and persistence that a lot of romance stories take, often based upon past "romantic" encounters that get made into stories to be told, probably initially as gossip before being written into an actual story. I mean, look at the fucking historical romance genre, the ones from about thirty to forty years ago are disgustingly rapey along with smutty. This whole creepy romance kinda started at the beginning of the nineteenth century, though it certainly wasn't as raunchy until the middle of the twentieth. Harlequin published their first of many romances novels in 1953 after all and it only got worse from there. I don't think it's gotten worse actually, I think it's just more people have noticed it, because previously it was the people who were in these creepy romances that bought these romances and now a lot of them are writing them.
I have owned the book since it came out (also have her book Silver Kiss, about angsty vampire, but I can't reread that one ever cause twilight has tainted the genre)
The weirdest thing is...the movie's opening sounded pretty damn cool. I mean yeah, it was _nothing_ like the source material, but the source material just sort of sucked the whole way through. Until we got to the main (male) character, I was genuinely invested in the movie's story. Werewolves running a crime syndicate? In Romania? Shut up and take my money, please!
Chasing stardust yeah I was hoping they’d just focus on that aspect. Imagine if this was The Godfather, but with werewolves in Romania? Even if it was still an awful movie with stilted actors the plot might’ve been interesting enough to, you know, entertain.
Hugh Dancy was also in the Confessions of a Shopoholic movie... and Hannibal. God bless him, he's not a bad actor but that kiss of death theory might just be right.
TalkingToMyself very true, I would at least say that in spite of the changes that Hannibal did, out of all three actors I have seen in the role of Will Graham, Hugh Dancy was the closest to what was presented in the book Red Dragon. The other two actors were way too sane to be Will Graham who always seemed to be a couple steps away from turning into one of those psychotic killers because of his ability to understand what made them tick, the only thing that really kept him from snapping was his strong sense of right and wrong as well as his family.
It’s not a popular name. So I’m banking on her stealing the name from this book. Which (if true) makes the fact that she always been really defensive about people taking ideas from Twilight all the more hilarious.
Not to defend Twilight or anything, but the name apparently means: 'esteemed' or 'beloved' in Old French, so it could simply be two authors wanting the same symbolism in the name of an familiar authority-figure.
As a teen I loved this book. As an adult it just makes me uncomfortable. One good thing I got was it inspired me to write a kick-ass werewolf adventure epic featuring a protagonist who's likeable yet relatable and doesn't feature some dysfunctional abusive "romance" story
As someone who did read this book while I was a fifteen year old girl very into the supernatural romance genre, I also found it really uncomfortable with the harassment and the age gap.
"While in human form, she drinks some of his bath water." Was not expecting the past to reach out and sucker punch me like that in my post Belle Delphine world
I first read this book as an adult and enjoyed it due to the assumption that we aren't supposed to necessarily identify with the werewolves, just observe their culture and how they operate as they are, clearly, monsters. It's one of those pieces where a lot of the cast are terrible people but interesting to read about nonetheless. I saw the writing on the wall with the movie and never bothered with it.
I read this in middle school (and later as an adult) and that was my takeaway too: we're not supposed to identify with the werewolves. They're not human, and their culture and attitudes are supposed to be off-putting and at least partially unsympathetic. I did enjoy that the book had a female protagonist who was obviously interested in sex, as opposed to romance, and that the narrative didn't seem to judge her either for wanting it or for not having it.
I read the book years ago, and from what I remember, the author modeled werewolf society after actual pack dynamics (they don't care about the age of their fuckmates so long as they're old enough to breed, social order absolutely does fall apart after a high-ranking member such as an alpha dies, one wolf of reproductive age stalking another of the opposite sex to figure out if they're worth their time socially and sexually, etc.) instead of inventing one closer to human society. Made a good chunk of their less favorable behavior more excusable to me, though some scenes did make me a bit uncomfortable regardless.
That is a very accurate explanation. I never saw this book as a metaphor for human society in any real country. it was just another made up culture the author was explaining to us in an interesting story. And the movie makes no sense
I'm glad some commenters here actually understand. Not sure how he didn't, I mean when a culture actively encourages a high schooler to marry a 20 something bar owner AND the top position for both the male and female are chosen based on who can win in a fight (meaning the two Alphas aren't doing this for love or lust, but purely the mutual respect that they are the best breeding pair for the pack) it's not based on human culture modern or even ancient. Despite the Gabriel's physical moves on Vivianne, I feel like the fight was the best representation of the book. Both traditional and kinda barbaric, a leader chosen based on nothing more then if he can punch his opponents harder; and at the same time very progressive, the ladies are also based on fighting, not chosen by the Victor or some weird battle of etiquette, that and it was voluntary. Yes the main ended up winning against her will, but she wasn't going to participate in the fight in the first place and everyone was confused but chill with that decision. If Astrid wasn't Astrid, her mom would have won and nobody would have contested it. But Gabriel would have become the creepiest step dad. But having first hand experience that a dog will screw its own biological pups, this is comparable less weird considering again that he would be taking her mom as his mate as a social obligation since they both won and he is not related to her. (As for the first hand experience, I got a dog from a friend who didn't nueter her dog, mine is spayed but during a playdate cause she kept one of the litter, daddy tried to mount daughter and I finally said friend had him fixed albeit it was like like four months latter for her to get around to it. I'm not just googling dog incest videos... Is that incest? Incest is sibling... Actually I don't want to Google what it might be cause I want to believe it hasn't occured enough times for it to have a name despite reading Oedipus)
Ami I agree, in spite of some of the changes they had to do to make it fit more in a modern setting, Hannibal is great in making the characters like their book counterparts. I would even go so far as to say that Mads Mikkelsen is just as good as Anthony Hopkins in the role of Hannibal Lecter.
He is sooo good in Hannibal!! And Mads is such a great Hannibal too, plus the chemestry between them just makes their relationship so investing! you can tell they are good friends that understand what the other is trying to do
Internalized misogyny is a thing, lambykins1471. As a woman, it is clear to me that these women in particular are RIDDLED with it, as many sadly are. And the Dom did not appear to be mansplaining misogyny to me at all in this - simply noting the obvious sexist shit going on in the book the way he would whether it was written by a man or a woman. I'd far rather see someone treat the tropes used in works by any gender the same way than have a man shrug off a woman's misogyny as something that must be okay because she's one of ours.
If he'd been talking down to us by acting like he's better at spotting sexism than a woman would be, that would be another matter entirely, of course. Again, though, all he did was spot some obvious examples of it. I'm completely in favor of that. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go think about the fact that I read this book in like fourth or fifth grade, and 9 or 10 year old me only retained the memories of all the unwanted boob grabs and such (strongest memory: protagonist holding a knife against the thigh of one of her harassers during a scene I could tell even then was really full of sexual tension for...well...what it was) and the unsettling feeling that came with finding out I was apparently supposed to be okay with that in the end.
I knew this lost in adaptation was gonna be entertaining. I'm guilty of reading this book in middle school and liking it. But then again lots of bad messages about romance are prevalent in teen literature.
I remember reading it in middle school as well. I probably liked it then but hearing him talk about it now it does have a lot of weird messages in it that I did not remember.
I never read this one, but I regretfully did have a twilight phase and holy hell... looking back at them again even now when I'm just barely out of my teens, how did I never notice how bad and harmful those books and that relationship was? Now I try to seek out YA novels and so many of them are plagued with the same creepy unhealthy relationships and I just don't see the appeal.
Really, it's not just teen literature. Even romance literature aimed at adults (e.g. Harlequin Romances) are full of stalking and a lot of (at least) near rape. Hell, look at the James Bond franchise. Look at the huge numbers of movies with romance, not even very old ones, where there's a scene of the woman walking away, then man pulls her back, forces a kiss on her, and she melts in his arms. It's really only very recently, where that sort of thing isn't deemed OK. As to James Bond, the movies, even the earlier Connery ones, actually TONED DOWN both the misogyny and racism. The Dom did an LiA for Goldfinger, if you haven't seen it.
Yeah. The non-consent/violence=romance is pretty across the board. I read a lot of it in the fantasy novels aimed at adults. I'm not a huge scifi reader, but several of the books I've read in the genre that have romance elements can get pretty rapey.
What a minute...that’s Hugh Dancy as Aiden! That’s the second time he’s appeared in the In Name Only episodes. Speaking of him, though, are you ever going to do Red Dragon, or any other Thomas Harris books?
I really hate half-assed token gestures of feminism in these kinds of books, the whole thing with the women pointing out the sexism of the leadership yet the author just going ahead and letting things happen the old sexist way anyway, then the main character accepting her stupid betrothal to a complete jerkass as a good thing because of some lame speech about how he'll love her no matter what. Like the authors obviously feel guilty about what they're doing and know better, but they don't want to actually correct anything about it.
Movie actually looks more interesting than the book if that makes sense. Plus I could watch Hugh Dancy's pretty face all day, his part as Will Graham in Hannibal was awesome!!
For a weird reason, I though the title read Like Water for Chocolate, a Mexican magical realist book. I read an excerpt in Spanish and then saw the movie.
I think part of the reason you don't enjoy romance novels is the large amounts of misogyny portrayed as being attractive for persuing what they want and not taking no for an answer.
Hollywood really ought to answer for having SO many movies where a male character constantly harasses a woman until she begrudgingly agrees to go out with him, I have no idea why this was just treated as normal. A woman does not owe you a date ever.
Oh thats why it looked so familiar that damn game. I realized that's who it was when I just saw the notification but on my phone it was really small. Ty
Fear not the dom you magnificent brit. the guy who plays aidan eventually redeems himself as .William Graham on the Hannibal tv adaptation, did anyone seen that series? plus he was nice portraying a guy with Asperger in Adam (im an Asperger too)
Adrien and Vivian's second meeting in the movie version truly boggles my mind. *Adrien:* "Hey! Wolf girl!" *Vivian:* [literally runs in the opposite direction] *Adrien:* "...Clearly this is an invitation for me to chase her. That is what a normal well-adjusted human being with pure intentions would do." I mean honestly, it would _almost_ make more sense if HE was the werewolf in the equation, since dogs like to chase things.
Dom addresses the name at the end of the book part, it's the comparison of the tastes of the kisses of her two paramours. The 'boy' she's is love with is sweet, like chocolate. The 'man's' kiss is deep, rich, earthy and biting like blood (gross to humans but I guess awesome for Wolves?)
2wingo i was wondering why the author’s name was familiar...tbh the silver kiss could have done with a cheesy 90s movie, it would’ve become a cult classic
I think sometimes you just have to ignore things like accents, especially in something as obviously low budget like this. The same with language being spoken. It's kind of like with a play. When Les Miserables originally came to Broadway, they brought over Colm Wilkinson to play Valjean along with the American cast. An Irish actor, along with mostly Americans all playing French people and speaking/singing in English. You cast whoever you think will play it best (and that you can afford) and do your best to ignore the accent differences. You just kind of have to assume their actually speaking their native language and we're just hearing the translation.
The Dom As a comparison, Batman & Robin was made in 1997 with a $125 million budget, The Fifth Element had a $90 million budget, and Con Air had an $80 million budget. Even My Best Friend's Wedding had a $46 million budget. Interestingly, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery only had an $18 million budget, but there is a bit of a difference between a Mike Myers comedy meant to look cheesy and a movie that, done right, could've been the Underworld series 6 years early. We were still on our Anne Rice/White Wolf-inspired vampire and werewolf craze at that time, so the market was right...
Carl Rood I highly disagree. I’m American and a scriptwriter, and I set a play in London with two characters with the usual southern English accent, one Scouse (Liverpool), and one German accent. I put it on for the $100 it took to print four copies of the script at Staples. I was using furniture from my home as the set, I made the props out of cardboard myself, and our costumes came out of our own closets. We still found enough UA-cam videos to get the accents right.
I loved the book as a teen and that movie is shit. Annette Curtis Klaus also wrote a vampire novel called "The Silver Kiss" which is beautiful and poignant.
Sabrina Loizides-Merideth She also wrote Alien Secrets which I enjoyed nearly as much as Blood and Chocolate despite it being a totally different genre. It’s a si-fi mystery in which the primary relationship is a friendship between a girl and an alien, no romance just crime solving on a space ship.
I read this book after Twilight came out. I was about 16, maybe 17? I think it may be part of the reason I've always thought Twilight wasn't that bad. Either way, this book made me distinctly uncomfortable in high school, when I was the target audiance.
I'm sure you've got enough on your plate to cover for quite a while, but if ever you have the time I would recommend a video on A Monster Calls. A nice little book with a major movie adaptation (though keep in mind I don't mean "nice" per se, as it certainly has dark themes, but a good read nonetheless),
I first saw the movie in middle school and for awhile it was one of my "guilty pleasure favorites;" I knew it wasn't a good movie by any stretch but it obviously did something for me. I didn't have a chance to read the book until my freshman year of college (it was my roommate's favorite, so she practically shoved it at me to read) and was floored by how different it was. Adaptations like these confuse the hell out of me. Save book fans the horror and make an "original" movie instead - all they had to do with this one was change the name of the characters and the title and wham! No one would suspect that it was based off of a novel, they'd just associate it with a popular genre with similar tropes and cliches.
I read this book in high school and loved it. When the movie came out I was PISSED at all the changes. I totally understand why you didn't like it, and admit that there are HUGE pitfalls within the story and how some things are portrayed, but thank you for doing this. When I found your channel this is the first thing that came to my mind
I loved and still own Blood & Chocolate as a junior in high school. Snuck into the movie a few years later and actually walked out. For a broke teen, that's saying A LOT.
I'm only in High School so I don't have any money to support you on Patreon. But ... if you could please do a Lost in Adaptation episode on any of the following I would GREATLY appreciate it. -How to Train Your Dragon -Holes -Hoot -Alex Rider Please and thank you. I love all your videos, by the way.
I honestly don't care for this movie, but seeing some of these wolves getting inhumanly killed and seeing that one wolf getting slashed on the leg really breaks my heart. The poor doggos =(
In fairness the prophecy of Star Wars is just based on the fact that Jedi have prophetic dreams and write them down all the time, which means some big shot eons ago had the visions about Anakin bringing balance. It could have been Yoda when he was in his 20s for all we know.
Also maybe it's just me but tween romance supernatural bullshit that's full of misogyny is usually made by women who constantly seem to not understand the term "Bad boy". Which is less Beast being reformed from a tragic violent unsociable furry into a kind and empathetic person, and more men constantly stalking you and acting like they know what's best for you because the WRITERS grew up in an era of men sweeping women off their feet so they have nothing to worry about anymore or in the case of say manga the culture is still at that point. It's a mixture of writers and directors being outside the age bracket they are writing for, or if you want to be cynically optimistic- Teenagers being fucking stupid.
I was one of three very rare people (to my knowledge) who read the book - it was a favorite! I talked about it a lot!!! And then the movie came out and I saw it in theaters and... left angry but entertained 😅
I'm not going to pretend to have good taste as a teen girl-- I liked plenty of questionable things I cringe at now- but I hated this book. I couldn't explain why, I just. Didn't. Like it. (I didn't like Twilight either but this was worse... But because I was a teen girl these were the books people insisted on buying me.)
I haven't even watched this yet, Im just so overjoyed that this is being done and has been released today ITS LIKE YOU WANTED TO GIVE ME A XMAS PRESENT DOM, YOURE SOOOO SWEET!
Everytime i see Hugh Dancy I expect Hannibal to step into frame and butcher whoever is there with them. I guess the movie would have been a lot better that way. ;) BTW PLEEEEEEASE REVIEW/COMPARE HANNIBAL (book/show obviously :P)!
Ugh bad book and film but great video! I’d love to see phantom of the opera one day. For the record, i think broadway was better at casting genuinely talented people than the 2004 movie
I remember the watching the trailer in the theater and the crazy serious tone had my attention until the title came up right at the end where several perople, myself included, burst out laughing.
I never understood “why are they speaking English” complaints... Like, ‘cause _you_ are English? If you want them to speak any language, you can just find a version with a translated voiceover (or subtitles) of that language. Is there something I don’t understand?..
11:17 Ha, jokes on you my fridge is usually empty. ... Not that I would read that. My favourite author is Sir Terry Prachett after all, which makes me wonder; would the inclusion of Angua von Überwald have improved this 'book'?
Churches using human bones for decoration isn't just a romanian thing. It's called Ossuaries. They're all over Europe - usually, they came about during plagues (or whenever a lot of people died in a short ammount of time in general), but sometimes also over time, if the burial ground was scarce. Usually, ossuaries would be in the catacombs, but sometimes, because people are morbid, they would be used for decorations in the above-ground church. The idea was, for one, "we have a lot of these, let's make it look nice", and partially the mentality of "memento mori" (Remember death). Some monasteries also have those. What I'm saying is, I'm not surprised a city that has been run by murderous wolf monsters for thousands of year would have one.
Ever thought of reviewing Interview with a vampire? I mean I know you'll have to do Twilight eventually I figure you should have some cool vampires little warning if you haven't read the book it has a very very slow start but is very worth it also did you know that Buffy the vampire slayer has a book?
Admittedly, I haven't read it since high school, but I thought the ending was intended to be a bit tragic. I assumed we were supposed to think she had made a bad choice... I read it because I liked the Silver Kiss so much, and what I liked about the author was that her monsters were monsters. They were sort of tragic, but actually came across as inhuman. And that's what I liked about this book too. Vivian didn't read like a teenage girl to me, she read like a teenage werewolf, caught between being a human and a monster - and her choice at the end was more about choosing not to be human than about the guys. But I did literally read it a decade ago. Nostalgia often makes things seem better than they were.
It is really sad when there female writer/director writes these terrible romances for teen girls. Or they have really sexists themes in them. Like why do people like abusive relationships so much? And it's especially sad when it's middle aged woman being obsessed with them. (You know the twilight moms) Like I understand it being a "fantasy" and all and perfect relationships are boring but come on you can not tell me it does not give bad messages to middle/high schoolers. I think the author of Blood and Chocolate wanted the werewolves to act more like animals then humans, but it just makes it really strange. Her tasting the bath water is gross and I don't remember it and I wished it stayed that way.
Now this just really makes me wish they'd adapted Klause's other book of hers I've read, The Silver Kiss. It's equally angsty, but it certainly doesn't end with Zoe settling for anyone because things didn't work out, doesn't even have a love triangle, and has a pretty bittersweet meditation on mortality. And it's saying something that I like that book better than this one considering how much more sadly Zoe and Simon end up.
I strongly preferred the movie to the book, but man, I am shocked how much schlock I missed in both. But regarding the jumping, you have to remember that when the movie was made, free-running/parkour had finally come into popular culture. As a result, it was put everywhere it could be.
I'm in something of werewolf mood right now & I went on Goodreads to see if I could find any YA werewolf fiction (look, I like YA). Almost everything listed was either, normal girl takes staggeringly long time to figure out love interest is werewolf & their relationship is questionable at best, or girl is already werewolf & there's some effed up mating rituals in her effed up pack! WHY IS THIS ALL THE CHOICE WE HAVE FOR YA WEREWOLF FICTION?!?!
Dear The Dom, I’d just like you to know I’m obsessed with catching up on your Lost in Adaptation reviews. You encapsulate the essence of the novels so well and your reaction to their film counterparts are hilarious, pure and true. Rock on and thanks for being you! Also I hope you do Stardust by Neil Gaiman sometime soon! I look forward to that one! 😜✌🏼
I remember reading that book when I was a teenager and damn, the German translation must have changed a lot, because the end was actually quite sweet (though I interpreted is soley as a werewolves and humans can't have a happy ending, no matter how human the werewolves feel).
I read the book when I was in high school. I loved it . I don't know why they're movie made it so different cuz the book was just awesome. The movie wasn't that bad but to me since it was based on the book and was so different in a bad way I just could never forgive them for ruining it. I was so excited for the movie but I was so disappointed
Seriously, what is the problem with middle-aged women writing stories of characters being abusive or just plain wrong for the main lead and winding up with them? this, Fifty Shades of Grey, Twilight. what? what is the problem? Secondly why do women and college girls fall in love with these stories? it makes no sensed
1) This isn't new to Romance novels or even Teen Novels but the "abuse is sexy" genre is NOT common in literature. These kind of books were just put in the spotlight. The only reason Fifty Shades became popular is because of Twilight. 2) They're popular so people read them. Hey, if it gets people to read more often, i'm all for it. Just as long as they dont think this kind of behavior is acceptable.
TableWrens there's a problem with your second point because people are reading it then some might come to the idea that this is what real love looks like
Poshboy well unlike with video games we have very real situations in which people use crappy romance movies to determine how their actual romantic encounters should go and movies like Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey are only going to evolve that into something worse
There definitely are people who want to be pursued even though they give off signals of not being interested. That way, they don't have to take the emotionally risky step of revealing that they are interested to a disinterested party, nor do they come off as being 'easy'.
I actually read this book as a teen! I was so bummed when I found out a movie was being made of it, because I knew it wouldn't hold up to the original. While you've proven me right on that, your recounting of the book... didn't quite leave me with a good impression on my memories of it, sadly.
Werewolves should probably avoid chocolate. It can build up to pretty toxic levels in canines.
Well I'm pretty sure only silver can kill them so I think their fine, but ya that does sound like a potentially uncomfortable thing to consume.
Evan even then I think that the silver can only kill them when it makes contact with a wound that is bleeding, it has been a while since I read the book since I read it and I might be wrong. It also mentioned that breaking a neck and decapitation can kill the werewolves in that story too, but once again it has been a while since I read it so I might be wrong again too.
The amount of chocolate a human can casually consume is just a way higher dosage to a dog's smaller body. Eating the equivalent amount of chocolate by weight that kills a dog would kill a human too.
Morgan Young makes sense cutting off heads, always seemed a bit odd that only silver would kill werewolves, if u don’t have decapitation and dismemberment always seemed like a good alternative to me
@@trishapellis not true, they can't process theobromine to the same levels as a human and what they can process is done much more slowly, allowing it to bioaccumulate. Even larger dogs like Mastiffs, which can be upwards of 200 lbs, can be seriously harmed by eating far less chocolate than a human can handle; less than 5 ounces is enough to kill them. That's about 2 chocolate bars.
Romanian here, born and raised in Bucharest, and I want to say I really enjoy all the location shooting in the film. If nothing else, the director nailed the look and feel of Bucharest. Except for bone churches, those arent a thing in any part of the country
The Bone Church is actually a Czech Republic thing :D en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary
@@FlyingNikass There's several more of those. The Capuchin Crypt in Rome has child skeletons on display.
Aw, man. I wanted to visit Romania, but without bone churches, what's the point?
@@battletoads22 we have lots of win in our churches. there are some animal bones passed as human saint bones if it's any consolation.
Isn't there a church or something in France with walls basically made of stacked bones?
you know, with a title like blood and chocolate, does anyone else think that there should be a novel about a killer chocolatier?
Dylan Simmons
Oh! He could use the bones from humas to create the gelatin in his chocolate! Its the secret ingrediant!
Ok I admit I would read it at least once for curiosity sake
Gritty Reboot of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
I know I'm late, but I thought it's gonna be like a Teenage romance novel about Vampires.
Yes.
That title sounds like a demented Roald Dahl book.
Which is basically all Roald Dahl books.
You should read his book on his early years, dear lord, it is not weird how dark his work can get.
Sounds like a rip off of Like Water for Chocolate to me, based on the title
Right?! Honestly, when I first heard the title I thought it was some horror version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. XD
Marduk I mean, the parents and kids don’t die in the book. They walk home at the end.
The BFG might actually be one of my favorite childhood books (And I heard that they made a movie about it, and I am just going to pretend it doesn't exist), and it has man-eating giants in it. Though Charlie and the Chocolate factory is more of just a morality play, and gives us an important message of don't let your kids be brats in public. Though, if you really want to get into the creepy Dahl books, I am not sure you can't beat the Witches. The Witches is a book that more scary because of the implications though.
The more dom reads these dumb novels the we get entertained and he falls more apart. Can’t wait for 50 shades darker.
Daniel Lado
Hope he has some strong booze on standby
Oh gods
He's not doing 50 shades Darker. He said he's not touching any other 50 shades book again because he found the first one so harmful and unpleasant.
Emilie damn it... I really love how he broke it down and pointed out how Grey was abusive without damning consensual, healthy BDSM
There's always the chance that someone requests Twilight...
I wish more Human/Inhuman romance novels could be more like Spice and Wolf, and actually show a proper and developed relationship that isn't built on abuse and the need to constantly have sex.
Well you got a bit of that in the Dom's later reviews of weird romance stories.
I would kill to see a live action Spice and Wolf.
@@Normaschthewanderer Dakota Blue Richards would be an Awesome fit as Holo.
I haven't heard of Spice and Wolf before, what is it, i assume a human/werewolf romance from what the title is
@@StormgemThunder
It's a series of romance novels by Isuna Hasakura. The story focuses on the travels of a merchant named Lawrance, and his companion Holo, a harvest goddess with the ability to transform into a massive wolf. The story is very simple, with no real encompassing plot tying each book together. It's mainly about their journey, the people they meet along the way, and the trouble they get into as they go from town to town. There's even a spinoff series called Wolf and Parchment, which focuses on their daughter Myuri, and Col, a young boy who Holo and Lawrence picked up about halfway through the original series.
I read this book in middle school and actually really enjoyed as an adult, of course, I now see all the issues with it. And pretty much every book aimed at teenage girls to be honest. Can we all take a moment to recognize the fact that the media gives all of us some pretty fucked up ideas about romance?
Great review by the way.
GwendolynRaine Im not sure how I feel about Blaming the media when its books promoting this kind of shit getting insanly popular & only then getting the spot light
I've read some REALLY bad books about teenage "romance". If I remember correctly, the book Hush Hush is another "abusive behavior is sexy" book.
That being said, the majority of teenage romance novels are NOT like that. Just, for some reason, most of the popular ones are.
TableWrens Yeah thats rather interesting dont you think? Personally I think its a problem of taking the Beauty & the Beast idea but getting it wrong.
Seriously think about it most of these books are like somebody saw Beauty & the Best. Thought "oh girls like damaged abusive types, they need to Look for those" which was not the point of that story
Books are a form of media
It really is shocking the staggering percentage of media that reinforces and encourages harmful behavior. I have had to stop watching a number of tv shows because what starts off as a story with a strong female character inevitably sacrifices that character to make the story about an abusive man. The most disheartening thing is perhaps the lack of awareness that fans of these stories have. I think it's important for people to think critically about the media they consume, from books, shows, movies, music, it's important to take a moment and question what message the source material is sending.
I really hate how hard they work to convince young women that being pursued at all costs is sexy, regardless of any other behavior,.
It's romantic to have a man follow any tiny trace of you, pursue you at all costs, get you or die trying... IF YOU HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED BY SOMEONE ELSE. Seriously, I don't get it. You want the brooding, protective urban caveman? Give him something to protect the heroine from besides her own agency, or men who look at her ever.
@@janerecluse4344 Perfect reasoning why I'll never get the appeal of the Angel/Buffy relationship and why everyone, including Joss Whedon, seem to think it's somehow romantic.
@@GermanLeftist You forgot to mention it was relationships between teenager and 200+ years old man.
I mentioned this briefly in a different comment in another thread but for some reason our society seems to have difficulty understanding the difference between a strong protector and and aggressive dysfunction possibly obsessive or abuser.
Sadly in the area where I live "macho"/"men's men" are highly regarded as the ideal... Which also sadly means that I have a speed dial for reporting domestic violence - and practically have handwritten brochures with crisis centers ect ready to slip through a window or car door...
I know right?? I knew a girl once who was in an abusive relationship with a gaslighter for years. When she finally left him & started dating again, there was one situation where she was like "oh, you don't have to walk me home, it's nearby, I'm fine!" and the guy was like: "oh, well, ok, if you're sure....". And afterwards, she thought he was probably not the guy for her, because he didn't even walk her home. And I told her: "Wait, so you met a guy who actually listens to what you say, and respects your opinion, and you're saying it's a bad thing and he should have basically ignored whatever you said & forced his way?" I know in this situation, it's about an innocent thing, but usually guys who are waaaay too 'insistant' on doing anything, regardless of what you say, don't turn out to be great guys to be in a relationship with...
So the reasoning behind the film was basically...
Hey! We can get tax cuts if we film a movie in Romania. What can we film? Well... Twilight is popular so what film rights can we get for cheap that contains angsty teenage love and vampires and/or werewolves? Blood And Chocolate? That's awesome! And we can also get viewers who heard of that critically acclaimed Chocolate film! Wait, the chocolate was a lame metaphor and features in no real other way in the story? Pffth have her be a confectionist or something, I don't care!
I too can be a Hollywood producer!
Twilight came out the year after. This movie showed up in my recommendations because I watched Underworld.
You mentioned Chocolat… you might be on to something with the inclusion of the chocolatier bit.
Why? Why all media directed at young women has to have such incredibly creepy "romances"? Is this really how we want the future generations to envision a "perfect" relationship to look like?
Maera Fey Maybe that's part of the problem these days?
I'm afraid that you may be right.
Because they're the ones who buy this shit.
Eddie the Head Well I can't disagree, there is a lotta stupid people this days
I've noticed a lot of people complaining about these days is the starting point for the problem of promoting the creepy romances but it's the old days that started this shit. In example; my grandmother told me that my grandfather literally beat the shit out of her date once and that's what persuaded her to date him after telling him over and over again she was dating someone else. It's this weird dominance and persistence that a lot of romance stories take, often based upon past "romantic" encounters that get made into stories to be told, probably initially as gossip before being written into an actual story. I mean, look at the fucking historical romance genre, the ones from about thirty to forty years ago are disgustingly rapey along with smutty. This whole creepy romance kinda started at the beginning of the nineteenth century, though it certainly wasn't as raunchy until the middle of the twentieth. Harlequin published their first of many romances novels in 1953 after all and it only got worse from there. I don't think it's gotten worse actually, I think it's just more people have noticed it, because previously it was the people who were in these creepy romances that bought these romances and now a lot of them are writing them.
Reasons to pick up the book... Just to have the Dom appear to slap it out. xD
Picks up book
*T E R R A N C E~!*
SLAP!
Teleport's away.
"YAY!"
I came here for this comment 😉
Let's not forget the raiding of your fridge
@@IceBearfor jokes on him there are only pickles and milk in the fridge anyway
I have owned the book since it came out (also have her book Silver Kiss, about angsty vampire, but I can't reread that one ever cause twilight has tainted the genre)
The weirdest thing is...the movie's opening sounded pretty damn cool. I mean yeah, it was _nothing_ like the source material, but the source material just sort of sucked the whole way through. Until we got to the main (male) character, I was genuinely invested in the movie's story. Werewolves running a crime syndicate? In Romania? Shut up and take my money, please!
Chasing stardust yeah I was hoping they’d just focus on that aspect. Imagine if this was The Godfather, but with werewolves in Romania? Even if it was still an awful movie with stilted actors the plot might’ve been interesting enough to, you know, entertain.
That's kinda what I thought too, given that I've never read the book, but I did watch the movie.
Hugh Dancy was also in the Confessions of a Shopoholic movie... and Hannibal. God bless him, he's not a bad actor but that kiss of death theory might just be right.
TalkingToMyself very true, I would at least say that in spite of the changes that Hannibal did, out of all three actors I have seen in the role of Will Graham, Hugh Dancy was the closest to what was presented in the book Red Dragon. The other two actors were way too sane to be Will Graham who always seemed to be a couple steps away from turning into one of those psychotic killers because of his ability to understand what made them tick, the only thing that really kept him from snapping was his strong sense of right and wrong as well as his family.
Don’t forget Ella Enchanted
Hannibal is the only good one
Esme? So there’s TWO young adult supernatural romance novels with moms named Esme?? That can’t be a coincidence, can it?
Jon Baley this book was written much earlier than Twilight
Broken Quill92 Right, so did Meyer take the name from this? Or is Esme just a more popular name for writers to use than I thought?
It’s not a popular name. So I’m banking on her stealing the name from this book.
Which (if true) makes the fact that she always been really defensive about people taking ideas from Twilight all the more hilarious.
Jon Baley Meyer seems to lift most of her ideas from other writers. Wether she did in this case I’m unsure
Not to defend Twilight or anything, but the name apparently means: 'esteemed' or 'beloved' in Old French, so it could simply be two authors wanting the same symbolism in the name of an familiar authority-figure.
As a teen I loved this book. As an adult it just makes me uncomfortable. One good thing I got was it inspired me to write a kick-ass werewolf adventure epic featuring a protagonist who's likeable yet relatable and doesn't feature some dysfunctional abusive "romance" story
Good for you. Need more of that.
As someone who did read this book while I was a fifteen year old girl very into the supernatural romance genre, I also found it really uncomfortable with the harassment and the age gap.
I was about that age when I read it too, and I was equally creeped out. No clue why the author thought teenage readers would find it appealing.
"While in human form, she drinks some of his bath water."
Was not expecting the past to reach out and sucker punch me like that in my post Belle Delphine world
😂
I first read this book as an adult and enjoyed it due to the assumption that we aren't supposed to necessarily identify with the werewolves, just observe their culture and how they operate as they are, clearly, monsters. It's one of those pieces where a lot of the cast are terrible people but interesting to read about nonetheless. I saw the writing on the wall with the movie and never bothered with it.
I read this in middle school (and later as an adult) and that was my takeaway too: we're not supposed to identify with the werewolves. They're not human, and their culture and attitudes are supposed to be off-putting and at least partially unsympathetic. I did enjoy that the book had a female protagonist who was obviously interested in sex, as opposed to romance, and that the narrative didn't seem to judge her either for wanting it or for not having it.
I read the book years ago, and from what I remember, the author modeled werewolf society after actual pack dynamics (they don't care about the age of their fuckmates so long as they're old enough to breed, social order absolutely does fall apart after a high-ranking member such as an alpha dies, one wolf of reproductive age stalking another of the opposite sex to figure out if they're worth their time socially and sexually, etc.) instead of inventing one closer to human society. Made a good chunk of their less favorable behavior more excusable to me, though some scenes did make me a bit uncomfortable regardless.
That is a very accurate explanation. I never saw this book as a metaphor for human society in any real country. it was just another made up culture the author was explaining to us in an interesting story. And the movie makes no sense
I just got done rereading the book as an adult and I came to a similar conclusion, they are a different species with a different culture.
I'm glad some commenters here actually understand. Not sure how he didn't, I mean when a culture actively encourages a high schooler to marry a 20 something bar owner AND the top position for both the male and female are chosen based on who can win in a fight (meaning the two Alphas aren't doing this for love or lust, but purely the mutual respect that they are the best breeding pair for the pack) it's not based on human culture modern or even ancient. Despite the Gabriel's physical moves on Vivianne, I feel like the fight was the best representation of the book. Both traditional and kinda barbaric, a leader chosen based on nothing more then if he can punch his opponents harder; and at the same time very progressive, the ladies are also based on fighting, not chosen by the Victor or some weird battle of etiquette, that and it was voluntary. Yes the main ended up winning against her will, but she wasn't going to participate in the fight in the first place and everyone was confused but chill with that decision. If Astrid wasn't Astrid, her mom would have won and nobody would have contested it. But Gabriel would have become the creepiest step dad. But having first hand experience that a dog will screw its own biological pups, this is comparable less weird considering again that he would be taking her mom as his mate as a social obligation since they both won and he is not related to her.
(As for the first hand experience, I got a dog from a friend who didn't nueter her dog, mine is spayed but during a playdate cause she kept one of the litter, daddy tried to mount daughter and I finally said friend had him fixed albeit it was like like four months latter for her to get around to it. I'm not just googling dog incest videos... Is that incest? Incest is sibling... Actually I don't want to Google what it might be cause I want to believe it hasn't occured enough times for it to have a name despite reading Oedipus)
I knew I recognised him! Young Hugh Dancy strikes again. He's actually quite good in Hannibal.
Ami I agree, in spite of some of the changes they had to do to make it fit more in a modern setting, Hannibal is great in making the characters like their book counterparts. I would even go so far as to say that Mads Mikkelsen is just as good as Anthony Hopkins in the role of Hannibal Lecter.
He is sooo good in Hannibal!! And Mads is such a great Hannibal too, plus the chemestry between them just makes their relationship so investing! you can tell they are good friends that understand what the other is trying to do
@Cannibal Teddy holy shit i wish someone would I love that show
I did not know this book and movie existed until I watched this video
Same
I mean, c'mon Dom, both Stephanie Meyer and E.L. James were women, you'd think you'd have figured out that being a woman is no cure for sexism.
I feel like it's even sadder that these women think that these relationships are sexy.
I think it's sad that a man thinks he gets the right to tell women they're sexist to themselves.
Internalized misogyny is a thing, lambykins1471. As a woman, it is clear to me that these women in particular are RIDDLED with it, as many sadly are. And the Dom did not appear to be mansplaining misogyny to me at all in this - simply noting the obvious sexist shit going on in the book the way he would whether it was written by a man or a woman. I'd far rather see someone treat the tropes used in works by any gender the same way than have a man shrug off a woman's misogyny as something that must be okay because she's one of ours.
If he'd been talking down to us by acting like he's better at spotting sexism than a woman would be, that would be another matter entirely, of course. Again, though, all he did was spot some obvious examples of it. I'm completely in favor of that. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go think about the fact that I read this book in like fourth or fifth grade, and 9 or 10 year old me only retained the memories of all the unwanted boob grabs and such (strongest memory: protagonist holding a knife against the thigh of one of her harassers during a scene I could tell even then was really full of sexual tension for...well...what it was) and the unsettling feeling that came with finding out I was apparently supposed to be okay with that in the end.
fizzysassafrass How would one even do that? "This book's very sextist. You wouldn't have noticed that - stupid broads!"
I've never heard of this before now
Me neither and I read quite a bit
I saw the book in my high school library with a passing glance, I passed it over but thought the title was interesting.
Jacob Sullivan same!
Did you see those states in the opening? Nobody has.
I knew this lost in adaptation was gonna be entertaining. I'm guilty of reading this book in middle school and liking it. But then again lots of bad messages about romance are prevalent in teen literature.
I remember reading it in middle school as well. I probably liked it then but hearing him talk about it now it does have a lot of weird messages in it that I did not remember.
Yeah. I did not remember these things either. What an awful message for a kids book....
I never read this one, but I regretfully did have a twilight phase and holy hell... looking back at them again even now when I'm just barely out of my teens, how did I never notice how bad and harmful those books and that relationship was? Now I try to seek out YA novels and so many of them are plagued with the same creepy unhealthy relationships and I just don't see the appeal.
Really, it's not just teen literature. Even romance literature aimed at adults (e.g. Harlequin Romances) are full of stalking and a lot of (at least) near rape. Hell, look at the James Bond franchise.
Look at the huge numbers of movies with romance, not even very old ones, where there's a scene of the woman walking away, then man pulls her back, forces a kiss on her, and she melts in his arms. It's really only very recently, where that sort of thing isn't deemed OK.
As to James Bond, the movies, even the earlier Connery ones, actually TONED DOWN both the misogyny and racism. The Dom did an LiA for Goldfinger, if you haven't seen it.
Yeah. The non-consent/violence=romance is pretty across the board. I read a lot of it in the fantasy novels aimed at adults. I'm not a huge scifi reader, but several of the books I've read in the genre that have romance elements can get pretty rapey.
“You should never date someone who put a bullet in you”
River song has entered the chat
Hello sweetie!
Spoilers 😂
Dom: This guy is becoming the kiss of death of adaptations
Hannibal fans: * looks at the camara like if we were in the office *
This is LITERALLY the comment I was searching for. lmaooo
✌🏻😂
What a minute...that’s Hugh Dancy as Aiden! That’s the second time he’s appeared in the In Name Only episodes.
Speaking of him, though, are you ever going to do Red Dragon, or any other Thomas Harris books?
+
omg yesss
Yes yes yes. Or the TV show Hannibal!
I definitely have to read this if it guarantees that Dom will come to my house.
I knew there'd be at least one of you who'd say that O_o
Yep, first thought was "oooo, guaranteed visit from the Dom? Best investment I've seen in awhile" 😉
I really hate half-assed token gestures of feminism in these kinds of books, the whole thing with the women pointing out the sexism of the leadership yet the author just going ahead and letting things happen the old sexist way anyway, then the main character accepting her stupid betrothal to a complete jerkass as a good thing because of some lame speech about how he'll love her no matter what. Like the authors obviously feel guilty about what they're doing and know better, but they don't want to actually correct anything about it.
Not to mention the person protesting the sexism is the villain of the novel....ooh boy
Movie actually looks more interesting than the book if that makes sense. Plus I could watch Hugh Dancy's pretty face all day, his part as Will Graham in Hannibal was awesome!!
Damn, of all people, you'd think Will Graham would have more respect for boundaries.
Squooshy Holy shit, I didn't realize that was Hugh Fancy! Geez, did he ever get a career update
To be honest. Blood and Chocolate sounds like a kick ass title.
The bone chapel in the film is actually the very famous landmark the Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic.
10:05 Eeeewwwwwww.
13:44 My family has one of those chairs.
So... all I have to do to summon The Dom to my place is pick up this book...?
On my way to the library...
Well, now you are forcing me to go pick up that book!
....
I'll put on a kettle as well, come whenever you like.
To be honest it kind of tripped me up when you mentioned your age. You look like you're 25 at most.
Summer Cucumber I know right?
I seriously thought he was in his late teens to early 20s!
For a weird reason, I though the title read Like Water for Chocolate, a Mexican magical realist book. I read an excerpt in Spanish and then saw the movie.
I live in Bucharest and I can confirm that we are indeed ruled by a gang of werewolfs.
I think part of the reason you don't enjoy romance novels is the large amounts of misogyny portrayed as being attractive for persuing what they want and not taking no for an answer.
As for Hugh Dancy being the "kiss of death" for adaptations, I guess third time's a charm: he's great as Will Graham in Hannibal.
Wait! This is a teen romance novel? Oh boy, this will be fun.
I couldn't believe it when I found out to.
tbh I only watched the movie because Hugh Dancy was in it
Hollywood really ought to answer for having SO many movies where a male character constantly harasses a woman until she begrudgingly agrees to go out with him, I have no idea why this was just treated as normal. A woman does not owe you a date ever.
oh dom, you don't need an excuse to raid my fridge anytime ;)
Marie Iothear is it bad I read that in the Monica voice from GT Live? (Search UA-cam if you don’t know what I’m talking about.)
Marie Iothear *BURSTS INTO A FIT OF UNCONTROLLABLE LAUGHTER!*
Marie Iothear who's that in your profile pic? Looks like suzuha
Just Monika
Oh thats why it looked so familiar that damn game.
I realized that's who it was when I just saw the notification but on my phone it was really small.
Ty
Fear not the dom you magnificent brit. the guy who plays aidan eventually redeems himself as .William Graham on the Hannibal tv adaptation, did anyone seen that series? plus he was nice portraying a guy with Asperger in Adam (im an Asperger too)
Adrien and Vivian's second meeting in the movie version truly boggles my mind.
*Adrien:* "Hey! Wolf girl!"
*Vivian:* [literally runs in the opposite direction]
*Adrien:* "...Clearly this is an invitation for me to chase her. That is what a normal well-adjusted human being with pure intentions would do."
I mean honestly, it would _almost_ make more sense if HE was the werewolf in the equation, since dogs like to chase things.
That's Pepe le Pew level pursuit
Why is it called Blood and Chocolate? Sounds like the name of a vampire book.
Emilie or even better, it sounds like a cross between sparticus and mel gibsons apocalypto.
Or a weird cooking book
Dom addresses the name at the end of the book part, it's the comparison of the tastes of the kisses of her two paramours.
The 'boy' she's is love with is sweet, like chocolate.
The 'man's' kiss is deep, rich, earthy and biting like blood (gross to humans but I guess awesome for Wolves?)
The author wrote a vampire novel, too. It's titled "The Silver Kiss" and does right everything "Twilight" does wrong.
2wingo i was wondering why the author’s name was familiar...tbh the silver kiss could have done with a cheesy 90s movie, it would’ve become a cult classic
I think sometimes you just have to ignore things like accents, especially in something as obviously low budget like this. The same with language being spoken. It's kind of like with a play. When Les Miserables originally came to Broadway, they brought over Colm Wilkinson to play Valjean along with the American cast. An Irish actor, along with mostly Americans all playing French people and speaking/singing in English.
You cast whoever you think will play it best (and that you can afford) and do your best to ignore the accent differences. You just kind of have to assume their actually speaking their native language and we're just hearing the translation.
15 million dollars is low budget?!
And I guess no one would have wanted to watch a movie fully in Romanian with English subtitles :D
The Dom As a comparison, Batman & Robin was made in 1997 with a $125 million budget, The Fifth Element had a $90 million budget, and Con Air had an $80 million budget. Even My Best Friend's Wedding had a $46 million budget. Interestingly, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery only had an $18 million budget, but there is a bit of a difference between a Mike Myers comedy meant to look cheesy and a movie that, done right, could've been the Underworld series 6 years early. We were still on our Anne Rice/White Wolf-inspired vampire and werewolf craze at that time, so the market was right...
Les Mis the musical was originally in French at one point but then later in English.
Carl Rood I highly disagree. I’m American and a scriptwriter, and I set a play in London with two characters with the usual southern English accent, one Scouse (Liverpool), and one German accent. I put it on for the $100 it took to print four copies of the script at Staples. I was using furniture from my home as the set, I made the props out of cardboard myself, and our costumes came out of our own closets. We still found enough UA-cam videos to get the accents right.
I loved the book as a teen and was pissed with the ending of the movie. More like the entire movie was what I was pissed about.
I loved the book as a teen and that movie is shit. Annette Curtis Klaus also wrote a vampire novel called "The Silver Kiss" which is beautiful and poignant.
Sabrina Loizides-Merideth She also wrote Alien Secrets which I enjoyed nearly as much as Blood and Chocolate despite it being a totally different genre.
It’s a si-fi mystery in which the primary relationship is a friendship between a girl and an alien, no romance just crime solving on a space ship.
I'll have to look for that one!
I read this book after Twilight came out. I was about 16, maybe 17? I think it may be part of the reason I've always thought Twilight wasn't that bad. Either way, this book made me distinctly uncomfortable in high school, when I was the target audiance.
I'm sure you've got enough on your plate to cover for quite a while, but if ever you have the time I would recommend a video on A Monster Calls. A nice little book with a major movie adaptation (though keep in mind I don't mean "nice" per se, as it certainly has dark themes, but a good read nonetheless),
I first saw the movie in middle school and for awhile it was one of my "guilty pleasure favorites;" I knew it wasn't a good movie by any stretch but it obviously did something for me. I didn't have a chance to read the book until my freshman year of college (it was my roommate's favorite, so she practically shoved it at me to read) and was floored by how different it was. Adaptations like these confuse the hell out of me. Save book fans the horror and make an "original" movie instead - all they had to do with this one was change the name of the characters and the title and wham! No one would suspect that it was based off of a novel, they'd just associate it with a popular genre with similar tropes and cliches.
I read this book in high school and loved it. When the movie came out I was PISSED at all the changes.
I totally understand why you didn't like it, and admit that there are HUGE pitfalls within the story and how some things are portrayed, but thank you for doing this.
When I found your channel this is the first thing that came to my mind
I loved and still own Blood & Chocolate as a junior in high school. Snuck into the movie a few years later and actually walked out. For a broke teen, that's saying A LOT.
I'm only in High School so I don't have any money to support you on Patreon. But ... if you could please do a Lost in Adaptation episode on any of the following I would GREATLY appreciate it.
-How to Train Your Dragon
-Holes
-Hoot
-Alex Rider
Please and thank you.
I love all your videos, by the way.
If anyone would like to see these adaptations be reviewed as well and is on Patreon could you please pass the message along to The Dom for me?
Ooh...holes would be nice
Yes I have been wanting Holes for a long time now!
If you haven't watched it KrimsonRogue did a review on alex rider
Leila Byerly
I second those suggestions, especially holes.
I honestly don't care for this movie, but seeing some of these wolves getting inhumanly killed and seeing that one wolf getting slashed on the leg really breaks my heart. The poor doggos =(
In fairness the prophecy of Star Wars is just based on the fact that Jedi have prophetic dreams and write them down all the time, which means some big shot eons ago had the visions about Anakin bringing balance. It could have been Yoda when he was in his 20s for all we know.
Also maybe it's just me but tween romance supernatural bullshit that's full of misogyny is usually made by women who constantly seem to not understand the term "Bad boy". Which is less Beast being reformed from a tragic violent unsociable furry into a kind and empathetic person, and more men constantly stalking you and acting like they know what's best for you because the WRITERS grew up in an era of men sweeping women off their feet so they have nothing to worry about anymore or in the case of say manga the culture is still at that point. It's a mixture of writers and directors being outside the age bracket they are writing for, or if you want to be cynically optimistic- Teenagers being fucking stupid.
Yes! I read this book in high school and I liked it, but the movie was total garbage. Thank you The Dom.
Dom called Hugh Dancy the "Kiss of death of Adaptations"...WHOOOH BOY, Wait till he gets to Hannibal, folks
:D I love how Fannibal pop up every now and then when Hugh or Mads are around
Never seen or heard of it but it gives me an excuse to see The Dom's devilishly good looks so of course I'm going to watch it!
Omg I remember asking him to review this like last year! Thanks Dom! And um... Sorry for the suffering you had to go though.
Hugh Dancy is really talented, no fucking clue how he keeps ending up in mid adaptations.
I was one of three very rare people (to my knowledge) who read the book - it was a favorite! I talked about it a lot!!! And then the movie came out and I saw it in theaters and... left angry but entertained 😅
I'm not going to pretend to have good taste as a teen girl-- I liked plenty of questionable things I cringe at now- but I hated this book. I couldn't explain why, I just. Didn't. Like it. (I didn't like Twilight either but this was worse... But because I was a teen girl these were the books people insisted on buying me.)
I haven't even watched this yet, Im just so overjoyed that this is being done and has been released today ITS LIKE YOU WANTED TO GIVE ME A XMAS PRESENT DOM, YOURE SOOOO SWEET!
Everytime i see Hugh Dancy I expect Hannibal to step into frame and butcher whoever is there with them. I guess the movie would have been a lot better that way. ;)
BTW PLEEEEEEASE REVIEW/COMPARE HANNIBAL (book/show obviously :P)!
*Smiling in a charmingly bemused way*
Best description of Hugh Dancy I've ever seen.
Ugh bad book and film but great video! I’d love to see phantom of the opera one day. For the record, i think broadway was better at casting genuinely talented people than the 2004 movie
I remember the watching the trailer in the theater and the crazy serious tone had my attention until the title came up right at the end where several perople, myself included, burst out laughing.
11:19
DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH MY STASH OF COKE ZERO!!!
.... you can have all the cold turkey & dressing leftovers though...
Jason Ultimate He can have my fridge contents. 'Bout time it got cleared out
I never understood “why are they speaking English” complaints... Like, ‘cause _you_ are English? If you want them to speak any language, you can just find a version with a translated voiceover (or subtitles) of that language. Is there something I don’t understand?..
well damn, now he's gotta do red dragon/Hannibal
11:17 Ha, jokes on you my fridge is usually empty.
...
Not that I would read that. My favourite author is Sir Terry Prachett after all, which makes me wonder; would the inclusion of Angua von Überwald have improved this 'book'?
Corvus Albus She would have run away from the pack before the book began, that or killed them. She's not one to stand for that sort of thing.
There is a certain appeal to that second option, and it does sound like an improvment.
Finally one I watched and read!
Churches using human bones for decoration isn't just a romanian thing. It's called Ossuaries.
They're all over Europe - usually, they came about during plagues (or whenever a lot of people died in a short ammount of time in general), but sometimes also over time, if the burial ground was scarce. Usually, ossuaries would be in the catacombs, but sometimes, because people are morbid, they would be used for decorations in the above-ground church. The idea was, for one, "we have a lot of these, let's make it look nice", and partially the mentality of "memento mori" (Remember death). Some monasteries also have those.
What I'm saying is, I'm not surprised a city that has been run by murderous wolf monsters for thousands of year would have one.
Hahahaha I love the raiding fridge thing. By far my favourite youtuber
Ever thought of reviewing Interview with a vampire? I mean I know you'll have to do Twilight eventually I figure you should have some cool vampires little warning if you haven't read the book it has a very very slow start but is very worth it also did you know that Buffy the vampire slayer has a book?
What's with all the cousin talk? This isn't Sailor Moon!
Admittedly, I haven't read it since high school, but I thought the ending was intended to be a bit tragic. I assumed we were supposed to think she had made a bad choice... I read it because I liked the Silver Kiss so much, and what I liked about the author was that her monsters were monsters. They were sort of tragic, but actually came across as inhuman. And that's what I liked about this book too. Vivian didn't read like a teenage girl to me, she read like a teenage werewolf, caught between being a human and a monster - and her choice at the end was more about choosing not to be human than about the guys. But I did literally read it a decade ago. Nostalgia often makes things seem better than they were.
That’s at least AN explanation… and not a bad one.
Sadly, I think the framing makes it unlikely that the author intended it to be that way
It is really sad when there female writer/director writes these terrible romances for teen girls. Or they have really sexists themes in them.
Like why do people like abusive relationships so much? And it's especially sad when it's middle aged woman being obsessed with them. (You know the twilight moms)
Like I understand it being a "fantasy" and all and perfect relationships are boring but come on you can not tell me it does not give bad messages to middle/high schoolers.
I think the author of Blood and Chocolate wanted the werewolves to act more like animals then humans, but it just makes it really strange. Her tasting the bath water is gross and I don't remember it and I wished it stayed that way.
Now this just really makes me wish they'd adapted Klause's other book of hers I've read, The Silver Kiss. It's equally angsty, but it certainly doesn't end with Zoe settling for anyone because things didn't work out, doesn't even have a love triangle, and has a pretty bittersweet meditation on mortality. And it's saying something that I like that book better than this one considering how much more sadly Zoe and Simon end up.
Well, now I am tempted to buy the book just to use it as a way to summon The Dom.
Perzyn that's a pleasant thought
I strongly preferred the movie to the book, but man, I am shocked how much schlock I missed in both. But regarding the jumping, you have to remember that when the movie was made, free-running/parkour had finally come into popular culture. As a result, it was put everywhere it could be.
I'm in something of werewolf mood right now & I went on Goodreads to see if I could find any YA werewolf fiction (look, I like YA). Almost everything listed was either, normal girl takes staggeringly long time to figure out love interest is werewolf & their relationship is questionable at best, or girl is already werewolf & there's some effed up mating rituals in her effed up pack!
WHY IS THIS ALL THE CHOICE WE HAVE FOR YA WEREWOLF FICTION?!?!
In the Hannibal TV series Blood and Chocolate was also the name of a book Frederick Chilton was going to write before Francis Dolarhyde kidnaps him.
Do flowers in the attic. '87 or '14 idc.
Ayal Agami 2014 is more faithful
Ayal Agami for a second I thought you meant “1914” and then I was like “wow that’s really-oh.” 😂
Dear The Dom,
I’d just like you to know I’m obsessed with catching up on your Lost in Adaptation reviews. You encapsulate the essence of the novels so well and your reaction to their film counterparts are hilarious, pure and true. Rock on and thanks for being you!
Also I hope you do Stardust by Neil Gaiman sometime soon! I look forward to that one! 😜✌🏼
I like the movie but I would love to see Blood and Chocolate get a remake.
I remember reading that book when I was a teenager and damn, the German translation must have changed a lot, because the end was actually quite sweet (though I interpreted is soley as a werewolves and humans can't have a happy ending, no matter how human the werewolves feel).
"Chapel filled with bones"? I never seen bones in chapels, maybe I went to the wrong ones.
I find myself again bingeing LIA while working. Thank you for making my work day a bit brighter.
When did parkour begin to gain popularity? It could explain all the leaping throughout the movie. Movies love to include trendy crap.
It was around the early to mid 2000s, so yeah, plus movies like District B13 and Casino Royale also helped.
The Yamakasi movie came out in 2001, I think it kind of started from there
I read the book when I was in high school. I loved it . I don't know why they're movie made it so different cuz the book was just awesome. The movie wasn't that bad but to me since it was based on the book and was so different in a bad way I just could never forgive them for ruining it. I was so excited for the movie but I was so disappointed
17:41 [Hannibal fans cackling in the distance]
lol his description of the book. I enjoyed it as a teen. can't say I would as much now
Seriously, what is the problem with middle-aged women writing stories of characters being abusive or just plain wrong for the main lead and winding up with them? this, Fifty Shades of Grey, Twilight. what? what is the problem? Secondly why do women and college girls fall in love with these stories? it makes no sensed
1) This isn't new to Romance novels or even Teen Novels but the "abuse is sexy" genre is NOT common in literature. These kind of books were just put in the spotlight. The only reason Fifty Shades became popular is because of Twilight.
2) They're popular so people read them. Hey, if it gets people to read more often, i'm all for it. Just as long as they dont think this kind of behavior is acceptable.
TableWrens there's a problem with your second point because people are reading it then some might come to the idea that this is what real love looks like
TheAnonymousGuy Yes just like how people who play violent videogames ALWAYS go on shooting rampage.
Poshboy well unlike with video games we have very real situations in which people use crappy romance movies to determine how their actual romantic encounters should go and movies like Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey are only going to evolve that into something worse
There definitely are people who want to be pursued even though they give off signals of not being interested. That way, they don't have to take the emotionally risky step of revealing that they are interested to a disinterested party, nor do they come off as being 'easy'.
I read the book and watched the movie in middle school and you spoke nothing but the truth.
I thought Romania was secretly controlled by vampires.
I actually read this book as a teen! I was so bummed when I found out a movie was being made of it, because I knew it wouldn't hold up to the original. While you've proven me right on that, your recounting of the book... didn't quite leave me with a good impression on my memories of it, sadly.