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".
短篇小说剧作家啊！滨口写对话和互文太强了，选的演员也灵动。这不比夜以继日好？文学性这么强，有什么必要学韩国男拍三角恋？滨口的文本能力如果展开了，能把洪尚秀吊起来打。再来一次超好，为了不错过地靠近彼此两者都在扶梯上上上下下，编程师失业的未来，元戏剧，两人在对话，关系中隐身的另外两人却呈现在彼此身上......开着的门（黎，是你吗）在教授办公室的部分，色诱文学教授却被教授的某种文学折倒，朗读的内容与实施的行动成了完美的互文，两人之间亦师亦友的对话展现出文学教授真文学，不是草包，女人是真突出，不是自命不凡。两者的欲望得到确认，引诱以另一种形式完成，阴差阳错导致正确后果又耻又日式。要硬要拿洪尚秀来碰瓷，也只有三角关系的尴尬比较相似，而且洪尚秀太直男了......
最喜欢故事二 虽然三个故事的主题都是偶然与想象
有太多微妙得无法用文字描述的情绪都被滨口龙介巧妙地捕捉到了。偶然与想象，这个名字也很好啊。
“只要中间加入色色的东西，观众就会有继续看下去的欲望”然后滨口就真的把这个故事放在第二个哈哈，第三个故事最让人难过也最难忘的，以及玄理是真好看
对话戏简单也难的实证。看完总觉得这也没什么，就两人坐车里、坐家里、坐店里、在路上闲聊，没啥复杂的调度，但是又充满生活的余韵。这余韵只能从这样的故事里体会，有种大道至简的力量。某些地方确实很像洪常秀。
滨口龙介是神！以「偶然」与「想象」切入细碎生活中的「魔幻时刻」，犹如对前两部长片的一次萃取与融合。在他这里，戏剧性与日常化完全兼容，甚至可以说「共生」。大段的对白并不影响整体的轻盈质感，而言语未及的部分又比海更深，所以观者好像彻底代入进人物完全认同与理解，却又像隔着玻璃窗一般似近实远从未真正知晓她们的隐秘想法。《夜以继日》之后，《魔法（比魔法更不真切）》又一次精准掐中我某个阶段的情感状态，除了五体投地之外还能说什么呢。
当然，拍电影目的就是上映，上映了是要卖票的，买票是要花钱的。贾玲说自己不是为了当导演才去拍电影，是为了拍李焕英才去当导演。这句话反映出两个事实：电影随便拍，导演门槛低
9.2/10 #iksv 即便是短片集也依旧饱有后311的影子，第一段结尾的城市改建，第二段的一种身份自白（较隐性），第三段的地点设定（宫城仙台）和失联。步入此部的结构显然更容易，既是偶然，与想象，似乎有些太简单。想象既是角色的行为（身份的扮演），也是滨口邀请观众参与的观看方式（文字化的性爱）。偶然是一种结构的突变，正如舒曼Op.15的调性转折，伴随着第一段和第二段故事中行驶途中的偶然颠簸，成为了叙事的灵活呼吸。滨口只是滨口，绝非洪尚秀，更非黑泽清，不理解将几者并论有何根据。第一段>第二段≈第三段，滨口从不对画面中的“幕”（screen）做任何特定的功能，无论是使其成为自反工具亦或是额外的画幅分割，都并不如此，那些车窗，玻璃门，与倒影，都只是构建情景与情绪的温室，使人不断沉浸与沦陷。
不可避免的被第三个段落击中，但感慨良多的却是一种落空，我一直期待着其实被相认的那个人通篇在伪装和逃避，直到故事的结尾她果然绷不住了，再次冲上天桥去与对方坦言自己就是那个人，然而并非如此的安排，不知该说可惜还是万幸
对话戏简单也难的实证。看完总觉得这也没什么，就两人坐车里、坐家里、坐店里、在路上闲聊，没啥复杂的调度，但是又充满生活的余韵。这余韵只能从这样的故事里体会，有种大道至简的力量。某些地方确实很像洪常秀。
少给一星是因为它让我流眼泪了，这是贾玲跟自己和解的作品吧！
滨口龙介的好，就好在自然，即使天生便带有男性导演的固有视角，滨口亦有将女性的敏感、自我认知与爱，在大银幕上全盘托出的能力，而且事无巨细，仅仅依靠自然质朴的演出和饱含深意的台词，在21世纪的今天，接上了上世纪日本电影叙事大师们的班。
三个故事都有一个揭晓时刻，或者叫剧情开始走向微妙的时刻，这是文本层面最有趣味的地方，并伴随着一种由变焦镜头制造出的陌生感，带来对之前叙事的打破。
“我爱的只有你，或许你可以选择其他人，但我却没办法再去爱上谁了。虽然选择和我在一起会让你的生活变得更加复杂，但我还是想让你选择我。”
明星导演的一个问题，是他们无论形式如何，主题是只契合某些年龄段或有某些心结的人的口味。第二个故事虽然最好，最情欲，电影感最好，女主在破碎之后新生了独立人格，但男主不该就此消失，不像坦荡荡大作家的做派。三个故事都在教育人：关键时刻不坦白自己最真实的心意，直面最真实的自我，会后悔一辈子。聊天都可以是色色的，嗯。
三星半。因为全程叨逼叨让人生出还不如去看小说的烦躁感，但三场对话又如侯麦般精妙，让人觉得美好，动人，讽刺，乃至惊心动魄。
是魔法吧。和不羁讨《欢乐时光》时我说是女性生活，他说是两性关系。在1和2里，好像看见了关系的张力橡皮筋被冷静又混乱的对话拉到最满。part3我反而不太行。
年度十佳。滨口龙介凭此一部，足以超越绝大部分的洪常秀，甚至连招牌的洪式推拉都用得更有趣。偶然：连襟姐妹/错发邮件/误认同窗；想象：“这时对那时错”/香艳诵读/角色扮演。三个故事结构浑然天成，文本与影像都颇具力度，如此美妙的观影体验，绝对是值得一再回味的幸福时刻！
果然40岁的滨口龙介比60岁的洪常秀精力旺盛得多，三个故事拼一集，而没有整出无聊的三集。每个故事都很精致，不拖泥带水，女性视觉，微妙情感。全球赢得4个奖项9项提名，获得(2021)柏林银熊评审团大奖。7.2
我要去读一下《孤独的性》了。
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