One of Brazil's greatest soap operas; no THE greatest soap opera (or novelas as they are better known). This is a story of a 900-year-old vampire and his love for a woman and his 13-year-old son; set in Brazilian cities like Sao Paulo, San Antonio, and the fictional Maramores. Although this novela was catering to a pre-teen/teen target audience it still delivers a profound message and amazing (and likable characters). The story's main character is Zeca, a normal 13 year old boy who is obsessed with vampires. He's siblings and parents can't understand him but love him just the same. It is later revealed that Zeca is in fact the son of a powerful vampire named Boris who switched him with his parent's real baby at birth. Boris believes that Zeca's "mother" is the reincarnation of his beloved princess Cecilia who chose to kill herself then to be the wife of a vampire. As the story a progress, Zeca begins to develop his powers and tragic turns of events force Livia to live with her mother Zoroastra (named after the Persian prophet Zoroaster to preached of the war between good and evil). That is when vampires start to slowly invade Maramores. Zeca must deal with his vampiric self and still live a normal life (and win the affection of his beloved Bea). The secondary characters are equally fascinating: Galileo (the vampire hunter), Mina (Bori's wife of over 100 years), Cica (the beautiful nurse of Maramores),Agusto (Livia's unrequited love of the past) Martha (the blind-but-evil sister in law of Augusto), Isaura (Martha's suffering maid, her's is a sad tale), Ezequiel (the angel sent by God to fight the vampires), and even famous vampires like Dracula and Nosferatu show up, the list goes on and on.
The special effects are nothing short of incredible. Vampires hurl lightening, angels wield flaming swords, men turn into wolves, and this list too goes on and on.
The music deserves mention as well. Who can forget the haunting theme of the vampires, the exotic music of Maramores, or the active Latin/German song of the angel Ezeqiel (ex nihilo et angelus...must be heard to be believed). Songs like "Fairy Tale" by Shaman is a perfect fit for this novella.
This novella delivers many messages about love, God, and the war between good and evil. One scene has Livia tell Boris that evil and destruction cannot win because God will not allow it. Boris replies that maybe God is tired of humanity and wants to destroy it. Despite that, most of the soap opera is of a highly humorous nature. Scenes like when Galileo's white son was turned black and went Rastafarian; or when Marta led a group of farmers into revolution. I watched the Spanish dubbed version (El Beso del Vampiro) and I loved it (even though the Portuguese audiences said it was poorly done and heavily edited).
All in all this novela deserves recognition and hopefully a time slot on English networks.
