I watched it last night, and Pam's description pretty much sums it up:
It is a bizarre coming-of-age reverie, consisting of a young girl who lives with her mysterious grandmother, lusty old vampires, magical earrings, burgeoning sexuality, ripe romance, hundreds of dripping candles, lacey dresses, oppressive religious figures, sick chickens, sun-dappled fields, dusty piles of books, and the list goes on.The plot is a bit confusing (maybe in part due to the translation?), though I got the general idea. And it doesn't even really matter in this case, since I realized not too long ago that my favorite movies are the type I could easily watch on mute and still enjoy.
And boy, was this one beautiful. The lighting, costuming, and even the creepy characters were nice to look at (I like that a lot better than the current Hollywood torture gore trend that just won't go away). It's not a shiny movie, either: if you check out a larger version of a still, you'll see that it's pretty grainy and faded, which just adds to the entire movie's mood (whether intentional or not).
Check it out if you're into that kind of thing (Netflix has it); you can also watch the whole thing (in parts) on YouTube if you want to just poke around.
