O Beijo do Vampiro

Plot synopsis:
In the 12th century, the vampire Bóris Vladescu falls in love with Cecília, a beautiful princess betrothed to Count Rogério. Bóris, jealous of their love, fights Rogério in front of the princess in the castle and defenestrates him. Later he kills Cecília's parents and brothers. Depressed after losing her beloved husband and family and forced to marry a vampire, Cecília commits suicide by throwing herself from the same tower where Rogério died.
Almost 800 years later, Bóris has a son with Marie, an English woman who dies in childbirth. In the Maramures city hospital, Bóris to protect his son from his wife Mina d' Montmatre, hides him by switching him with another baby - the son of Lívia and Bobby, the reincarnations of Cecília and Rogério, respectively. The years pass and his son, Zeca grows up as one of Lívia's children. Her true son, Renato was left in an orphanage and becomes homeless, and also befriends Zeca and his brothers Tetê and Júnior. Zeca lives a normal as ordinary boy until his vampiric instincts become more evident at the age of 13. Bóris is awakened from his slumber along with Mina, and they need to take Zeca as quickly as possible because Bóris need an heir, or their family will die and Bóris will be considered responsible. Also, Bobby dies in airplane crash caused by Bóris.
Other characters that enrich the plot. Augusto, a district attorney, feuds with Armando, because he wants to preserve a historical monument while Armando wants to demolish it to build a shopping center. Augusto also has feelings for Lívia, but she only thinks of him as friend. Galileo is a clumsy but kind-hearted vampire hunter who belongs to a great line of vampire-hunters. His son, Bartô is bitten by Mina's servant Amélie and begins dating her. Galileo falls in love with Zoroastra, Lívia's mother, who is secretly a witch fighting the local vampires. Martha, Augusto's sister-in-law, is blinded by a car accident that killed her sister; she becomes an evil stepmother to Augusto's children. Later, she is bitten by Bóris, becoming his vampire bride. The vampiric duo terrorize the city.
Bóris come to Maramures, under the name Igor Pivomar (his surname Pivomar is an anagram of Vampiro, which is Portuguese for Vampire), a businessman who owns the licensing of everything related to vampires. He possess the body of Rodrigo, a mysterious and lonely man seeking Lívia's attention, initiating a complex battle between Bóris, Rodrigo and Augusto for the love of Lívia. During his stay in Maramures, he turn a criminal called Godzilla into a vampire and his loyal servant.
In the middle of this conflict, Lara, a sultry and sexy woman who doesn't accept being left over from Rodrigo becomes Lívia's enemy. She is bitten and turned into a vampire by Bóris' second in command Victor Victorio, who secretly plots to take over his position in the vampire society. Bóris' son, Zeca becomes a "good vampire" who never attacks people and he falls in love with Augusto's daughter, Liz, and is tempted to bite her and therefore turn her into a vampire.
Meanwhile, Lara meets Count Dracula and become his concubine, enraging her former lover Victor, who turned her. Galileo, who was trying to vanquish Victor, infiltrates his domain and stakes Count Dracula, thinking he has destroyed Victor. Lara seduces and bites Armando, who becomes a vampire.
Rodrigo develops a relationship with Mina, impregnating her with his daughter, who grows quickly to adolescence. She is Pandora, a dhampir, half-human, half-vampire and everybody thinks she is Bóris' daughter, not Rodrigo's. Near the end of the series, a master vampire called Nosferatu, comes to Maramures to destroy Bóris and take his position in the vampire society. The conflict splits the vampire society in half. Martha and Victor betray Bóris and team-up with Nosferatu, while Godzila, Bartô, and Rodrigo choose to remain loyal. Zeca is the only vampire who chooses to protect the humans. In the final battle, Martha and Victor are destroyed by Bóris, but Nosferatu mortally wounds Rodrigo, Godzilla and Bóris. Zeca destroy Nosferatu with help of the angel Ezequiel.
However, Bóris dies in Zeca's arms and his death lifts the curse on the vampires turned by him. Zeca becomes human again along with Godzilla, Bartô, Lara, and Armando. To save, Rodrigo's life, Mina bites him, turning him into a vampire, and together they take Pandora, Amélie and Petra Van Petra to "live" in Transylvania. After the end, it is revealed Bóris has survived his death.

Tags: good versus evil

Review:
Vampires, Vampiros!!!!!. 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.