Blood: The Last Vampire (2009)

Director:

Chris Nahon

Writers:

Chris Chow (screenplay) and
Kenji Kamiyama (character)

Release Date:

29 May 2009 (Japan)

Genre:

Action | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Where evil grows she preys

Plot:

A vampire named Saya, who is part of covert government agency that hunts and destroys demons in a post-WWII Japan, is inserted in a military school to discover which one of her classmates is a demon in disguise.

Plot Keywords:

Demon | Vampire | Japan | Post WWII | School

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Gianna Jun	...	Saya (as Gianna)
Allison Miller	...	Alice McKee
Liam Cunningham	...	Michael Harrison
JJ Feild	...	Luke
Koyuki	...	Onigen
Yasuaki Kurata	...	Kato Takatora
Larry Lamb	...	General McKee
Andrew Pleavin	...	Frank Nielsen
Michael Byrne	...	Elder
Colin Salmon	...	Powell
Masiela Lusha	...	Sharon
Ailish OConnor	...	Linda
Constantine Gregory	...	Mr. Henry
Joey Anaya	...	Creature
Khary Payton	...	Creature

Also Known As:

Last Blood (Japan: English title)
Rasuto buraddo (Japan)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong bloody stylized violence.

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

Hong Kong | Japan | France | Argentina

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Japan:R-15 | USA:R | UK:18 | Ireland:16 | Hong Kong:IIB (cut) | Hong Kong:III | Singapore:M18 | South Korea:18 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Portugal:M/16 | Australia:R | New Zealand:R18

Filming Locations:

Dali, Yunnan Province, China

Company:

East Wing Holdings

Goofs:

Continuity: After the train scene, where you see Saya drink a bottle of blood in her hotel, she is quickly seen wearing her school uniform, which she doesn't get from Michael until later on in the movie.

Movie Connections:

Remake of Blood: The Last Vampire (2000)

Good adaptation regardless of bad CGI

With credit to the creators of this live action edition of Blood: The Last Vampire, they really didn't have much to work with to begin with and before I pick apart the movie I feel obligated to preface with this. As an owner of the original Anime and a fan of the Blood series in itself, I was looking forward to a nice tie-in with the saga of Saya the Femme Vampire Slayer. What I got in this movie was a nice collection of katana action, low-budget CGI and poor acting. This isn't to say that BTLV is a bad movie, just one that I would only recommend to fans of the series itself.

What the movie tries to do with the aforementioned anime, is take that exact same story and expand it a bit to give us some history on Saya. We are shown her human father, vampire mother and even a childhood love interest. Our Saya is given emotion (she even cries a bit) and worst than that, she is given a sidekick in Alice McKee (Allison Miller). Though I found Saya (Gianna Jun) to be a very good casting choice, which coupled with the choppy but interesting action scenes, made her seem similar to the anime Saya, I found Alice to be absolutely unbearable. The character Alice is the American element to the movie, being a rebellious teenager stealing daddy's car, talking back and doing all the annoying things that teenagers in movies tend to do.

The jerky camera angles, made some of the early fighting scenes very confusing. However it does get better as the movie progresses and some of the battles are quite interesting once the camera settles down. The acting was not bad as a whole aside from Alice whose crying and screaming were so fake I found myself shaking my head every time she had a burst of "emotion". The direction was good enough and we get a back story as it progresses unlike the original anime. Still when it ended I was a bit confused about Saya even with the history given and it made me wonder why they didn't stick with more of the elements from the anime series.

If it were only up to actress Gianna Jun and her portrayal of the killer Vampire Saya, I would rank this with high points but the weight of the bad acting by the supporting cast, the already silly story, awful CGI and the unnecessary military portion of the movie drug it down way below that. Although I would watch it again, this would probably be due to my being a fan of the character moreso than a movie watcher.

Full review: www.SpicyMovieDogs.com