On the surface, Saya is a stunning 17-year-old, but that youthful exterior hides the tormented soul of a 400-year-old 'halfling'.
Overlooked but entertaining adaptation of Hiroyuki Kitakubo's Manga anime from 2000: 'Blood: The Last Vampire' (2009) sees immortal half-demon turned demon slayer; Saya (played with aplomb by Korean model-turned-actress Gianna) on a mission to face the boss of all demons; Onigen.
With a narrative that spans the centuries, the movie is set around a U.S. occupation military base in 1970s Japan. Saya, an eternal loner and highly driven killing machine, strikes up an unlikely friendship with mild mannered, American student Alison (Alice McKee). Together, they contend with U.S. troops, Onigen's demon horde and shadowy, anti-demon concern 'The Council'.
Universally panned upon release, 'Blood: The Last Vampire', though not the best film ever made, certainly isn't as bad as most reviews suggest. Gianna makes for an impressive, sympathetic lead; equally at home with Samurai swords and swigging back bottles of blood, as she is with scenes of emotional vulnerability and pain. Gianna also does well with the English dialogue, though her acting range and personality comes through stronger in the film's few Japanese language scenes. Saya's nemesis; Demon queen Onigen, played with enigmatic grace and casual malevolence by the underrated Koyuki (best known to western audiences as Taka from 'The Last Samurai'), makes an appearance at the end in a surreal, well directed duel.
Now as far a Manga adaptations go, this is on a par with Christophe Gan's 'Crying Freeman' (1995) but suffers from not quite having the budget to pull off some its more ambitious sequences. The acting, save Gianna and Koyuki, isn't up to scratch either whilst director Chris Nahon's use of stop-motion animatronics is a double edged sword. On one hand, I can understand why he prefers the texture and tangibility of this technique over the often unreal transparency of CGI, but it still makes those parts of movie seem dated and at odds with the rest of the picture.
90 minutes go by quickly enough and 'Blood: The Last Vampire' is enjoyable, undemanding, B-style comic book fantasy. Worth a look if you like this sort of thing.
We will publish your review of Blood: The Last Vampire [2009] on DVD within a few days as long as it meets our guidelines.
None of your personal details will be passed on to any other third party.
Live action adaptation of the 2000 Japanese anime. Jeong Ji-Hyeon stars as Saya, a beautiful half-human, half-vampire who works for a clandestine government agency set up to hunt down and destroy demons in post-WWII Japan. When she is sent undercover into an American military base in Tokyo, Saya senses that this could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to destroy Onigen (Koyuki), the evil matriarch of all vampires. Using her superhuman strength and her samurai sword, Saya begins to eliminate the base of its evil infection in a series of ever more elaborate showdowns. But when she becomes friends with Sharon (Masiela Lusha), the young daughter of the base's general, she realises that her greatest power over Onigen may in fact be her ability to connect with humans.
A shadowy government organisation that tracks down and eliminates evil creatures dispatches its most deadly agent to take an undercover assignment. Beautiful assassin Saya (Gianna Jun - UNINVITED, MY SASSY GIRL) is placed in a school and is ordered to infiltrate the academic institution in order to unmask a demon who is also studying there.
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy
