Blood: the Last Vampire by The Professor

Writer: Chris Chow, Katsuya Terada, Kenji Kamiyama
Director: Chris Nahon
Starring: Gianna Jun, Allison Miller, Liam Cunningham, JJ Field, Koyuki
Length: 91 Minutes

2009’s Blood: the Last Vampire, a live-action re-make of 2001’s animated film of the same name, is basically a Blade rip-off: half-vampire, this time a girl by the name of Saya, goes about killing blood-suckers for a mysterious group called the Council.  

The original animated film, set in post-WWII era Japan, was praised by critics for its gritty noir-ish imagery and feel. Director, Chris Nahon, was obviously a fan and lifted some scenes wholesale from the original. The beginning sequence on the subway, for example, is virtually identical, except the victim of Saya’s blade runs toward her before dying, head split in two. Nahon also seems to be a fan of the work of fellow Frenchman, Christophe Gans, and the fight scenes in this movie, with their slow-mo and long hang-time blood splatter seem reminiscent of Brotherhood of the Wolf; though it seems like most movies with fight scenes use some level of this sort of technique these days. 

Nahon tried to add some depth to the feeble plotline of the original, adding more backstory to the protagonist and substituting American teenager, Alice McKee, the rebellious daughter of base commander, General McKee, for the heavyset school nurse of the 2001 version as the bystander let in on the secret. The young American gets to act as witness to all the things that should remain unseen for the normal human, a war between the demonic vampiric brood and humankind, whose champion is a mix of both races. And of course, the girls become friends of sorts, or at least come to trust one another, which is essential to achieve the final victory against Onigen, the arch-enemy demon against whom Saya seeks vengeance. 

The development of the plot does make the movie better, and the look of the film, while obviously different from the original, is quite good. But the enhanced storyline is not original enough or interesting enough to make this movie a good one. The characters are one-dimensional and the actors do nothing to make them more than they were written to be. Gianna Jun’s sulky Saya and Allison Miller’s absolutely typical Army brat teen Alice McKee have to drive the interest of the audience for this film to work and they don’t or can’t. To be fair to Miller, working off of Jun, one can imagine, would be like giving gold to the idols, even if she had gold to give, she wouldn’t be getting her prayers answered. And at times this film was as tortured and tedious as that simile.  

The idea has potential, but if it interests you, watch Blade. 

2 out of 5