Blood: The Last Vampire English Movie
Cast and Crew
starring: Jeon Ji-hyeon, Allison Miller, Masiela Lusha, Andrew Pleavin, Koyuki, J J Feild, Liam Cunningham, Constantine Gregory, Joey Anaya
director: Chris Nahon
Release Date: Jul 10, 2009
Running Time: 89 mins.
Additional Notes: dialogue English
Country Of Origin: China ,Japan , France
Story By : Katsuya Terada
Producer :Ronny Yu ,Bill Kong ,Abel Nahmias
Genres: Horror
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Movie Plot
On the surface, Saya is a stunning 16-year old girl, but that youthful exterior hides the tormented soul of a 400 year-old “halfling”. Born to a human father and a vampire mother, she has for centuries been a loner, obsessed with using her samurai skills to rid the world of vampires, all the while knowing that she herself can survive only on blood like those she hunts. When she is sent to an American military base in Tokyo by the clandestine organization for whom she works, Saya immediately senses that this may be her opportunity to finally destroy Onigen, the evil patriarch of all vampires. Using her superhuman strength and her sword, she begins to rid the base of its evil infestation in a series of spectacular and elaborate showdowns. However, it is not until she forms her first human friendship in centuries with the young daughter of the base’s general that Saya learns her greatest power over Onigen may well be her ability to make a human connection.
"Blood: The Last Vampire" brings to life an English language live-action feature movie of the original Japanese anime feature film from a producer of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero." Gianna ("My Sassy Girl," "Daisy") stars in the film as Saya, a 400-year-old demon-hunting vampire slayer working undercover in Japan for a secret organization, on a mission in the Vietnam War era. The cast also includes Koyuki ("The Last Samurai," "Always: Sunset on Third Street"), Michael Byrne ("Beyond the Sea," "Gangs of New York"), Colin Salmon ("Resident Evil," "Punisher: War Zone," "Clubbed"), and Allison Miller (“Kings”). The film features stunt choreographed by Cory Yuen ("Transporter 3," "Red Cliff"), is produced by Bill Kong and Abel Nahmias, with screenplay by Chris Chow.
Movie Review
The original short 2000 anime from director Hiroyuki Kitakubo was a force of nature, a short story that didn't quite elaborate on the title character Saya, the vampire hunter who was also of the vampire breed. What the 2009 adaptation attempts to do is elaborate on main heroine Saya and her exploits as a demon hunter for the government. Does the risk work to the benefit of this live action installment? Well yes and no.
Saya, for all intents of purposes, is the half-human vampire whose frantic activities have been assigned to her by the French director, Chris Nahon following Chris Chow's script. She goes by the actor name of simply Gianna, but the 28-year-old is a Korean named Jeon Ji-hyun. Here she performs her serial murders in the role of a 16-year-old who is sent by an organization to rid the world of as many demons as she can find. "There are lots of bloodsuckers in the world," atones one member of her commanding officers. Amen to that: the only believable line in the movie.
What you'll see here is about only a quarter of the original's story followed by a completely different version of what we see in the animated original that extrapolates on Saya's journey in to the post WWII civilization where she's assigned to infiltrate a prep school where vampires of all kinds are hiding and feeding.
Gianna Jun is a dead ringer for her animated counterpart as the silent and very bitter Saya who's often given the task of cutting vamps down to their size no matter how hopelessly outnumbered she is. Meanwhile we're left with a wider scope where we not only learn about who Saya is and why she works for the government, but what happened to her family
This is sadly where the film stumbles at times because writer Chris Chow completely meanders from the original point of the story to feature endless fight sequences, and an expansion on Saya's origin that keeps all the attention on the prep school slim and eventually renders the original Macguffin moot. Though adaptations aren't always loyal to their source material we're not given nearly enough of Saya trying to live in society among cliques and social groups and instead just focus on sword fights and battles with giant bat monsters.
blood3While any creature buff may find the hack and slash to be a dream come true, this creature buff was waiting for a solid villain to enter the frame. Chow's script never truly defines who we're supposed to be rooting for or loathing; instead we go from sub human monster after monster without much of a source as to who or what is turning local citizens in to blood suckers. Instead we learn more about Saya and her cohort Alice (an inadvertent witness to the underground war) than we do about the villains.
This leaves the threat to feel incredibly throwaway and mere obstacles leading in to the ultimate pay off in the climax. "Blood: The Last Vampire" 2009 isn't a total loss though as Jun's performance is strong while most of the creature effects by Spectral Motion are dazzling. You also have to appreciate the choreography that's thankfully never hard to follow with Nahon behind the cameras.
While I appreciate what this modern adaptation tries to do with great thrills and sword fights, my loyalties still lie with the original because the animation is still so much more indicative of the mood and tone of the piece unlike the movie which never fully uses the period setting to its advantage. For that and many more reasons, "Blood" is just a middle of the road variation of the anime classic.
Blood: The Last Vampire, download Blood: The Last Vampire, watch Blood: The Last Vampire movie, Blood: The Last Vampire watch movie, watch online Blood: The Last Vampire, movie Blood: The Last Vampire online watch,Hollywood Blood: The Last Vampire film, review film Blood: The Last Vampire, free download Blood: The Last Vampire movie
No comments:
Post a Comment