Review: ‘Blood: The Last Vampire’

‘Blood: The Last Vampire’ is a mixed bag when it comes to quality. But despite that I found myself liking it quite a bit. It’s based on an anime OVA and series that came out almost ten years ago, and does a good job of expanding the story of Saya (Gianna Jun), a very old, but eternally young vampire who works with an organization to take out all the remaining vampires in the world.

The agency Saya works for places her in a US military base in Japan during the Vietnam conflict. Since she looks sixteen it’s her job to infiltrate the on base high school and see what she can find. It kind of has a Japanese Buff the Vampire Slayer feel to it at first, but quickly turns into an all out blood bath when Saya discovers there’s a lot more Vampires both in the school, and the local Japanese village.

Along the way Saya teams up with Alice (Allison Miller) who is the daughter of the base’s commanding general. She’s a trouble maker, always rebeling against her father. One day after kendo practice at school she’s attacked by two bully school girls who are actually Vampires. Saya of course comes to the rescue and this is where the movie really starts to pick up. The blood bath that ensues is fantastic. They use the actors themselves, which says a lot considering they’re using mostly unknown actors and actresses. One of the vampire girls is a bit on the heavier side, adding a bit of realism, and she’s just as vicious as the others.

When the agency that uses Saya attacks Alice’s dad, Alice goes on a quest to find out why and what’s really going on. This leads her and Saya to uncover a lot of mysteries about Saya’s past and the movie kind of just goes off in the direction of taking out the head vampire.

It’s clear that the writing stinks right from the start and the acting is pretty subpar. Allison Miller and Gianna Jun do a good job of working together and Gianna gives a really good performance considering she’s never done an English speaking role before. Gianna only has a few roles under her belt and it’s pretty obvious here she did most of, if not all of her own stunts nad sword fighting. The camera is right on her face during many of them, and that’s where the movie shines.

With a lacking plot, the main reason to see this film is the intense action. There’s a fight scene in the middle of the film that is one of the coolest, most brutal sword fights I’ve seen in a long time. Saya goes nuts on a massive group of vampires. She’s flipping through the air, slicing them in half, and bisecting them every chance she gets. There are a few chops that will make every guy watching go “Oooooouuuuuch!” All of the blood is digital, giving the film a very 300 type of feel. There’s some of that speed up/slow down type of cinemetography as well.

The biggest problem with the action is that it’s just a little too ambitious for it’s budget. There are a lot of effects that do a good job of conveying an idea, but simply don’t hold up by todays standards. It’s a shame too, because if they were just a bit better, this could have been a massive blockbuster film with a massive cult following.