After WWII in Japan, it is shown that there are powerful demons which can assume human form yet have no soul. What makes Saya(Gianna Jun) unique is that she is a "half-ling", part demon, part human. We come to understand that Saya's father was a great warrior, a demon slayer who must've fell in love with the very thing he hated, a hybrid spawn resulting from this unusual union. Saya was raised by her father's retainer, Kato(Yasuaki Kurata), himself a great warrior who taught her how to fight, using her "disadvantage" regarding the demon side as an advantage, developing a skill of swordplay which makes her a threat to the monsters..her target is Onigan(Koyuki), a female demon, the oldest and most powerful, the one who not only killed her father but sent her henchman and a host of goons to assassinate Kato. Saya works for a covert American group known as the Agency, their objective remains to annihilate the demon uprising, in order to protect the human race. Enter teenager Alice(Allison Miller), the daughter of a General(Larry Lamb) who is over a base stationed in Japan. Alice is rescued by Saya who was sent into the military base's school to uncover demons masquerading as students. Soon the Agency and military butt heads when Saya finishes off the demons and Alice continues to profess her claims that the two students in her class were killed, her General father unwilling to except such a fantastic story as the one she tells. When the General pokes his nose in too far, one of the Agency's chief officers eliminates the threat to their mission, in the hopes of silencing any chance of ruining their secret operation. Soon, Saya and Alice form a friendly pact, saving each other's lives along the way, having to fight off Agency hit men and demons as well.
What could've been a smashing action film is completely eviscerated by an over-reliance on CGI, particularly the blood. There's some fantastic camera work and the action sequences are set up to be breathtaking, upended by CGI at every turn..never once, does the film escape it's artificiality. I'm a Lady Snowblood guy. I love practical effects when it comes to a female warrior slaying villains. Nothing wrong with the casting of Jun as Saya or Miller as her ally Alice, but Blood:The Last Vampire reeks of Hollywood. It looks tailored to an American audience with my worst fears realized. It looks and feels like a Hollywood movie. I watch these movies for their distinctive "Japanese" aesthetic, the willingness to go way out there in regards to violence, using practical methods produced by hands and materials not manufactured by a computer. When I see a sword slice into the enemy I want geysers of thick, textured film blood, gushing all over the place. Arterial spray flowing like a fountain without end. Puddles of bright red crimson pouring forth. Not this manufactured computer generated crap passed off as blood which isn't the least bit convincing. Neither are the scenes where body parts are hacked off or necks ripped open. There's an entire scene where Alice and Saya are driving a truck, swerving on a road which winds around a mountain, dealing with a winged one-eyed demon(..this demon was a victim of Saya's, the one responsible for killing Kato)that never once achieves even a sense of realism. This whole movie is essentially a video game with live action characters within. I've seen a great many movies with Japanese female assassins, equipped with the ability to combat an innumerable amount of enemy forces, impressively gifted with a Katana sword, and the good ones have an air of believability no matter how preposterous the situation might be(..as well as those Samurai movies where a male warrior would massacre an army before succumbing to his fatal wounds). But, in this movie's case, the use of CGI is so frequent that it removes the thrill of seeing humans in bitter conflict. You get plenty of violence and bodies are often thrown through walls. If you are fine with movies that look and feel like something you'd play on Nintendo, then this is for you. As for yours truly, I'll just watch Sex & Fury instead. I will say that I'm gonna keep an eye our for Allison Miller, for she has a lot of potential.
What could've been a smashing action film is completely eviscerated by an over-reliance on CGI, particularly the blood. There's some fantastic camera work and the action sequences are set up to be breathtaking, upended by CGI at every turn..never once, does the film escape it's artificiality. I'm a Lady Snowblood guy. I love practical effects when it comes to a female warrior slaying villains. Nothing wrong with the casting of Jun as Saya or Miller as her ally Alice, but Blood:The Last Vampire reeks of Hollywood. It looks tailored to an American audience with my worst fears realized. It looks and feels like a Hollywood movie. I watch these movies for their distinctive "Japanese" aesthetic, the willingness to go way out there in regards to violence, using practical methods produced by hands and materials not manufactured by a computer. When I see a sword slice into the enemy I want geysers of thick, textured film blood, gushing all over the place. Arterial spray flowing like a fountain without end. Puddles of bright red crimson pouring forth. Not this manufactured computer generated crap passed off as blood which isn't the least bit convincing. Neither are the scenes where body parts are hacked off or necks ripped open. There's an entire scene where Alice and Saya are driving a truck, swerving on a road which winds around a mountain, dealing with a winged one-eyed demon(..this demon was a victim of Saya's, the one responsible for killing Kato)that never once achieves even a sense of realism. This whole movie is essentially a video game with live action characters within. I've seen a great many movies with Japanese female assassins, equipped with the ability to combat an innumerable amount of enemy forces, impressively gifted with a Katana sword, and the good ones have an air of believability no matter how preposterous the situation might be(..as well as those Samurai movies where a male warrior would massacre an army before succumbing to his fatal wounds). But, in this movie's case, the use of CGI is so frequent that it removes the thrill of seeing humans in bitter conflict. You get plenty of violence and bodies are often thrown through walls. If you are fine with movies that look and feel like something you'd play on Nintendo, then this is for you. As for yours truly, I'll just watch Sex & Fury instead. I will say that I'm gonna keep an eye our for Allison Miller, for she has a lot of potential.