Eye Candy #303 - "Blood - The Last Vampire"

Blood - The Last Vampire:  Based on the anime of the same name about a teenaged demon/vampire hunter stalking and killing vampires in the 1970’s on a fictional American military base in Japan, Kanto Air Force Base, a stand-in for the real Yokota Air Force Base. Saya (Korean actress Gianna Sun) goes undercover as a schoolgirl to track down demons disguised as humans in a Tokyo just chock full of monsters. American student Alice (Allison Miller) finds herself drawn into Saya’s “work”, as Saya is out to get Onigen (Koyuki, who you may recognize from “The Last Samurai”), the oldest and most powerful of the vampires. British character actors abound here, including Colin Salmons and Liam Cunningham. In fact, with the exception of Miller, there’s not an American to be had, for all the people playing Americans with varying success at their accents. It doesn’t really bring anything new to the table in terms of the property. The special effects could be better. The violence is goofy and outlandish (particularly one set piece in a ravine that is straight out of a cartoon). We get overuse of slow motion and CGI blood effects that are just ridiculous. All I’m saying is don’t get shot in the world of “Blood”, or something akin to cranberry rice pudding will explode out of you. Schoolgirl fetishists will enjoy this in particular. French director Chris Nahon gave us Jet Li’s “Kiss of the Dragon”, and this film could use a heaping helping of Tcheky Karyo. Nahon plays the least convincing Army interrogator you’ll ever see at at the end of the film and his mispronunciation of English words is entertaining. Watchable, but not memorable. Woodchuck sez, “Fans of the genre and property will probably enjoy it.”