"Blood:The Last Vampire"(2009), Corey Yuen is the action director

[wackiechan]

"Blood: The Last Vampire" is a live action movie that was just released last Friday, July 10, 2009, in just a few theatres in the L.A. area.

Here are the U.S. theatres that are showing it: http://schedule.samuelgoldwynfilms.com/films/blood:+the+last+vampire/

Corey Yuen is the action director of this movie. If the director of "Blood: TLV" was also the director of "Kiss of the Dragon", and if Corey was involved w/ "KotD", then "Blood:TLV" is a "KotD" reunion.

[AlbertV]

Blood: The Last Vampire's helmer is in fact KoTD helmer Chris Nahon, who replaced Ronny Yu.

[Rebornman]

the anime was decent. i hope the movie is as good or better

[niro]

the trailer for it looks good, wanna check it out in HD

[ToothbrushFu]

This was released in the UK last month. I like the anime and I like Jeon Ji-hyun, but this live action film was quite dissapointing.

There is some awful CGI in here, so awful that when the first monster transformation occurs everyone in the screening I was watching it in burst out laughing, which is not a good sign in a scene that is supposed to be terrifying. Also, Chris Nahon and his editor butcher all the fight scenes, which is not a surprise in this day and age but its a real kick in the teeth for JJH and Corey Yuen who obviously worked hard on that stuff. And its not just that lame old excuse that they do it because she's a non-fighter and they have to use editing tricks to make her look good, they also do the same crap in the flashback scenes with Yasuaki Kurata fighting and we all know he doesn't need any editing tricks to look badass.

On the plus side some of the production design is great (i.e. non-CGI stuff), and it manages to evoke a nice period feel in some of the scenes. JJH is good in the lead. But that doesn't make up for the rest of it.

BTW, does anyone know why they dumped Ronny Yu from the project? He'd just directed Fearless before this, why would anyone in their right mind replace him with a hack like Nahon?

[Fightingfist]

Hope this is a good moie

[shapes]

It's not good, I saw it last month, it has one ok bit in it.

[Fightingfist]

Thats dissapointing.

[daisho2004]

This was posted by: E. A Solinas "ea_solinas on Amazon.com and I think its a very accurate description of the movie. I did like the movie it did have some really good action scenes as well as some cheesy CGI. But to have "Yasuaki Kurata" in it you know you have to check it out! The only problem I would say is that the movie was too short about 80 minutes.

I'm not here for those bottom-feeders, August 8, 2009

Currently movie vampires are beautiful, seductive, and opulent. Well, most of them, anyway.

Things are a bit different in "Blood: The Last Vampire," adapted from a gorgeously animated, plot-thin anime. It's a fast-moving, gory flick with plenty of vampires and swords, but it also suffers from a cluttered storyline (what's the point of the Elder again?) and a predictable plot twist at the end. Jeon Ji-hyun makes a brilliant Vampiric anti-heroine, though.

As the movie opens, we see a mysterious young girl, Saya (Jun), on a train. When the lights go out, she savagely attacks a man at the other end of the train with a sword. Turns out he's a "bloodsucker."

Half-vampire Saya works for the mysterious Council, and a kindly man-in-black named Michael -- but only until they find the vampire overlord Onigen. When people start dying on an American army base, she has to go undercover at the base high school. Unfortunately the general's daughter Alice (Allison Miller) sees Saya slaughtering a couple of vampires in the school gym, and later wanders into a vampire bar. She's as bright as a smashed light bulb.

And some of the people working for the Council are determined to kill anyone who interferes in their work -- including Alice's father, General McKee. Alice ends up on a desperate road trip with Saya, trying to dodge the malevolent vampires that are tracking her new buddy. But Onigen is tricking them now, and it's becoming very personal.

"Bl: Th The Last Vampire" is changed in many ways from the original OAV, such as Saya's background and her being a Vampire The second half is basically invented by writer Chris Chow -- complete with a rosy-eyed look at Saya's youth while preserving the bleak, dimly-lit look that the anime had.

The first half is messy -- there are too many characters (the Elder doesn't DO anything!) and plot elements (Vietnam war criticism from a VAMPIRE?) that feel randomly inserted. Fortunately director Chris Nahon chops away all the deadwood in the latter half of the movie, and gives the visuals a surreal beauty -- bleak rainy streets, misty forests, and a wuxia-style full of fire, water, blood and floating veils.

While the first action scene almost gave me a seizure (slow-mo! FAST! Slow-mo! FAST!), the splattery fight scenes became cooler later on: Saya smashing through buildings, slicing enemies apart, and dueling with a flying vampire on a rickety bridge. And the vampires are wonderfully ghastly -- bat-winged, fanged, slimy-skinned monstrosities who splatter dark blood. 2 words: Vampire & NINJAS.

Jeon Ji-hyun/Giannun in stunning in this role ,she jumps, kicks, spins, slashes, and infuses her character with a sense of hollow loneliness that nothing can heal. And she plays a very different Saya in the flash from four hundred years ago, when her innocence was shattered by her own Vampiric nature. Mer does es a decent performance as the whiny Alison, and the stunning Koyuki does a pretty good job as the malevolent Onigen.

"Blood: The Last Vampire" suffers from a ragged first half, but it tightens up into a much more beautiful and memorable movie in the second. If nothing else, watch it for Jeon Ji-hyun.

[AlbertV]

http://eastwesttemple.t35.com/reviews/bloodthelastvampire.htm

This is my review of Blood: The Last Vampire for my new site that I'm still tweaking

[daisho2004]

AlbertV: Good review, let Me know when the site is ready to go!

[KyFi]

Huh, just got around to seeing this on Crackle (lovin' my Roku streaming player), and was surprised at how much I liked it. Yes, the acting is not great, it's all style over substance, and some of the CGI is less than stellar----but I liked the lead girl, I liked the late 60s/early 70s setting, and I really dug the over-the-top stylized fight scenes. Plus Yasuaki Kurata still kicking ass!

I think I'll pick up the blu ray of this one.