Well it's finally come down to reviewing crappy live action films based off of popular animes and mangas. Just like with popular video games turned into shit-stain films due to the piss-poor decisions by the filmmakers. So does Blood: The Last Vampire fails to live up its anime film counterpart?
We start off on a train in 1970s Japan as we're introduced to Saya Otonashi (played by Jun Ji-hyun) in an opening scene that's downright similar to the opening scene from the anime film. In fact this film does a almost scene to scene from the anime film. Anyway Saya stares at a man who starts getting nervous of being watched by her. The nervous man tries to leave into the next train cars but Saya pursues him until he's cornered. The man rips out a metal railing and proceeds to attack Saya but she pulls out a sword and cuts him dead. When the train stops at a station Saya is approached by a group of men led by Michael Harrison (played by Liam Cunningham) who are basically a cleanup crew after every vampire she kills to leave no evidence. So it's revealed that Saya works for an organization called the Council that hunts down vampires for centuries. In this film there is flashback that explains Saya's backstory but I'll just tell to you for the sake of time Saya is a centuries old human/vampire hybrid whose father was the most revered vampire hunter. At a motel room Saya receives a new mission from Harrison to investigate some gruesome killings at Kanto High School near a US air force base in Tokyo. This may lead her chance to find and kill Onigen the oldest and very powerful vampire. At the high school we're introduced to Alice McKee (played by Allison Miller) (who's the daughter of the base's general) as Saya arrives at the school. Cut to a kendo class Alice is being asked to stay and practice only to be left at the mercy of two classmates coming at her with swords until Saya arrives and kills them both. Alice leaves after witnessing what just happened but shortly returns with father but the Council has already clean up the scene. Later at a Japanese restaurant Harrison receives word from his contact that Onigen has arrived in Japan as we cut to Onigen (played by Koyuki) arriving at a fancy hotel. Cut to Alice following her kendo instructor Powell (played by Colin Salmon) believing that he knows something of what's going on. Alice trails him down at a bar and questions him but it turns out only he's a vampire but everyone in the bar are vampires. Alice runs away and the vampires chase after her; she gets cornered but is saved by Saya. The scene breaks out into a pretty good action sequence which luckily the camera stays perfectly still instead of shaking around like you're having a seizure. Powell arrives and turns into a beast like creature snatches Alice and runs off but Saya pursues. Saya catches up to him and saves Alice again as Powell sprouts wings and flies off. Saya and Alice drive to the Kanto Air Base and spots Powell heading towards a plane about to take off and once again the film takes a similar approach from the anime film as the girls in the jeep catches up to him and Saya cuts him down dead. Saya tells Alice to just go home and forget what she had seen.
Later Alice's father has been investigating on the Council agents disguised as CIA; this unfortunately causes his own life when one of the agents Luke (played by JJ Feild) arrives and shoots him dead. Alice then shortly arrives witnessed the aftermath and managed to take out the agent temporary. Alice locates Saya from a notepad and immediately Luke orders to open fire on Alice. But since Saya has no loyalty for the Council only providing info for her, she protects Alice. Luke corners Saya and Alice but Harrison arrives to stop him but Luke shoots him down. Damn the one film where Liam Cunningham isn't the bad guy and he gets killed off; that's honestly a real let down. Anyway Saya kills Luke but not before getting wounded and the two run off in an army truck. They stop at an ancient house in the middle of the forest; Alice putting two and two together cuts open her hand and gives blood to Saya enabling her to recover. The next morning the two continue driving searching for Onigen until they are attacked by her underling. Saya and Alice are run off the road and the truck gets stuck in a chasm. Saya continues to fight the underling until she manages to defeat it but the truck starts falling further into the chasm. Miraculously the two survived the fall...somehow and they woke into a place straight out of Inuyasha. Seriously I have no clue where they are so I'm just gonna assume that the chasm was the ancient well and the two ended up in Inuyasha's time period...whatever. This is where the final showdown between Saya and Onigen takes place and it's revealed that Onigen is Saya's mother. Insert your own Empire Strikes Back joke here. So far it appears that Onigen has the upper hand until Alice attacks her from behind with a pitch fork before Onigen knocks her out. Saya gains the upper hand and finally kills Onigen ending the Inuyasha zone and returning to the real world. Yeah try to make sense of what the hell I'm talking about. The film ends with Alice being questioned about the events that happened mentioning that Saya is still out there searching.
My Final Verdict: OK this may gonna surprise all of you but this film is not all that bad honestly. When watching it the first time before I started reviewing films I thought it was average. But watching it again it's a decent film; the source material isn't all deluded and was put together just fine. Unlike films such as Dragonball Evolution where everything is slapped together like a puddle of piss in a pothole. So I think it's safe to say that yeah Blood: The Last Vampire is one of the rare good films based off an anime/manga. Pretty much on the same level of Mortal Kombat being one of the rare good films based off a video game. And may I dare say that Saya has better emotional range than Bella Swan. Anyway stay tuned next time as we look into Brainsmasher: A Love Story...I'm getting a feeling that the title sounds like a lie.
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