Blood: The Last Vampire—Samurai Schoolgirl

Live-action take on animated classic has its moments, but sometimes more is less

Review in a Hurry: Japanese schoolgirl + samurai sword + vampire powers vs. monsters = awesome, right? Absolutely…if we're talking the 48-minute animated version from 2000. The new live-action remake, at 91 minutes, has good action but feels padded.

The Bigger Picture: The title here is a tad confusing—half-human sword-slinger Saya (Gianna Jun) isn't remotely the "last," though she's certainly doing her best to wipe out all the others, notably a succubus by the name of Onigen (Koyuki) who killed her master back in feudal times.

Working for a secret government agency of men in black, natch, Saya slices up demons in human form. But as our story begins, she appears to be getting reckless, and possibly mistaken, in some of her kills. Sent undercover to a U.S. military base, she must protect a general's daughter, Alice (Allison Miller), from class bullies who are more than just metaphorical little monsters. Meanwhile, she has copious flashbacks (too copious) to her own cursed origin 400 years prior.

Blood: The Last Vampire reteams Kiss of the Dragon director Chris Nahon with fight choreographer Corey Yuen to a similarly mixed end. The fight sequences are often well done, but are filmed carelessly so it's not always easy to tell who's hitting whom. Still, a climactic conflict set atop an overturned vehicle that's been wedged in a ravine above an abyss is quite the show-stopper, and the flying monsters that look like they combine stop-motion with CG are fun to look at, if not entirely realistic-looking.

Ironic how the animated version felt too short and this update seems too long—maybe a third version will pull a Goldilocks and get it just right (worked for The Punisher, after all!).

If this kind of movie is your thing, a better bet would be 2003's Azumi, directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, which stays in feudal Japan and stays ruthless, featuring a sword-wielding sprite who could give Saya a run for her money.

The 180—a Second Opinion: If you're not familiar with this kind of live-action anime in general, Blood isn't a bad place to start, but for diehard fans it's a lot of been-there-done-that.