Taglines: Where evil grows she preys.
Blood: The Last Vampire movie storyline. On the surface, Saya is a stunning 16-year-old, but that youthful exterior hides the tormented soul of a 400-year-old “halfling.” Born to a human father and a vampire mother, she has for centuries been a loner obsessed with using her samurai skills to rid the world of vampires, all the while knowing that she herself can survive only on blood like those she hunts.
When she is sent onto an American military base in Tokyo by the clandestine organization she works for, Saya immediately senses that this may be her opportunity to finally destroy Onigen, the evil patriarch of all vampires. Using her superhman strength and her sword, she begins to rid the base of its evil infestation in a series of spectacular and elaborate showdowns.
However, it is not until she forms her first human friendship in centuries with the young daughter of the base’s general that Saya learns of her greatest power over Onigen may well be her ability for human connection…
Blood: The Last Vampire, released in Japan as Last Blood, is a horror-action film, a Hong Kong-French-British co-production; it is the remake of the 2000 anime film of the same name.
Directed by Chris Nahon and co-produced by French company Pathé and Hong Kong company Edko with the blessing of Production I.G, the English-language film was released in Japan and other Asian markets on 29 May 2009. It was released in the United Kingdom on 26 June 2009 and saw a limited release to theatres in the United States starting on 10 July 2009. The film focuses on a half-human, half-vampire girl named Saya (Jun Ji-hyun, credited as Gianna Jun) who hunts full-blooded vampires in partnership with humans and seeks to destroy Onigen, the most powerful of vampires.
A young woman on a train eyes a nervous man. In a flash, he is chased down the train and the young woman slices him in half. She is Saya (Gianna Jun), a four hundred year-old skilled half human-half vampire samurai who hunts vampires. Raised by a man named Kato (Yasuaki Kurata), she works loosely with an organisation known as “The Council”, a secret society that has been hunting vampires for centuries. Saya’s motivation goes beyond duty; she wants revenge; Onigen (Koyuki), the oldest of the vampires, murdered her father. For her next mission, she goes undercover as a student at Kanto High School on an American air base near Tokyo, Japan.
When she is introduced in her class, Saya’s appearance quickly attracts the negative attention of a female classmate, Sharon (Masiela Lusha). The daughter of the base’s general, Alice McKee (Allison Miller), is also bothered with the attention. At her school, she finds herself being mocked. Alice is asked by her Kendo instructor Powell (Colin Salmon) to stay for the Kendo practice due to her poor performance.
As soon as the teacher leaves, she finds herself at the mercy of Sharon and her sidekick friend who wield sharp bladed katanas to taunt and torment her. An elaborate fight sequence ensues. Saya shows up just in time to stop Sharon from slashing Alice’s throat. Despite Saya’s effort to disguise her activity, Alice sees Sharon and her friend being butchered. However it is soon revealed that Sharon and her friend are vampires in disguise.
Because “The Council” cleans up the bodies of the demons, Alice’s father does not believe her story. Determined to make her own investigation, Alice goes to the bar where her Kendo instructor usually hangs out. To her horror her instructor, as well as the rest of the people in the bar, turn out to be vampires. Once again Saya comes to her rescue and has to fight off hordes of vampires surrounding them.
General McKee (Larry Lamb) investigates “The Council”, who disguise themselves as CIA. Alice arrives just in time to witness her father’s death. Her dying father gives her Saya’s address. With nowhere else to go, Alice decides to seek Saya’s help. Fortunately Saya has never sworn loyalty to “The Council” and protects Alice instead. The two of them flee the area and go off to the mountains to find and slay Onigen.
In their pursuit, Alice and Saya are run off the side of the road by an attacking demon and they fall into a ravine. When Alice and Saya awaken they are in Ancient Japan where Saya was raised. Onigen appears, reveals her true identity as Saya’s mother, and fights Saya. Saya slays Onigen. Alice, who is injured during the fighting, wakes up to find herself at the wreckage of the truck and being carried into an ambulance. Later she is interviewed about the events surrounding her father’s death, but her interviewer does not believe her story about the vampires or the Council. When asked about where Saya is, Alice answers that she is “searching for a way back from the other side of the looking glass”.
About the Production
In May 2006, Bill Kong announced that he was producing a live-action film adaptation of Blood: The Last Vampire, directed by Ronny Yu. Like the source anime, it would be primarily filmed in English rather than Japanese. Kong and Yu originally planned to finance the project themselves, but in November 2006, Production I.G officially consented to the film and began offering financial support. Rather than being paid a straight license, Production I.G will receive a percentage of all revenues generated by the film. Through ties to Manga Entertainment, the French company Pathé became the film’s co-production company, joining the Hong Kong-based Edko. Yu was retained as its producer, but Chris Nahon took over as the film’s director.
South Korean actress Jun Ji-hyun, who adopted the English screen name Gianna Jun for the release, plays the role of Saya.
In early announcements, it was stated that the film would be set in 1948 at a United States Army camp in Tokyo, shortly after the conclusion of World War II during the American occupation of Japan. During production, the film was shifted to be set in the 1970s instead (the original setting for the anime).
Blood: The Last Vampire (2009)
Directed by: Chris Nahon
Starring: Gianna Jun, Allison Miller, Masiela Lusha, JJ Feild, Koyuki, Yasuaki Kurata, Koyuki, Andrew Pleavin, Masiela Lusha, Constantine Gregory, Khary Payton, Joey Anaya
Screenplay by: Chris Chow, Kenji Kamiyama, Ronny Yu
Production Design by: Nathan Amondson
Cinematography by: Hang-Sang Poon
Film Editing by: Marco Cavé
Costume Design by: Connie Balduzzi, Fung-San Lui
Set Decoration by: Cui Zhi
Art Direction by: Chia-Yi Renée Chao, Rika Nakanishi, Li Sun
Music by: Clint Mansell
MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody stylized violence.
Distributed by: Samuel Goldwyn Films
Release Date: July 10, 2009
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