AS I'VE previously mentioned in blogs on this site, I have a love for speculative fiction – sci-fi, fantasy and other forms of surreal stories.
So, I've been having a bit of a bumper time lately at the movie cinemas – Star Trek, Terminator and now, Blood: The Last Vampire.
I was rather looking forward to seeing this film – I've read and enjoyed the manga and even seen the anime series of the story – so I hoped the film would be up to scratch.
Warning in advance: If you haven't seen this film and want to, there are a number of spoilers ahead.
Blood has a relatively good pedigree – especially with Corey Yuen doing the fight scenes and Chris Nahon on direction – but unfortunately it didn't quite live up to it.
The story comes from a single-volume manga which was published in Japan in 2001 and was written by Benkyo Tamaoki. There was also a 50 episode anime series.
Saya is a half-human, half-vampire girl who travels around killing off 'blood suckers' with her super Samurai sword skills. She's 'helped' out by a group of white guys who belong to a secret society that is dedicated to killing demons.
Now, the 'blood suckers' aren't classic vampires, they can walk around in the sun for a start, they're more like Japanese demons. Still they do drink blood.
All this takes place during the Vietnam war, with plenty of nice cinematography setting the scenes at the beginning of the film.
We meet Alice – who's the daughter of the General in charge of a US Army Base – and get a few bursts of interesting 70s rock 'n' roll before the sword slashing and monster killing starts.
But that, unfortunately, was the best music in the whole film. The soundtrack left a lot to be desired – the 'spooky' music was more soppy than spooky, the action tracks were oddly soft and the mood music was a bit tinny.
Still, that wasn't the worst part of Blood. The acting, what there was of it, was terrible. Simply put, Gianna Jun, Allison Miller, JJ Feild and Koyuki might as well have been planks of wood.
Poor Gianna had obvious trouble with her English-language dialogue, although she wasn’t quite as bad as Koyuki. There were whole sentences from the former model that needed English subtitles.
Gianna also had difficulty with her Japanese dialogue, although the fact that she was acting with established character actor Yasuaki Kurata, probably put her off. In fact, going by Gianna's expression I'd be surprised if she actually understood anything he was saying at all.
Young Allison Miller gave it her best, but she looked like she should have been on a Made for Disney kids television show, her over-acting was almost as irritating as her constant screaming.
Mind you, Gianna's shrieking was worse; there was something so extreme, yet oddly fake, that made one wonder what was going on in the girl's mind.
Thankfully Liam Cunningham's Michael was a competent, if slightly frozen, portrayal of a mysterious agent with a heart. You felt, though, that he was always asking himself 'What exactly am I doing in this film?
Blood's other redeeming features were the sheer prettiness of the cinematography from Hang-Sang Poon. The opening shots with the 70s vibe were great; as were the fight scenes in the back alleys.
However, the CGI left more than a little to be desired. The blood spatter was spectacular – with a kind of weird 'bubble-ness' to it, and the floating draperies of Onigen were rather stunning.
There was a somewhat 300 feel to the film, particularly in the action scenes where the live-action characters have been 'dusted' with the smoothing qualities of CGI.
And, naturally, the fight scenes were great. Corey Yuen has applied himself and produced some great segments – again, the fight in the back alleys is very good.
However, I have to say that there are a number of shots in the penultimate scene with a truck and a demon when Saya ends up having a sword in her hand, before she's actually shown picking it up. Bit of a continuity issue there, I suspect.
Despite all these foibles, however, I actually enjoyed Blood: The Last Vampire. This is one of those films that is so bad, that it's almost good.
Certainly there are scenes where the audience is laughing, although probably not the ones the director intended to be funny. Most of these include the transformed monsters – they definitely had a 'rubbery' quality about them.
If you're worried about being scared, don't be. The blood is obviously fake and there aren't too many actual surprises.
Still, there are more boring ways out there to spend your evening, so give it a go, even if it's only to have something to argue about over coffee.
Blood: The Last Vampire is now showing in Singapore cinemas.