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Title: Blood, The Last Vampire
UK Distributor:
Manga Entertainment (DVD Only)
BBFC Certificate: 15
Suggested Retail Price (SRP): £15.99
Running Time: 48 mins (approx.)
Audio Options: English 5.1, Japanese 5.1
Subtitles: English, Danish, Finnish,
Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish
Reviewer: Rich (Webmaster)
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This may be extremely short but it a better film than many
twice its length.
Cleverly telling a story from the point of view of an innocent bystander, a
school nurse, the story revolves around a mysterious girl called Saya, a vampire
working for the government to help them hunt demons converging on a US army base
in Japan just before the Vietnam War. The nurse is quickly caught up in things
she doesn’t understand and her sanity and life are soon at threat.
The moody, Katana wielding Saya is a fantastically cool character, and the
frightened and bewildered nurse is very believable. All of the animation and
drawing is superb and the mix of CGI and cel animation works well, particularly
at the start. However, the demons, although suitably bestial, look like they
have escaped from a 1980’s horror anime and are not as sinister as they should
be, which is a shame considering the quality of the rest of the film.
One of the best things about Blood, The Last Vampire is the many questions that
are left unanswered – who Saya is, why she is working for the government, why
she can’t kill humans, why the demons are converging on the air force base for
example. The film is brilliantly structured so that, like the nurse, you are
seeing a window into something bigger, something you are not meant to know
about, and because of this it is extremely watchable, the lack of answers adds
to its mystique.
Despite its shortness Blood, The Last Vampire is an excellent story and a well
made film with some superb imagery and a great lead character. As such it
deserves a place in your collection. Extras
Plenty on offer, as well as the usual trailers and image gallery there is an
interesting 'making of' featurette and some DVD ROM content which includes web
links, desktop themes and wallpapers.
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