Production I.G’s Blood holds a special place in my heart as it was the first film that encouraged me to make the switch from VHS to DVD many moons ago. The project clearly set the standard for digital animation and to me this was entirely the point. Detractors were quick to home in on the fact that yes it’s a very short piece of work and as a result, the narrative stutters to a halt and your initial reaction might be - where’s the other sixty minutes? It’s a fair criticism but I feel as though Blood is served better if looked upon as an oppurtunity for I.G to flex their creative muscles, a showcase of optical and audible quality that broke new ground within the anime world.
I.G’s Blood being solely conceived as animation begs the question, is there any real need 9 years later for a live action adaptation? Well the almighty Dollar will always argue its case while droves of fans will shoot it down (and watch it anyway to reinforce their disdain) from the moment it’s announced in the pre-production stage. Even if the trailers did little to encourage my enthusiasm, Jeon Ji-hyun was the deal breaker that kept me off my high horse long enough to go in neutral and cautiously optimistic. I’m afraid ‘Gianna’ doesn’t exist and she never will in my mind - too many fond memories of her as the bossy girlfriend and tough cookie copper.
Introducing stars from overseas to an international audience is a tricky affair. Studios seem forever wary of giving them too much screentime and lambast them with supporting players. Such is the case for Chris Nohan’s Blood which over-zealously keeps Jeon’s performance grounded to the point where she’a almost entirely absent from the film’s best action scene. We know this young lady is no schooled martial arts sage off-camera but the fact is everyone loves and came to see the seifuku-clad, katana wielding fem and when we don’t get enough of that we don’t get satisfaction.
Blood isn’t a total washout because you can’t shake the feeling that it plays as straight as it can do under the circumstances. This is basically a Hong Kong film with all the trimmings, trying its damnedest to do things the Hollywood way with middling to little success. The curious line delivery alone got quite a few unintentional laughs and the funniest thing about it was that none of them came from the new English friendly Ji-hyun. Kitakubo’s Blood never really made light of the script perhaps because there wasn’t much of one to go by, but by doubling the running time they’ve taken plenty liberties and allowed it to wander dutifully into B movie territory.
The plot marginally scrapes beyond I.G’s Blood and takes a tepid stab at creating a mythology with the introduction of ‘The Council’, the secret organization responsible for sending in Saya and company to deal with the Demons. However they’re a secret organization in name only because we never hear about them more than once, not to mention the fact that Saya is ‘out of control’ and driven to eliminate head-honcho Onigen through her own accord with no regard for their wishes. We’re treated to brief flashbacks of Saya training under her Father’s trusted friend, Kato and get to hear a little in the way of the dogma behind the hunt. Ultimately it’s all too brief to let yourself be invested in her plight and so you have to gauge the film solely on what you came to see - the action.
‘From the makers of’ rarely gives you an insight into how crisp the choreography is going to be on any given film and Corey Yuen can be hit or miss at the best of times. The billing which links Blood to Crouching Tiger and Hero should be suitably ignored for your own good. As I alluded to earlier the film is HongKongywood in scope and so when it comes to fisticuffs they’ve been unable to resist tinkering at almost every turn with quick cuts, a glut of Snyder-esque time dips and some of the worst CGI blood ever seen. The Demons who shift from their human forms are also treated to pretty iffy stop-motion animation. So there’s little pure martial arts action going on save for Kato having the best brawl in the film with a band of ninjas. Blood has it’s moments, it’s flurry of incredibly well put together stunts, which would be better if Jeon didn’t react as heavily in that ‘oh shit I’m on a wire’ manner but they are in there to be enjoyed. Perhaps the one element that does most damage to the bread and butter of the film is the fact that Saya continually faces hordes of faceless, seemingly skill-less adversaries who pose no threat at all. If the choreography isn’t kept fresh then the film better test the protagonist…Blood doesn’t handle this conceit too well and as a result much of the fight sequences just feel far too repetitive.
Blood surely isn’t the film that’s going to launch Jeon Ji-hyun’s international career in any certifiably positive way, that is if she intends to preclude the trend of Asians being dropped into a host of poor American films before high-tailing it back home altogether. It’s hard to cite her as the root of the problem beyond her obvious lack of stunt experience because she’s already taken gracefully to the English language and conveys an interesting touch of melancholy that was absent from the character in the anime. Chalk it up to a flimsy script and Nohan’s apparent desire to beguile the audience at every turn with dodgy CGI and dodgy performances aplenty. Proof (not that it was required beforehand) that Blood - The Last Vampire was conceived as anime and should have remained as such. Shame!
