Blood: The Last Vampire
Blood: The Last Vampire Jeon Ji-hyeon, Koyuki, Michael Byrne, Colin Salmon Director: Chris Nahon
Many movie-goers around the world have been waiting to see just how Western filmmakers might handle the undisputed talent that is South Korea's Jeon Ji-hyeon.
With a series of locally made blockbusters behind her - including a role as the uppity girlfriend in My Sassy Girl (2001), with which she will forever be associated - Jeon (above) has apparently been looking for the 'right role' to help thrust herself into the international limelight.
Sadly, then, we are left after this film wondering just who has been giving her advice.
Blood: The Last Vampire is a stinker - a half-baked anime adaptation that presents its star with little more to do than throw on a schoolgirl's uniform and stroke a few big swords.
Jeon plays a half-vampire who comes to the aid of a bunch of Vietnam war-era Americans being menaced by a tribe of blood-suckers. And although Jeon does the best she can with the limited material she's been given, a second-rate support cast and a general lack of any real enthusiasm drag the pace of the whole production back to a crawl.
What's worse, there's little to no real inventiveness in the action - something that can cover over the cracks in any martial arts- based actioner.
Instead we have a film copying Kill Bill copying every Asian martial arts production ever made.
We can only hope that Jeon recovers from the trauma.
Extras: Storyboard gallery; 'making of' featurette; Battling Demons: Behind the Stunts featurette.
