Yahoo! Movies Japan is hosting the full Japanese trailer for Chris Nahon's live action adaptation of Blood: The Last Vampire and it features more footages we haven't seen before. Those who already seen the original anime may recognized some familiar scenes whereas the climatic standoff between Saya (Gianna Jun) and Onigen (Koyuki) is completely fresh material. It seems there is some added plot elements to expand the back story behind the main character with the introduction of Onigen. I welcome this expansion because I always thought the original was too short and it ended abruptly while leaving some questions unanswered. In addition to the trailer, a batch of new high-res promotional photo stills is available at the French official site.
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 superhuman 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 bases general that Saya learns her greatest power over Onigen may well be her ability for human connection.
The film opens in Japan on May 29th. Although Samuel Goldwyn Films has pick up the North American rights, no release date has been set. You'll find the Japanese trailer after the break.
Japanese Trailer
UK Trailer
Japanese Teaser
so it's like a mutant hybrid of the original short film and the series/manga played out as a Playstation cut scene? Glad to see that it's going to be a hard R though. Although, I expect that a neutered version will be released theatrically here. This thing looks too flashy and expensive for a studio to risk releasing with lots of gore. Cause let's be honest, it aint gonna make much money at the box office, and it'll make even less without the middleschool/early highschool boy demographic. A realy catch 22.
Man, I really enjoyed the short a lot, but this just isn't doing it for me.
looking forward to this one, but still hoping that all the flash in the trailer has some substance behind. not a ton, just enough to keep it moving.
That falling jeep shot looked appauling. The chopsticks on the other hand, look amazing.
There's more to Blood than just the initial movie and then Blood+: it was originally envisioned as .hack-ish multimedia project with the animated feature followed by a trilogy of novels (one of which, Night of the Beasts, has been published in English translation) and then two FMV-filled visual novels (a contemporary-set graphic novel came out of it as well but isn't considered part of the main continuity). I'm inclined though past experience-nurtured cynicism to presume that the staff of the live-action (read: GCI special effects) film's only point of contact with the existing franchise will have been though it's anime incarnations, padding out the 48-minute original with the writer's own ideas, though neither having experienced any of them myself I wouldn't actually be able to tell.
Christ, I just hope they nail some of the darkness and atmosphere captured in the original anime. I'm not familiar with the Manga, but the anime short was dark, slow and brooding. The clips look exciting (in a Azumi meets vampire sort of way), but this ain't a wham bam thank you ma'am type of story. Not really impressed. Will still see it for Jihyun's first US appearance ..
Why do I get a bad feeling that this might get the straight-to-dvd treatment here in North America? I hope it doesn't.