 
The story takes place in
Japan in 1966 as a young lady named Saya
(GIanna Jun) is part of a secret team
destroying daemons.
She goes undercover as a highschool
student at the Yokota Air Base in
Fussa-shi, Tokyo, just before Halloween.
She discovers that two of her classmates
are vampires along with others around the
town in which she goes to the aid of one
of the students named Alice McKee
(Allison Miller) to help her out and
flush out these evil forces since some of
them were responsible for killing both
their parents.
The cover of the
DVD looked cheesy and I had to tell ya
this film was a disappointment based
after the video game in which the effects
you could tell were very computer
animated. I just had a hard time
reviewing this movie as the story was
happening way too fast and almost seemed
more of an action flick than a horror but
there's vampire's in it with monsters
attacking too which the makers tried to
make these characters original but didn't
cut it right.
There's the odd interesting flashback
sequence between an asian father and
daughter which tries to explain the story
and where this lead character came from
but yet it's still difficult to
understand no matter what these writers
did to bring everything together.
I also loved the school bully scene in a
gymnasium with two of them using blades
against one school girl making you wonder
if they were gonna actually kill her or
scare her and then this lead character
comes in to slaughter them. I was
thinking "You kick ass girl!"
Plus it can be enjoyable to anyone who
hated school. Bit again te scene was
terribly cheesy with the rest of the
story that carried on in the film.
Bottom line is this film is a
disappointment and not the least bit
scary due to the cheaply looking CGI
effects trying to make you jump when
something happens and fails. Apparently
the video game and animated flick that
happened 9 years beforehand was alot
better. It saves from bombing and just
made it below average due to the good
fighting sequences and some good
performances but that's it.
The acting is done
in average taste as the lead actress Gianna
Jun showed a nice seriousness to her
role with her still expressions and her
cold words as well as really bringing it
on with her energy and really knew her
craft with her martial arts and came
across greatly with her menacing
attitude.
Allison Miller showed a good typical
teenage behavior going through a phase as
well as having good upsetting emotions in
the spots where she needed to do so. She
also was good at acting forceful too. She
brings some good spunk into the flick and
one of the best cast members in the film.
Liam Cunningham showed a good slick
attitude and came across nicely as an
evil scumbag in the film by acting
deceivingly charming in which he shows
that he's not trustworthy at all and knew
how to act like a violent killer too. He
could portray a nice mobster or pimp in
future films due to his role in this one.
Koyuki has a great key role in the
film as a wicked one in which she was
perfect acting too mellow and soft spoken
until she lashes out. She studied this
role incredibly well as you can tell and
also had the beatiful looks too in which
helps portray a horror character. I found
her the best out of the whole cast even
if this film was a flop.
Heads are chopped
off
Bodies split open
Hands cut off
Alot of this happened during many scene's
in the film when there's a fighting
scenario but the CGI effects were very
computerised looking and looking
incredibly phony.
The directing is
very fast paced and a bit cheesy too but
not terrible. Chris Nahon shows
a good moment with both Allison
Miller and Larry Lamb as
daughter and father having a heated
argument in their vehicle with Miller
acting ignorant and Lamb getting
stern with her which looked like a
convincing dysfunctional relationship
between the two of them.
There's good camera shots circling around
Miller and two teenage bullies
played by Masiela Lusha and Ailish
OConnor circling her with swords
ready to attack her and then Gianna
Jun running in to save the day with
her telling Miller to leave
along with good shots on Miller
in a doorway watching Jun
springing into action as well as good
shots looking down on her slaughtering
these two and a nice close up shot on Miller
looking shocked by this.
There's a good moment with Miller
entering a nightclub and then supporting
actor Colin Salmon coming up to
her and getting strange with her as well
as shots on featured extra's as locals
turning to stare at her with fangs and
then him turning into a vampire trying to
chase after her with good shots on her
running away from him. There's terrific
side camera shots on Miller in
the street with her running outside in
the rain with the rest chasing after her
with good suspenseful shots on all of
this as well as a good shot on her in the
middle of an area with these extra's
cornering her and then Jun
swinging a sledge hammer against them
with good martial arts fighting on all of
this. There's nice camera shots looking
down on the two of them running away in
the street and then being outnumbered by
a flock of them along with a good close
up shot on them back to back looking
nervous and holding each others hands.
There's a nice approach by Liam
Cunningham acting slick towards Lamb
in his office with a good shot on
supporting actor Andrew Pleavin in
fast action pointing a gun at him which
leaves an impression that this person is
bad news as well as some good camera
shots on Cunningham sticking a
needle in Pleavin's neck and
alot of fast paced scene's with gunshots
happening between everyone.
There's a nice red light effect shot on Jun
drinking blood from a bottle with a good
camera shot looking up her on while doing
this along with a nice close up shot on a
doorknob jiggling and then her acting
nervous while opening it which looked
well paced.
There's a nice effective brief dialogue
between Miller acting emotional
towards Jun by asking who she
really is with a nice serious answer by Jun.
There's some good shots on Miller
crying while driving in an army vehicle
with Jun.
There's a good camera shot on Miller
placing Jun on the ground along
with her slitting her hand and bringing
it to her mouth to drink.
There's are good flashback scene's that
involve supporting actor Yasuaki Kurata
in the woods doing some deadly karate
fighting with alot of deadly shots with
the supporting cast as warriors jumping
out of the ground and other areas
attacking him and doing neat spins and
kicking too. There's also a good shot on Kurata being
chained up to some tree's with him
struggling and a shot on Jun
running through a forest and then her
screaming after she spots what has
happened to him. Then there's good sword
fighting shots with her against the
warriors and slicing them up.
There's alot of fast action shots on
creatures swooping down to try to attack
both Jun and Miller
while they are next to a cliff clinging
onto their vehicle with good close up
shots on their fears and struggles.
There's a good approach by Koyuti
holding an umbrella speaking softly
towards Jun with Jun
acting tense towards her and then lots of
good shots on their battles towards one
another with their swords clanging one
another and their leaping back and
fourth. Plus good moments with Koyuti
still speaking softly and evilly towards
her when there's a break between their
battles before fighting one another
again. All in all I found this scene to
be the best direction ever.
There's alot of low
trombone playing and many thunping noises
with some odd violin playing but however
the music wasn't for my taste at all. Not
saying that it was terrible but not
superbly orchestrated. It sounds like the
typical music for a movie based on a game
which was what this was based after all
done by Clint Mansell.
There's also great classic
rock music through the first bit which
was fun to listen to such as the hard
rockin "Space Truckin" by Deep
Purple during a battle sequence with
the bully girls in a gymnasium fighting
against Saya and her butchering them to
death.
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