Originally released in 2000 as an acclaimed Japanese anime, Blood: the Last Vampire here shifts into live action as half-human, half-vampire heroine Saya (Gianna) continues her hunt for vampires in postwar Japan by enrolling in a high school on a US airbase. Despite faithfully lifting his opening sequence shot-for-shot from the anime, director Chris Nahon (Kiss of the Dragon) then debases the original by saddling Saya with a dull American sidekick and reams of even duller backstory. It requires a peculiar talent to take the excitement out of samurai sword duels between vampires and a woman dressed in a schoolgirl sailor uniform, but Nahon's quick-fire editing style blurs everything into forgettable vagueness. The only highlight is a battle in an autumnal forest where vampire warriors emerge from the ground, their blades poking through the forest floor of fallen leaves like silver shark fins.

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.