Blood   Starring: Kanji Tsuda, Jun Kaname and Aya Sugimoto MVM RRP: £15.99 MLA2005 Certificate: 15 Available 03 May 2010

Police Detective Hoshino is investigating the cold case killing of a maid at the house of the reclusive heiress, Miyako Rozmberk. The woman points him in the direction of Ukyo Kuronuma. Caught in the act of slashing a girl's throat and drinking her blood, Kuronuma reveals that Rozmberk is the woman who made him a vampire 160 years ago. Possessing the same rare blood as Kuronuma, Hoshino finds himself turned by the lovely Rozmberk. He becomes her new lover, invoking the deadly jealousy of the master swordsman, Kuronuma...

I'm always excited at the prospect of another Japanese horror movie to review. The last decade or more has seen a veritable plethora of top quality supernatural chillers. Blood, however, is a film which attempts to straddle two or three genres: martial arts, arty vampire, and police/crime procedural. The truth is I've had my fill of vampires lately, what with the likes of True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, and the Twilight saga (to name but a few) saturating our media. As with any format that is not self-sustaining (such as zombies), I do appreciate the attempt to break the rules or rewrite the established myth. Unfortunately, Blood doesn't do either of these things.

The film opens in a setting of ancient Japan wherein Ninja warriors do battle. This is initially intriguing but doesn't last long before we are dragged kicking and screaming into a contemporary plot involving a disgraced police detective investigating a cold case killing. This ultimately makes him part of a love triangle resulting in an inevitable showdown between himself and the swordsman first seen at the beginning. Ironically, this proves to be the highlight of the film. The rest is intended to be slow and stylish but sadly fails to deliver. The premise is too simple, and even the erotic scenes (which the film seems to hinge on) are uninspired. There is no sense that anything other than a normal bunk-up is going on.

I think I was expecting some sort of ageless wonder to seep through the screen and permeate my bones. In short, although professionally structured, Blood proves to be a disappointment.

5

Ty Power