Never quite fully dead, of course, the vampire is taking on new international blood from the female side in films from various countries. For example, French director Chris Nahon offers Blood: The Last Vampire, with Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Irish and American actors in a Chris Chow adaptation of a prize-winning anime semi-feature which inspired a light novel for teens and young adults, several mangas and a video game and fifty-episode animated TV series.

Heavy on reds and beige-sepias, cinematographer Poon Hang Sang employs a bleached palette that actually conjures up the 1950s more than the late ‘60s of the tale’s Vietnam War buildup at Yokota U.S. Air Force Base near Tokyo. Deadpan, or dead, acting and characterization are reflections of the exclamatory comic-book origins. The result is nevertheless appealing in its girl-bonded heroines if not its also female villain, its short swordplay and martial arts action sequences (directed by Corey Yuen, minus silly sound effects), and in the comparatively restrained gore of sprayed red droplets.

Fran Rubel Kuzui’s seminal 1992 Valley Girl Buffy had a tutor in Merrick, while current slayer girl Saya’s (Gianna, aka Jeon Ji-hyun) childhood is revealed through dream-visions about her mentor Kato Takatora (Yasuaki Kurata), the loyal retainer who spirited her to mountain safety when her warrior father was slain. Despite white socks, patent-leather shoes and sailor suit, the twenty-seven-year-old Korean looks nowhere the teen she is supposed to be when the mysterious corporation’s Michael Harrison (Liam Cunningham) dispatches her to destroy vampires infesting the air base and by extension the war; treacherous, or simply amoral company man, subordinate Luke (JJ Feild) pegs the adolescent as “older than all of us together.”

The cold hitwoman “doesn’t investigate, I only kill,” with the ultimate agenda of using her father’s sword to destroy his enemy, the head of all demons, Onigen (Koyuki), allowed to roam Earth so as to test humans. The single-minded avenger has hunted for four centuries, herself near immortal half-human, half-vampire. Her paternal heritage renders her reluctant to kill for sustenance, so she drinks the red stuff from refrigerated bottles.

Just to be on the safe side, she works as a loner to avoid relationships which might put warm, drinkable temptation in her path or dilute her resolve. Faked or real CIA connections secure her enrollment at the military-brat high school, where some faculty and students are racist and/or vampires in disguise. Snide about the aloof non-Caucasian newcomer, a few catty girls target Alice, too (Allison Miller, also looking older than this first feature part), because she is the overprotected only child of General McKee (Larry Lamb).

SPOILER ALERT

Saya rescues the other girl from sword-wielding non-human coeds Sharon and Linda (Masiela Lusha and Ailish O’Connor) and then from school martial arts instructor Mr. Powell (Colin Salmon), which is only for starters, allowing the two to reach friendship and literal blood sisterhood.

“Bloodsuckers” and “demons” are the operative words, as the complementary heroines pursue, and are pursued by, the legions of evil and assorted ambiguous snipers and a winged creature (Joey Anaya and Khary Payton) resembling a smaller Mama Alien that went after Warrant Officer Ripley. The goal, edging always closer, is arch-baddie Onigen, who turns out fairly toothless but, like enforcer One eye (Liu Lei), closer to Saya and her past than she could imagine.

Resuscitated by Alice’s blood, and saved by the soul passed down in her father’s line, the vampire slayer must choose one or the other part of her “a blessing and a curse” makeup. The two friends’ action adventures to that point of decision, and the never-in-question choice that will be made, are indeed the stuff of light novels. Boys in the audience may groan indulgently, but their dates ought to squeal with delighted pride. 

(Released by Samuel L. Goldwyn Films and rated “R” for strong bloody stylized violence.)