Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust Review

by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)
October 25th, 2001
VAMPIRE HUNTER D: BLOODLUST
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): **

Yoshiaki Kawajiri's VAMPIRE HUNTER D: BLOODLUST is a beautiful piece of artwork, but, like most Japanese anime, it isn't much of a movie. The rich and fairly static images are visually stunning, but the confusing story isn't worth the time to decode it. The best way to enjoy it is to ignore the existence of characters entirely and concentrate solely on the screen's striking settings.
The story's hunter is named simply D. D, when he says anything, which isn't often, is voiced lamely by Andrew Philpot. With his long flowing black robe, wide brimmed black hat and long hair, D is a real scene stealer because of his stylish appearance. Dressed rather like an eighteenth century French dandy, dashingly handsome D could kill with his looks alone, but he uses other weapons instead.

Yoshiaki Kawajiri's script, based on Hideyuki Kikuchi's novel, sticks to basic lines like, "Give me a beer," which is probably good given the awkwardness of the few more complex sentences. ("I know I'm a parasite, but I've always been a helpful parasite.") One could argue that the problem is in the English translation, but it's hard to see how most of the minimal dialog could be interesting in any language.

In addition to the lush animation, Marco D'Ambrosio's sumptuous music is equally satisfying. At half of its length, the movie might well be worth recommending for its sights and sounds. But at one-and-three-quarter hours, its limitations as a movie begin to wear you down long before the ending credits roll.
VAMPIRE HUNTER D: BLOODLUST runs a long 1:43. It is rated R for "violence/gore" and would be acceptable for kids around 12 and up.

The film is playing in very limited release now in the United States. In the Silicon Valley, it is showing at the Camera Cinemas.

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