Dir: Kawajiri Yoshiaki
2000
Colour
111 min
35mm

Sumptuously drawn with dense, richly detailed animation, this gothic epic is akin to Clint Eastwood making his day as a Transylvanian prince. Those who love brooding tragic-romantic protagonists and the gloom-and-doom atmosphere will lap up this Japanese-Hong Kong co-production. Our hero, provocatively named “D”, is a half-vampire who struggles with his own duality: his thirst for young nubile blood and his tamer, more staid human characteristics. Assigned to rescue – or destroy – a noblewomen kidnapped by a notorious vampire, he stylishly dispatches foes with helpings from his sci-fi weaponry and if-looks-could-kill demeanour. Heads will roll, blood will be splattered, but everything is done so artfully that you cannot head but be blood-sucked into its dark fantasy.