“This isn’t a great movie. But it’s sincere as an entertainment, it looks good, it’s atmospheric, and I will perk up the next time I hear Gianna is in a picture. There probably cannot be a sequel, however, since in this film she seems to be putting herself out of a job. Oops, I gave away the title.”

Jun Ji Hyun’s performance in her Hollywood debut film, “Blood: The Last Vampire”, was also praised, as film critic Roger Ebert called her a “beautiful South Korean actress” and he found her performance “sympathetic”. ( This is a lot better than the New York Times' review )

source: seoulbeats

[001-020] Blood The Last Vampire
Teaser:




( Here )

Today I was flipping through this week's Star magazine and I found a picture from BTLV. This is the first time I saw a picture of Gianna on a US gossip magazine! So this is totally cool! :) Ignore the negative review. hehe

Wow! This is so unlike her.. first time I've seen her in a BIG fashion show... and in PARIS!

Here she is with Karl Lagerfeld

( Read more... )

CINEFANTASTIQUE: When you were making BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE did you know it would have so much blood in it? (I ask because much of the blood looks as if it was added later with computer-generated imagery.)

GIANNA JUN: I myself was pretty surprised when I watched the finished product. It was much bloodier than I had imagined while filming…I didn’t realize I had killed so brutally. Ha ha!

CINEFANTASTIQUE: Saya’s fate is a mystery at the end of BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE. Has there been any talk of bringing her back in a sequel?

GIANNA JUN: I know Bill Kong announced he’s willing to make a sequel.

CINEFANTASTIQUE: What’s next for you?

GIANNA JUN: I’m planning to do more Korean films, but nothing is decided yet.


More here: http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2009/07/07/blood-the-last-vampire-interview-with-the-vampire-hunter-gianna/

There are 3 different interviews that I found.

http://www.newsarama.com/film/090708-bill-kong-last-vampire.html

http://www.hosokinema.com/bloodthelastvampire.html

http://www.hollywoodchicago.com/news/8135/interview-producer-bill-kong-on-his-latest-blood-the-last-vampire


Here are some interesting Q+A

NRAMA: Now the film is known for being produced by Mamoru Oshii. Did you deal with him at all?

BK: I only met with him after we made the movie. I showed it to him. After he saw it, he and Mitsuhisa Ishikawa [founder of Production IG] told me they really loved it. They thanked me personally for being faithful to the material. In fact, Mr. Oshii personally asked me to let him direct the sequel. I felt complimented by that.


NRAMA: Was Gianna Jun your first choice for Saya?

BK: Gianna was always my first choice. In fact, we would have only done a casting call if we didn’t get Gianna. I thought of her as soon as I saw the anime. I also made her watch the anime before she accepted. I also warned her that if she wanted the role she would have to learn better English and take lessons to be an action performer. She saw the anime that night, and the next day said ‘OK. I’ll do it.’ Believe me, that was a great relief. She went on and trained for almost a year, both her English and learning how to do action. We did a ‘making of’ documentary and if you ever see it you’ll understand she put in a lot of hard work.


Q: Could you talk about the process of casting Gianna Jun as Saya? Because she was in her mid-20's back then, people initially didn't think she could pull this off as a high school student. But she did!

Bill Kong: When I first saw the anime, the truly challenging thing was whether you can cast the right female lead as Saya or not. I think you have to find the right Saya in order to make a film successful. I had the opportunity to work with Gianna Jun about several years ago. Gianna is a beautiful actress, she did a lot of work in commercials, and she had a lot of movies to do. You know, in order to play Saya, you have to stop everything and start training for at least a half year to be able to become an action star. And then another five months to shoot.

But when I presented the anime to Gianna, and after she watched it, she was very happy and called me up saying "I'll do it." She actually trained for seven months and another five months on the film. It was tremendous devotion and passion in a project. She really gave a more than hundred percent of herself in the movie. That was the key. So I was very fortunate to be able to convince her. And after Gianna joined the film, Koyuki also wanted to do the film because he is a fan of Gianna, so I was able to cast Koyuki as Onigen.

So far its only around 20% fresh.

Check out the submitted reviews.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10011388-blood_the_last_vampire/

★★★☆

/ / / July 8, 2009

by Roger Ebert
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The movie is surprisingly entertaining. It’s an international hybrid: Filmed in Hong Kong and Argentina, set in Japan, mostly in English, with a French director, a Chinese writer, a beautiful Korean star (Gianna, known in her homeland as Jeon Ji-hyun), a Japanese villainess (Koyuki as the evil Onigen) and an otherwise American cast, it has a plot that conveniently explains why this is: The Council has assigned Saya to an American military base where the vampires have been focusing their attention.
( Read more... )

This isn’t a great movie. But it’s sincere as an entertainment, it looks good, it’s atmospheric, and I will perk up the next time I hear Gianna is in a picture. There probably cannot be a sequel, however, since in this film she seems to be putting herself out of a job. Oops, I gave away the title.

Source: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090708/REVIEWS/907089989