The Asian entertainment industry, if there is such a thing, is showing more and more signs of being an all-out integrated transnational system, and the casting of Korean actress Jeon Ji-Hyeon, of My Sassy Girl, Il Mare and Windstruck fame as the leading role in the American adaptation of Kitakubo Hiroyuki's Blood: The Last vampire, seems to be part and parcel of the phenomenon, which would be worth discussing at some point. Based on the anime movie and series (Blood+), the film will be about the adventures of Saya (played by Jeon), a vampire employed by the U.S. government to hunt demons in post-World War II Japan... The original Japanese film, without being a masterpiece, was more than decent. Its strength was primarily in the visuals. A complex combination of 2d and 3d sets and animations, they gave the film a uniquely brooding quality, which made it quite distinctive. The story was more forgettable... and I must admit I have half-forgotten what the plot was all about (I saw the film a while ago), but one thing I remember clearly though was that the Blood as a whole felt more inaugural than complete. It looked more like the pilot of a TV show (which it was, it turned out) than a proper stand-alone feature film.

The project looks very promising: the team assembled has an impressive record, and the budget allocated (US$25/30 million) seems comfortable enough, and a good start for good work. Most of the production is from Hong-Kong, and is lead by Bill Kong (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and Abel Namias, director Ronny Yu [about the change of direction, please read: Update: New Blood, 5 June 2007], and choreographer Corey Yuen. The capitals are from Pathé, the largest independent film studio in France. The firm will be in charge of producing the movie and managing the distribution rights and license under the consent of Production I.G., the studio which owns the original copyright to the film.

Ronny Yu, who knows how to take care of things when he has to (Fearless, The Bride With White Hair), but sometimes just does not (Freddy Vs. Jason), has kept one of the most interesting aspects of the film: its setting at a United States Army camp in Tokyo during America's occupation of Japan right after the end of World War II. If he does only half as good a job as Guillermo del Toro did with his version of Blade, we are in for a cinematic treat.

Originally scheduled for January 2007 in Tokyo and Melbourne, the shooting should actually start around February/March, in China and Argentina, if we are to believe the latest news, with a worldwide theatrical release date planned for spring 2008.
Jeon Ji-Hyeon, who was taking a short break in Korea, currently works on her English in this prospect.

A spokesperson of IHQ, the production company that launched the career of the actress, declared that “she is the first South-Korean to land a leading English-speaking role in Hollywood”. Which sounds nice but not exactly true since Kim Yun-Jin is already there (!) , if I may say so. But it is definitely a breakthrough for Korean cinema, in the sense that it should give actual, physical presence to one of its film personalities. And it is probably more significant than the watered-down version of Korean films that Hollywood has tried to thrust upon the mass market (with stuff like The Lakehouse, the unlikely carbon copy of Il Mare which came out this year).

Regarding the actress herself, I find it interesting that her sex-appeal has always been underplayed in the films, in favor of either the yupgi look (“sassy”) or the sentimental look (they often seem to go together) at the opposite end of the image she is famous for in TV commercials and the likes. Whether or not Ronny Yu will do something about it can contribute to the popular success of the film in the end. That Kate Beckinsale was entirely clad (sheathed?) in leather certainly did help the success of both Underworld movies, for example.

A sensuality often underplayed outside TV commercials (Laneige commercial) 

Update: New Blood (5 June 2007)