Chicago International Film Festival Review
Tokyo Vampire Hotel
When I was looking through titles that were going to
play at this festival and I was trying to decide what I wanted to see, the
title “Tokyo Vampire Hotel” intrigued me by itself. Of course I was going to
see a movie called “Tokyo Vampire Hotel.”
How many of you guys like Asian cinema? I have for
quite a long time, I love how hyperactive their cinema is. That is the best way
to describe “Tokyo Vampire Hotel” it is hyperactive. Everything about the movie
you could attribute as hyper. The film is hyper stylized, it is hyper
exaggerated, it is hyper violent. This is a movie that is pumped with steroids.
This is a movie that has its volume turned all the way up, disturbing your
neighbors.
“Tokyo Vampire Hotel” is exactly what it sounds like.
There is a group of vampires called the Corvins, who spread their influence all
over the globe, including Japan. They have also been running a hotel for
hundreds and hundreds of years, where they lure unsuspecting humans to their hotel,
capture them, and use them as a blood farm. An ongoing, continuing food source
which would sustain them for the unforeseeable future.
The film focuses on Manami, who eventually meets a
girl named K. K belongs to a different, rival group of vampires called the
Dracula’s, and yes they are really called the Dracula’s. The Dracula’s were the
first group of vampires to form and they are at odds with the Corvins. Both the
Corvins and the Dracula’s want Manami, because she’s a special vampire that was
born in 1999 at 9:09 PM. When Manami sinks her teeth into a someone, she gains
their power, making a huge player in the war between the Corvins and the
Dracula’s. Both sides want her for their own purposes, all the while all the
human guests at the hotel are banning together to kill their way out of the
hotel, all the while the world is ending outside.
I think if “Tokyo Vampire Hotel” chose to either focus
on Manami’s story, or the story of the humans trying to survive the hotel, the
movie would have been much stronger overall. As it sits though, the movie bites
off more than it can chew. We get to Manami, we get to know the humans in the
hotel, we get to know the villains, we get to know K and she has a subplot with
a romance. It’s all interesting, but it all feel like unnecessary filler. This
is a movie that runs two hours and twenty-two minutes, and it feels like the
movie drastically needed an editor at times. There are also times when the
movie feels like its lagging a bit too much. It’s like the filmmakers had two
stories they wanted to tell, but simply ran out of story to tell, and there is
definitely a feeling of “more of the same” by the time the credits roll.
But if its bloody violence you want in a vampire
movie, its bloody violence you are going to get. There are some funny gags
staged throughout the movie that made me laugh. There is a huge fight scene at
the end of the movie, and there was a humorous nod to Brian De Palma’s “Scarface”
that made me laugh over and over again. There are some funny moments where the
movie uses familiar scores to punctuate scenes and themes. That also put a huge
smile on my face. In speaking of music, the film’s score is simple, yet
shockingly affective. It’s mainly a base beat with a rhythmic percussion
movement. It’s not the most extravagant score I have heard in my whole life
loving movies, but I found myself nodding my head and tapping my foot.
While I don’t think the movie works as a whole, there
is so much fun to be had with “Tokyo Vampire Hotel” that I couldn’t help but
like it. I think there is plenty here that is recommendable for audiences to
enjoy. If you enjoy the bloody goodness that Asian cinema has to offer, “Tokyo
Vampire Hotel” will fit the bill perfectly.
FINAL GRADE: B
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