Simply Perfect

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Arriving at a desolate mansion, a young man searching for his dead girlfriend finds that she has been turned into a vampire before he disappears, forcing his sister and her friend to come looking for him who discover the horrible truth about them and how to get away from the house alive.Frankly, this was a really enjoyable and interesting effort. One of the more appealing aspects of this one is the fact that it manages to really feel like a fantastic mixture of the different country's styles throughout here. The fact that it goes for a more traditional Western flavor in it's setup, from the large layout of the mansion and the the way it's decorated, the overall traditional feel of the house while the two are staying there looking for her missing brother and the straightforward setup here all make this one a rather familiar tone than what would be expected from a vampire film from this era. There's quite an eerie feel from the large wooden layout and the multiple floors of the house, the long winding basement path and secret passages that are all part of the experience when it comes to these types of Gothic efforts, enabling for some rather eerie scenes where the couple is investigating the source of chilling wails coming from deep inside the house or witnessing ghostly figures emerging out of the shadows before being scared away by the light shining in their face. These here are in place to hold the film up for it's more action-packed moments, such as a great brawl in the woods where after digging up the corpse they end up fighting off the henchmen as well as the big confrontation in the house where they finally come face-to-face with the vampires inside the house and leads into the rather shocking manner of disposal here that gives this a rather fun finale. Given that this uses some rather chilling and creepy looks to the main leads gives this a rather nice edge here while giving this another big plus alongside the nicely effective bloodletting when it occurs, these here give this one enough to like to be able to hold itself up over it's few minor flaws. One of the main issues here is the pacing issues on display, as this one is rather dull in spots during its middle section. Since the middle of the film is about the investigation into what happened, it's mostly about the two of them going around the house being scared of everything or in the village nearby looking for answers to the mystery it does slow down a touch here which does counteract some of the vampire action. As well, there's also the rather strange manner in which this one deals with the vampirism as the focus on more western mythology doesn't translate as well into Eastern folklore so it not only has rather strange means of being inducted into the concept of a vampire but how it's actually dealt with is slightly strange and doesn't make much sense. Nonetheless, there's still a lot to enjoy here.Rated Unrated/R: Violence.

This film starts well and the cast are all good apart from the token lunk that every vampire film seems to have. Atsuo Nakamura (Mr Sagawa) visits his girlfriend Yukiko Kobayashi (Yuko) in a remote house that she lives in with her mother Yôko Minakaze (Mrs Nonomura) and the previously mentioned lunk Kaku Takashina (Genzo). One problem, though, the girlfriend is now dead. Or is she? After 8 days, Atsuo's sister Kayo Matsuo (Keiko) goes to look for her brother who has now disappeared. She goes with her partner Akira Nakao to the house to find some answers.The story seems refreshing at first with some moments that make you jump, an excellent campy soundtrack and a very effective Yukiko in the lead spooky role. She's scary. Unfortunately, we needed more of her, and by the end of the film, things wrap up rather speedily with an explanation and some gore thrown in. Old ground, I'm afraid, although we do get a different version of vampirism than we are accustomed to. It's OK to watch but only on occasion as, annoyingly, a lot of the nighttime scenes just morph into a black screen. What's the point of that? We can't see anything!! The doll element could have been worked on to provide more intense scares and paranormal theories. I don't mean blow-up dolls – there aren't any of those kind in this film, neither are there any of those weird people who like dressing themselves up as dolls. I watched a documentary about them and that was way more frightening than this film.

Kazuhiko Sagawa (Atsuo Nakamura) met and fell in love with Yuko (Yukiko Kobayashi) while in Tokyo, but had to go abroad for six months on business. When he returns, he decides to go to Yuko's secluded country home in a small village called Tadeshina to pay her a visit. Almost immediately upon arriving, strange things begin to happen. The creepy, near-deaf servant Genzo (Kaku Takashina) attacks him right after he enters the door, but is called off by Yuko's mother, Mrs. Nonomura (Yôko Minakaze), who promptly informs him that just two weeks earlier Yuko was tragically killed when her car got caught in a landslide. She still offers up her home for him to stay in and he agrees. That night, Kazuhiko hears something coming from Yuko's room, goes to investigate and finds Yuko standing in the closet. He's knocked out by someone, and the next day the mother claims he must had fainted and dreamt it all. The following evening Kazuhiko looks out his window and sees Yuko. He follows her into the woods and to the family graveyard. When he catches sight of her, she's ghostly white and ice cold, and pleads "Please kill me..." Instead, he's the one to end up dying when she reveals a set of green cat eyes and then sinks a knife into his back.A week later, Kazuhiko's sister Keiko (gorgeous Kayo Matsuo) becomes worried because she hasn't heard from her brother. She and her friend Hiroshi (Akira Nakao) decide to take a trip to Yuko's former residence to look for him, and that's when they discover the home's sordid history, a tragic attack that soiled the family name and of a possible curse. During a visit to the town doctor (Jun Usami), they learn that twenty-years earlier a killer broke into the home and murdered nearly everyone there except for Mrs. Nonomura, who was raped and ended up conceiving a child. That child was Yuko. They were then shunned by the locals and became reclusive. After the car accident, the grief-stricken mother couldn't part with her daughter, and through another means found a way to ensure she could keep Yuko around.The film is technically well-made, with good cinematography, nicely composed shots, classy art direction inside the Nonomura home and fine performances from the entire cast. Unfortunately, it's also saddled with a confused, needlessly cluttered and muddled screenplay. Yuko seems to be either a vengeance-seeking ghost or a blood-thirsty vampire, but may not be either. So how is she able to return from the grave? There's talk of the mother making a pact with the devil to keep her alive... and then there's talk about the use of hypnosis to keep her in a parallel world between life and death. And she might not even actually be dead; when her grave is excavated, all that's there is a mannequin. The movie waits until the last 20-minutes to start flinging around various ideas about who or what Yuko is, and why she's back from the dead killing people, before finally deciding to settle back into the vengeful ghost mold.So while it's a pretty good effort overall, it's not quite as good, nor as satisfying, as it could have been, despite fine production values and eerie visions of the pale-faced, green-eyed Yuko popping up from time to time. I saw the 71-minute widescreen cut of the film, which was released as VAMPIRE DOLL. The film was also released in the UK under the misleading title LEGACY OF DR ACULA: THE BLOODTHIRSTY DOLL. It was the first film is a three-part series from director Michio Yamamoto (called the "Bloodthirsty Trilogy" by some) and was followed by LAKE OF Dracula (1971) and EVIL OF Dracula (1974).

NO SPOILERSIf you like Hammer style Vampire films.Give it a shot.TOHO has three Dracula films.This one, Lake Of Dracula and Evil of Dracula.All three are excellent in their original language versions.Now, don't expect "Victorian Era" vampire horror here, like in the Hammer films.This is Japanese after all.All three films have great atmosphere and some very creepy scenes.I write this review for this particular one because it has no other reviews.And it deserves one. TOHO is better known for its giant monster flicks(Godzilla etc.) I would assume most would shy away from a TOHO "Vampire" flick.Don't!! Its well worth your time.Very much out of character for TOHO and a darn good effort on their part.Its a shame many horror fans don't know of this or the other two titles.Its just one guys opinion that these films belong in any "Vampire" film lover's collection.