TOKYO VAMPIRE HOTEL was conceived by executives at Amazon, who wanted to create more Japanese shows as part of their global remit. Thus they approached the great director Sion Sono (responsible for such masterpieces as COLD FISH and LOVE EXPOSURE) and gave him carte blanche to make his own horror-themed TV miniseries. This is the result. Sadly, it turns out to be remarkably poor, with convoluted and unremarkable plotting throughout; another spin on a kind of UNDERWORLD mythology with rival vampire clans battling it out for supremacy and humans getting caught in the middle. The miniseries seems oddly padded despite the short length, with too many characters doing too few interesting things; there's no depth at all, just a kind of glossy superficiality. A couple of the episodes are all-out action set-pieces full of choreographed mayhem and an incredible amount of blood splatter; inevitably such moments turn out to be the highlights of an overall disappointment.
Review of Tokyo Vampire Hotel
