Despite the fact that a number of them are interesting, Mamoru Oshii's live action works never reached the level of his animated ones. And how could they, since the latter include some of the most iconic anime of all time, with the likes of “Ghost in the Shell”, “Angel's Egg” and “Patlabor” among others. Now in his 70s, the Japanese filmmaker still insists on coming up with the occasional live-action, with “I Can't Stop Biting You”, based on his own animated series, “Vlad Love”, being the latest one.
I Can't Stop Biting You is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam
In Kurusu Private High School, Maki, Niko, Kaoru, and Nami, four girls who are obsessed with blood donation, have started the Blood Donation Club, essentially distancing themselves from the whole of the school environment, with the exception of the school nurse, Ms Chihiro, who is their closest “associate”. One day, Maki meets Mai in the blood donation room, and is surprised to witness her rampage against the nurses, before her subsequent faint. Maki carries her to their club room, where she eventually learns that her full name is Mai Vlad Transylvania. Furthermore, Mai is a dropout vampire who cannot attack humans, and is in desperate need of blood. Seems like a match in heaven, with the girls deciding to set up as their life goal to provide their new friend with blood, most frequently their own. Things, however, are not that simple, while Ms Chihiro also starts suspecting that something is wrong with the new girl.
Mamoru Oshii directs a film that unfolds in two levels. The first one are the extensive, stage-play-like, dialogue-heavy scenes inside the club room and the second the exterior shots, which frequently revolve around food while also highlighting Mai's abilities, and particularly her extraordinary strength and her ability to fly. As a whole, the narrative revolves around the somewhat unique main premise of the blood-donation maniacs befriending a vampire, which is essentially the most interesting aspect of the movie, while following, slapstick, anime-like tropes in order to entertain and also make some comments mostly through satyre.
Evidently, the concept of clubs is the first that gets mocked here, as much as the various “tribes” found in Japanese schools, while the presence of Mai also makes a comment about racism and the assimilation of foreigners, which is buried, though, under the “reality” of her true identity. In general, not much is happening throughout the movie, with the focus here being on individual elements. The girl who always meows, the focus on food, Mai's rampages, the animation of the past, and a number of gag jokes are enough to retain interest for the majority of the movie's 80 minutes. At the same time, that the writing is subpar, and that it is probably expected for the viewer to have watched the anime series beforehand has a distinct impact on the movie as a whole, as it ends up tiring after a point.
On the other hand, the presence of the girls, which is not sexualized almost at all this time, works quite well, in eye-candy style, with Erika Karata as Maki Watabe, Nina Hilman as Mai and Tamami Matsumoto as Chihiro being the ones standing out.
The cinematography focuses on the kawaiiness of the girls and the presentation of the various meals they have, while the “action” scenes definitely stand out through the hyperbole of their depiction, as much as the ultra-red sequences. The editing results in a leisure pace, which becomes slower during the club moments but still suits the episodic style of the movie.
“I Can't Stop Biting You” has its moments, but as a whole it is doubtful of what kind of audience it will find, particularly since it looks like a watered down version of Yoshihiro Nishimura's movies, probably addressing only the audience that prefer their vampiric action soft and the school drama cute and funny.
