[Roderick Usher]

4/10



Here's my big, dumb idea

Blood Legacy

Contemporary, rural Japan.

It happens every fifth generation, just far enough away to seem made up - like family hokum - but every fifth generation it happens nonetheless. A leader of a pack of vicious, nomadic, samurai vampires comes to claim a member of the Haido clan.

The Samurai Vampires kill not only because they need to feed, but also because they view mortals as rodent-like: base and inferior.

Koike is the oldest son in the next fifth generation. He is set upon in the night and taken on a harrowing ride of violence, suffering and incredible power. He is partially turned into a vampire and given the choice to die of the wound, or be turned and take his place among the clan. He accepts the latter.

Meanwhile his younger brother, Yoshi, goes on a quest to find Koike. “No longer will this curse plague this family, I will go and kill the leader of the vampire clan.” And he sets out in pursuit of a legendary demon blade that will allow him to sever the blood line.

Koike despises being a vampire at first, but when he sees his fellow vampires in turmoil, he saves them (and himself) and finds a new bond with his murderous new family. Koike asks what “his place” in the clan means – Tedeshi, his great-great-great-great-great-grandfather has been looking for a suitable successor. Every fifth generation he has selected a strong male to challenge him in battle. He hopes to find another great leader in the family, one who can defeat him in battle and thus take his place as rightful leader of the clan.

Koike won’t kill Tedeshi, it isn’t right. Tedeshi says “I would have killed you the first night if you had asked for it. I will try to kill you again. There is little choice you have in the matter.” It is Epic battle – awesome swordplay.

Swordplay interrupted by Yoshi. Yoshi wields the Onibocho, the demon blade. His quest took him across the river that separates the lands of the living and the dead. The sword is cursing him, giving him superhuman fighting abilities, but turning his heart dark and evil.

With the superhuman assistance of the Onibocho (to compete with the heightened skills of the vampire samurai) Yoshi is able to hold his own and even kill a couple of vampires.

Yoshi tries to attack the ancestor, but Tedeshi strikes Yoshi with a fatal blow. Yoshi rises from near-death, fueled by the darkness of the demon sword. His eyes go black and he becomes a killing machine. Yoshi begins slaying the rest of the vampire clan.

Enraged at Yoshi’s apparent death, Koike ramps up the intensity of the attack and eventually kills Tedeshi. Dying, Tedeshi smiles, his search is over, release is his.

Koike is now alone in a land of dead bodies and blood with the demon possessed Yoshi. Two brothers, both victims of dark forces, have a great talk about how neither curse can continue in the family line.

The Haido line will not continue to suffer.

Brother against brother sword fight. They hack each other to pieces. Koike finally takes Yoshi’s head off and then Kneels in the grass, facing the rising sun (big time Japanese icon) and disembowels himself as the sun rends his vampiric flesh. His dying breath is “it is undone.”

With huge, tragic drama, fantastic swordplay, a clan of nomadic, samurai vampires and a demon sword, it’s the biggest Martial Arts film ever. Hero? Crouching Tiger? House of Flying Daggers?

This shit has vampires!