THE live action, English-language version of Hiroyuki Kitakubo’s revered animated film centres on beautiful 17-year-old Saya, who conceals a terrible secret.

She is a halfling, the product of a marriage between a human father and vampire mother, doomed to suffer the same bloodlust as the creatures of the night she detests.

Armed with her trusty Samurai swords, Saya now works for a clandestine organisation, eradicating the world of the fanged fiends in the hope that one day she will be granted a showdown with the vampire matriarch, Onigen (Koyuki).

For her latest mission, the teenager is dispatched to an American military base in Japan to clear up a deadly infestation of her foes.

In the process, Saya strikes up an unlikely friendship with Alice, the young daughter of the base’s commanding officer, whose humanity profoundly touches the halfling.