Although directed by a very young Japanese film-maker and produced by a bureau which previously only made commercials, Tale of a Vampire is a classic horror film. No excessive special effects and no music-video-like cutting, but a beautifully constructed story in the 19th-century tradition of the Gothic story. Shimako Sato has also succeeded in evoking a 19th-century atmosphere and combining it seamlessly with scenes which are set in contemporary London. Sato was once robbed there and that gave her the idea that present-day London can function as the set for a vampire film.The story is about revenge for which the motive is an event which happened a century earlier. Alex (played by Julian Sands) is apparently a rather eccentric young scholar who studies occult manuscripts in an old library every day. But in reality he is not a normal mortal and his thoughts are always on Virginia, a woman he lost in France in the previous century. A certain Edgar, also no mortal, sets a trap for him by putting him in touch with Anne, who is the double of his long lost Virginia. Flashbacks evoke the past which he shared with his beloved Virginia. Anne, sent by Edgar to kill Alex, takes sides with Alex, even though she knows he’s a vampire. Together they combat the diabolical Edgar.The film was made with a small budget, but with much love and craftsmanship and is a homage to a genre which no longer exists in this form, with the story is not subordinate to the bloody effects.
