I can't stop biting you

Oshii Mamoru has long been celebrated for his achievements in anime (Patlabor the Movie, IFFR 2000) and live-action cinema (Avalon, IFFR 2002); his work has been regularly showcased in Rotterdam since 1996. Oshii has also worked, as a writer and producer, in manga, novels and television. The Ghost in the Shell and Jin-Roh franchises rank high in his legacy. Now in his 70s, Oshii returns to the premise and characters of the anime TV series he created in 2020, Vlad Love, and reworks it as a live-action feature, I Can’t Stop Biting You.

Highly stylised and essentially comical in tone, the film portrays the four, very different teenage members of a ‘Blood Donation Club’, schoolgirls who have alienated themselves from the dreary, conformist pack through their unusual obsession – regular blood donations. Into their lives crashes the dangerously beautiful Mai Vlad Transylvania, a vampire ‘teenager’ who happens to be unable to attack humans. A mix of satire, mystery, cartoonish frenzy, delightful goofiness and teenage drama, I Can’t Stop Biting You is a playful and touching piece of work to enjoy.

– Adrian Martin