The hero drags a coffin behind him, an overwhelming number of enemies attack him, but only when the coffin is opened, hell really breaks loose... sounds like the summary for "Django" with Franco Nero, but actually it's "Death Trance" with Tak Sakaguchi. This rare coffin motif is something that will make you remember a movie which otherwise is fun, but not outstanding. Lots of fight scenes in a fantasy world where sticks and swords meet guns, motor bikes and an ultra-cool rocket launcher. Calling it a "historical costume movie" as its star did in an interview is not quite true, but few in the audience will care about history as long as it is fun. And it sometimes really is, e.g. when Grave (Sakaguchi) enters a "saloon" followed by a maybe 6 year old girl, orders a big glass of milk for himself - while the child drinks a whiskey. Or when Grave kills vampires by biting their necks in turn. No grave yet for Grave. Don't expect a masterpiece as "Death Trance" hasn't got the depth. Still worth a look if you like such kind of things.
Add a Review
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unbrokenmetal17 February 2007
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chrichtonsworld16 August 2006Everything in the movie looks great (there are scenes which are really beautiful especially the dream sequence), there is not much of a plot however! The main character (also stars in shinobi) has some skill, but is not very serious about it. He shows some humor (example; HE IS HUNGRY ALL THE TIME). The martial arts shown in the movie are not special. It is not mind blowing, but because of the energy of the main character it is enjoyable to watch. At a certain point in the story (SPOIlER)the guy gets a dream which tells he is not yet awakened. Suddenly this story gets interesting. (SPOILER)At the end he is awakened but then the movie ends. IT SEEMS that a sequel is coming up! But for this movie to end this way feels like a major letdown. I understand the action director of Devil May Cry 3 was responsible for the action scenes. I am sorry to say that it didn't show. The fmv scenes in DMC3 were far superior! To conclude i liked the movie, but was not blown away by it!
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titan-2818 October 2006How can you go wrong with the action director of "Versus" and the star of the movie Tak Sakaguchi, you can with "Death Trance". After watching a trailer on line I hurried as fast as I could to find this movie. Once I got my hands on a copy and started to watch it, I got more and more disappointed. Being a huge fan of "Versus" I was expecting the same over the top crazy action and crazy characters. It was almost like watching a watered down version of "Versus", maybe that is because Kitamura had nothing to do with this film and that is what was missing. Almost the whole movie takes place in the forest, it even looks like the same one from "Versus", and you have your swords, guns, and even near the end zombie-like figures. There was hardly any blood or gore, the action was just OK, nothing special, and the acting was pretty weak I thought. Tak fights throughout the movie with his sword in its sheath because "Killing is no fun"? What?! Please Tak tell me they paid you a lot of money to say that. So most of the time you are just watching him bop people over the head with his sheathed sword. For a story to seem to have so much history and background behind it, we almost get no information on what is going on and why characters are doing what they are doing, even when they do try to explain, you could care less. The characters are poorly developed and the ending is pretty abrupt and feels like it shouldn't end. I really can't recommend this film to anyone, I know most "Versus" fans will try to watch this, but I hate to say that you will probably be disappointed.
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I was rather disappointed with this film.I was expecting something at least as good as Versus or Aragami and I got this post apocalyptic mixed bag.The fight choreography was weak,the plot incoherent.Don't get me wrong,I love watching Tak Sakaguchi kicking ass for no reason at all but this is just too repetitive.He doesn't actually kill anyone till the last 15 minutes of the film(Spoiler:he fights with a sheathed sword that turns out to be a rifle when unsheathed)and even then that cool sequence was spoiled by the fact that he's shooting zombies that don't even look like zombies but rather like Buddhist monks crossed with Frank from Donnie Darko on Valium.Worth watching just for die hard Sakaguchi fans
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This film had the ingredients to be great--both the fight director and the main star of Versus, which I love--but they made a totally forgettable movie. The villains were uninteresting, the characters were one dimensional, and all the cool concepts weren't executed well at all. For instance, there was a bad guy in the beginning with a huge sword like Cloud's in FF7. He died almost immediately after swinging it around a few times.
The director and star were so pretentious in the Making Of documentary. "Period dramas are a staple of Japanese cinema, so we decided to do something completely different with it, to reinvent it and create a type of action never seen before!" The costumes were all weird, Gothic, and in some cases, almost futuristic. I thought this had potential since it was really stylized. I had my doubts about the heat seeking missile from a samurai's rocket launcher, but it was the motorcycle that ruined it for me. Cause if there's one thing that period pieces are lacking in, it's motorcycles. They put some chains on it, which did nothing. Anachronisms can work wonderfully in historical fantasy, but this time it was plainly obvious that the filmmakers were trying desperately to be cool and failing.
My biggest problem was the fight choreography, especially after seeing it executed so well in Versus. The star, Tak Sakaguchi, is a fighter in real life who was brawling in the streets before Ryuhei Kitamura found him and cast him in Versus. No wonder he's a good stuntman! In this film, he decided to come up with "a new type of action never seen before!" The underlying principle of this amazing revolution of action cinema? Actually hitting people. That's his idea, his contribution to stuntwork. First of all, it's common practice in Hong Kong cinema where contact is required, and they usually use shields under their clothing. So his "innovation" is nothing new. Does this "new kind of action" add anything to the film? Not at all. For one, I didn't even notice he was actually hitting people. The difference was imperceptible. Here's the stupid part--it actually looked worse. Rather than choreograph something really cool like an exchange of blocks, dodges, punches, and kicks with maybe some acrobatics, his "revolutionary new technique" consisted of him just doing rapid fire punches to the torsos of the poor stuntmen who had to work with him. The sword work was the same back and forth swings little kids do when they play sword fight. I'm not kidding. Almost all of the fight scenes consisted of one hit kills on disposable bad guys with the same back and forth motion. No variation. No high and low. No fancy spins. Just back and forth. They used wire work and occasional camera tricks to spice it up, but many of the sequences were done in long shot, which made it glaringly obvious that a circle of opponents was approaching one at a time to be punched ten times in the chest in real life, then die. At least cover that stuff up with close ups and editing.
Additionally, the plot was incoherent. I kept expecting a moment where all would be revealed, but it never came. It's not even symbolic or profound. The star himself said, "When I read the fourth draft, I thought that it was absolute crap! So thought I would save it with my acting." (This was the fourth draft?! Oh my God!) And his efforts didn't work. Especially since he plays the same character in every movie: the anime badass who is annoyed all the time and says "Urusei!" to everybody. I think the best part, action-wise was when they had a capoeira guy do some cool inverted kicks and handstands and flips. Then he was dispatched by the actor punching him in real life.
The only thing that roped me in when I started watching was the production design. All of the costumes and props showed great potential for something really interesting and original, then failed to deliver on that promise. And I didn't know the "zombie" enemies were even zombies until they were called that in the documentary. They didn't look like zombies at all; they were just moaning people dressed all in black with silly hoods over their heads. I don't mean that to be dismissive of their costumes--their hoods were quite silly by hood standards; they resembled a jester's hat.
Fans of a good Gothic fantasy set in ancient Japan will be disappointed since the filmmakers only implied a plot without coming up with one. Last time I checked, the movie in which Tak Sakaguchi played a battle-loving badass who had a hidden reserve of power foreshadowed throughout the film only to be revealed at the climax was called Versus. After five years, the best they can come up with is Versus minus the story and fight choreography set in a different time period. I hope they're proud. Action connoisseurs will be very disappointed since the fight choreography is uninteresting and repetitive 90% of the time. It's sad when the best fight scene in the film is the one with the gun, and not the hand to hand exchanges or swordfights. If you're not picky about violence and just want to see an actor beat stuntmen uninterestingly, then this film is for you.
Frankly, I felt betrayed. -
phubbs30 September 2014An apocalyptic samurai, ninja, sci-fi western fantasy with characters that wouldn't look out of place in 'Soul Calibur', 'Mortal Kombat' and various other Japanese RPG videogames, that is how I can best describe this eye popping flick, odd title though.
The main star here is again the ultra cool Tak Sakaguchi, here in a kind of supernatural samurai mode as a mythic character who drags a coffin behind him everywhere he goes (and an odd little girl in your typical Japanese 'The Ring' spooky fashion) as he basically slaughters all who stand before him. His name is 'Grave' and he searches for the ultimate battle...rock on that!
This film is pretty similar to 'Versus' in the location (a forest), it stars Tak as some kind of super hero again and the fact the story is really quite bizarre and makes no real sense, plus it appears to be in a place and time that don't exist. So basically Tak has nicked the coffin from a temple and is taking it to a spot in the forest so it can grant him anything he wants...it seems the coffin can do this. Or does it? a monk is also after Tak and the coffin to stop it being opened and releasing the Goddess of destruction who will kick start an apocalypse...that's not a good thing. The monk is aided by...wait for it...Steven Seagal Jr. yep that's right, or his real name Kentaro Seagal (sounds like a 'Mortal Kombat' character), all of them battle bandits and non human creatures to reach their respective goals.
The film is fast and furious with fights breaking out all over the show and many of them being...well kinda average actually. Most seem too frantic and you can see the hits aren't making contact, also to be honest Tak isn't really a well built guy, he's cool but he doesn't really come across as tough and never really looks like he could really be whipping hordes of bad guys endlessly.
The look of the film is really what sets this apart, all the costumes are a kind of cross between traditional Japanese period wear with 'Mad Max' 'Water World' 'Conan' 'Krull' and many other fantasy type films throw in, it all looks highly stylish. Add to this a complete 'Army of Darkness' approach to the dark humour, camera work, extreme supernatural entities and wickedly evil looking weapons which do also include a kind of samurai boomstick.
Put it this way, the director of this film is Yuji Shimomura and he was the action director for 'Versus' (eh eh...you see, you see I came full circle there) and 'Devil May Cry 3' so I think you can get the gist of what I'm trying to explain here, the film is pretty much an explosive visual video game. Its probably better than 'Versus' in my personal view as I reeeally didn't follow that a tall, this is easier to follow plus it looks ace. I dunno why but the Japanese are just good at this kind of stuff, had this been a Hollywood flick with the usual overpaid names it would have been trash.
7/10 -
This film discards everything known about movie-making and starts from scratch. Don't get me wrong though, it's not refreshing. It's a pile of junk. Story? Exposition? Acting? Soundtrack? Well-choreographed action sequences? A coherent ending? All missing. The visual effects aren't even up to par with movies made 10 years ago. To sum up the movie's plot in a few sentences, a coffin gets stolen from a monastery and people want to get it back. This movie is nothing but a poor (VERY POOR) excuse for Tak Sakaguchi and gang to dress up pretty. As far as the eye candy goes, it's not bad. Warning though, non-sequiturs abound. Rifles disguised as swords? Pretty cool. A bamboo rocket launcher? Wicked. A full out dirt bike? WHAT THE ****? Unfortunately, none of the above warrant spending the two hours to watch this film. I had to space it out over three days.
Oh wait, there is one reason to watch this film. If you look closely at the hero's sword, you'll see that it's a giant throbbing penis; head, veins, shaft, and all. No kidding. Giant. Throbbing. Penis. -
fritzlang19 February 2006I have seen a lot of Asian films and understand that genres get mixed together a lot. But this one takes the cake. Think of putting in John Woo, Billy Idol (!), Wuxia, Kiss Me Deadly, Hellraiser, Evil Dead 2, and Mad Max into a blender and add in a heavy metal soundtrack, and this will give you just some idea of this movie.
This is directed by the person who did the fight scenes from Versus and it shows. Almost all of the fight scenes take place in a forest. Hmmm..
interesting is that there is very little bloodshed. A lot of fighting with the blunt edge of the sword!! Not sure why this was done except to cut back on some special effects.
Saw it's Southeast premiere and the audience seemed to really enjoy it too. Lots of 'ooh', laughter and clapping.. Can't remember the last time I remember that in a theater.
Forget the plot (what little there is), and marvel and sheer audacity of some of these scenes. Very enjoyable, very 'cool' and in some cases, very very funny. Just don't expect anything meaningful. -
nogodnomasters13 December 2018A coffin that contains the Goddess of Destruction was stolen from the Eastern monks that guard it. It is rumored that if the coffin is opened in the western forbidden forest, it will grant wishes. A monk Is tasked to go after the coffin, along with a sword that can only be used by "the chosen one."
The film has interesting characters, including a guy with big hair and a gun, a six shooter that shoots nine bullets and there is a shotgun thing with an infinite number of bullets. The coffin is dragged along the ground by chains, although there are wheels as we see in one scene which has a motorcycle. The fighting was anything but martial arts and utilized a metal sound track. The forest had interesting men that were zombie, vampire, spider.
It was an interesting fantasy film, young gamers might like.
Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity. -
gbgino22 May 2011When I read some of the other reviews for this film, I was quite excited to see this. It turns out this is probably the most abrupt about-face I've ever taken on a movie.
My Beef with the crap-fest that is Death Trance:
1. I love Asian movies but I hate Anime. The themes are always absurdly sensational and even downright kinky. This movie seems like it was written after an anime or maybe with a particular manga in mind. It has everything in common with anime from the extreme focus on visual appearance to the unreasonable number of static face shots. I'm looking down but up through my eyebrows while my head is tilted cockily to the side. Aren't I a bad*ss now?
2. No. Despite the movie being listed under action, there is little or no real tangible action. Granted I'm a Jackie Chan fan so I"m used to seeing actual stunts and solid blows. Death Trance is full of action scenes where most of the time is spent in build up and aftermath. It's obvious how fake the fighting is. The "heroes" show minimal almost pitiful athleticism. Some parts of the fight don't even make it onto the screen when they pull stunts like "look at my face while I kill a guy" instead of "look at me kill a guy" and the classic "it was so fast even the audience couldn't see it" when the killing blow turns into a simple 2 frames; before and after.
3. The main characters are simply obnoxious to look at. They are also completely unlikeable. On top of that they are almost never dynamic and never properly introduced. One of the characters has a heat seeking rocket launcher out of nowhere and we're supposed to think "How cool!" and not ask any questions like "who makes a point of carrying around a rocket launcher anyway? And in Old times magical Japan too, when everyone is using katanas still. Today a man with a rocket launcher is a terrorist or something. In the movie's setting though, it would make him Satan himself or something. This same character has God's Final Insult of a mullet. Hate it. The other hero has robes that part to show his inner upper thigh, hairless and smooth. If I'm gonna see man flesh I want it to be hairy and muscular like in 300 dammit. The third character seems to be a complete wuss in comparison because he doesn't fight, and the other 2 are eager to kill everyone in earshot of their meager "hiyaah!"s.
I could not force myself to watch too far in, but judging by the first 20 minutes, the middle and end can't have been that great.
Overall the highest quality went into the makeup and costumes and props. The acting was bad. The action was bad. The story was bad. Personally I'm not even into Gothic styles and all the black and white color themes grew very tiring. So even though the makeup and costumes were good, they were bad.
For someone without my anti-anime bias and an open mind: 3 out of 10 Me: 1 out of 10 For those who cream themselves about anything and everything Japanese: 5 out of 10. Princess Blade and Versus were also bad but way better than this. -
thedude_1536 July 2006I personally enjoyed this movie a lot. The best way to look at it is to go in with expectations of watching something basically the same as Versus. Don't expect some great story, because its non-too deep, however it does keep you entertained and interested. The action scenes are once again amazing, thanks to Tak and Yuji, both great at what they do. Any major fan of Tak will love this movie. Also, I have to say the ending is quite entertaining and original. Plus the soundtrack adds a good affect, since its pretty much ALL Dir en grey songs. It includes the new single "CLEVER SLEAZOID" by them, which goes along very great with the film. In all, any fan of Kitamura or fans of Asian cinema should enjoy this film, if only for a fun flick.
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gunner7217 August 2006I must say, i was quite disappointed with this one, as versus was sooooo great. This one is justlike a coffee , brewed up a second or third time, and it tastes bad.....i prefer to watch the original versus 100 times than this crap. the whole movie bored the hell out of me, while versus was so great and crazy, loaded with anticipation for whats to come in the next second all the way through, this is just lame....sorry, i cant tell you to go see this in the cinema or even rent the DVD, i really cant. ........... ........ ........... ...................... xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxx
awful awful awful -
kosmasp24 April 2007Not even the title "Versus 2", under which it did play at the Fantasy Filmfest in Stuttgart/Germany, could fool anybody, that this is more than a piece of crap. Only thing this has in common with Versus, is the main actor here.
Other than that, don't look for a decent script (for a b-movie that is, not an actual movie, of course) nor decent acting nor decent humour nor decent anything. It's just plain stupid. And it's a shame, because it does start promising enough and there is a funny moment here and there ... but not nearly enough to grant this movie more than two stars ... it's still a waste of time! -
kbynum9926 September 2006It was good in the sense that it kept you interested somewhat because you are watching it to figure out what in the world is going on. There is no plot, there is no reasoning to what and why things are going on. You don't know what era you're in and you don't know who the characters are and where they are from or why they are there. The movie is a mix of everything. But there is a lot of action but it's nothing to be excited about. You won't love it neither will you hate it, but its a watchable movie. In terms of setting it is almost like Lord of the Rings being that it takes place in a forest but with swords and swords that shoot like guns and one person had a motorbike. The best way I can describe this movie is Lord of the Rings meets Inuyasha meets Zombies meets Vampires, meets Samurai Jack gone completely wrong. LOL, hope that helps!
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TheHarshAndLastWord8 August 2006So what can I say about Death Trance, personally I loved it. I am huge fan of anime and most importantly of the final fantasy series and to see someone have the balls to pull off this sort of genre is a statement in itself. Unfortunately we do get the bad apples like "ultraviolet". The overall story is comprehensible to a certain point, only real problem I see was there was not enough back story to support what is going on. It's like being kidnapped and strapped onto a roller-coaster with a blind fold on, you know what's going on around you but you're not exactly sure how you even got there in the first place. Tak Sakaguchi does well as Grave, his demeanor suited this character more so than his counter part in "versus". The supporting cast do a great job of filling the void of this somewhat empty world and in typical Sakaguchi fashion the fight scenes can be somewhat lengthy. But seriously seeing a lone samurai smacking the crap out of Zombies with a stick in a forest full of vampiric spidermen is just classic. The heavy metal music sets the mood for the battles and fit in perfectly. It's not the greatest movie in the world but I guarantee you play this at a party and people will have their eyes glued. Death Trance's special fx is without doubt AMAZING, no ands ifs or buts. If the lack of story is what hinders the movie, the SFX more than make up for that. If you're looking to run through a quick final fantasy-esquire like story then rent it at blockbuster. If you really like it then keep it and pay the rest. That's what I'm doing, this is definitely a good "unknown" movie to pull out on your friends. Overall I dig this movie, they stepped out and tried something new with this movie and I think they pull it off nicely.
9/10
and that's the final word. -
raoul-guariguata22 September 2006Watching a lot of Asian action movies lately I saw the trailer for Death Trance and thought : Wow! Sowrds, motorbikes, guns, bazookas, Breakdance mixed with martial arts. But where was the story. Well, you don't often need a story in Good action flicks, but in this case : it was absolutely senseless. One fight after the other and you don't get why. And for being the ultimate fighter who only seeks destruction I didn't really understand why does Tak leave everybody alive??? The soundtrack really hurts. In movies like Versus and Azumi I felt the heavy rock music entertaining, but here you want to turn the sound off after short time before your ears start to bleed. If you are looking for a modern Japanese action movie go for Azumi, Shinobi, Aragami. But i wouldn't recommend this; except if you are a hardcore trash fan......
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sugarhigh694209 March 2007I think this movie was really great. First of all, unlike the previous comment, I love both Versus and Death Trance. Unlike him I realize Death Trance is NOT Versus 2, it is a completely different movie with its own plot, which I found highly interesting. Both are action movies and both contain unique plots, but in Death Trance there is not nearly as much gore.
The thing that hooked me was the visuals of this movie. It is highly stylized. The costumes especially are amazing. And yes, there is also a ton of action but not much gore, which I guess if that is all you are looking for don't check this movie out.
I really don't want to give anything away because I think it is definitely worth checking out. So if you like an interesting story line, some over-the-top action (minus ungodly amounts of blood), amazing visuals, an obscenely awesome soundtrack (it's all Dir en Grey-good stuff), and one hardcore actor (haha, what can I say, Tak Sakaguchi is bad ass) then you should probably get a hold of this film. enjoy ;) -
paul_haakonsen14 November 2019I hadn't even heard about the 2005 movie "Death Trance" (aka "Desu toransu") before now late in 2019, when I was given the chance to sit down and watch it. Granted, I didn't even know what it was about or anything, but from the movie's cover it seemed like an action, martial arts and fantasy movie of sorts. Plus, my interest in Asian cinema did of course also make me pick up this movie.
Right, well I managed to get 31 minutes into the movie, well into the ordeal actually, before I called it quits. Wow, this movie was a swing and a miss.
First of all, the storyline was just abysmally boring, and it utterly failed to captivate me in any way. I kid you not, there was nothing here throughout the 31 minutes that I sat through that appealed to me in any way.
Secondly, the characters in the movie were bland and just also failed to impress. Actually, I didn't even care an ounce for the characters or their individual stories. Nor can I actually claim to be able to name the main character if you asked me about it.
"Death Trance" was definitely not my type of movie. But I will say that they should get some credit for their wardrobe and props; they were nice, at least.
All in all, this is not a movie that I will be returning to watch the rest of, as nothing appealed to me. I am rating "Death Trance" a mere three out of ten stars. -
OK , first of all i guess you want to know if the fighting is good right? Answer is yes... Its good. But do the movie has a lot of it? Not really. The few fights in the movie are well choreographed for sure, but the problem is with all the rest. This movie is nonsense from beginning to end. When the coffin is stolen from a monastery, a young monk which seem to be away at that time is given the task to take it back by the surviving member. He goes after "the coffin man" which the legend says a bunch of thing... for a warrior that just stole it, and eventually not only will he join force with him, but also with other characters you don't really understand much about.
The movie is set in an unknown period... Well yeah it is, it seem to be the feudal Japanese era but they use guns and bazookas, and what we taught would be the main foe actually turned main protagonist eventually use a katana turned shotgun with unlimited ammo.... OKAY !!! I could past all these nonsense if the story was fun to follow and made sense, but it does NOT. You care so little about that bunch of characters. The only way the movie find to introduce them is to show them beating some random foes to make think there great fighters, but never do we bond with them at all. At some point what i tough was a main character died, and i just didn't give a damn about it.
More the movie progress, more the story get confusing and at the end i was just waiting for it to end. It seem a bit like a manga on screen, maybe it will appeal to some people, but if you are looking for a good story and characters to root for.... well this is not it. Call me traditional, but i need a reason, something to get drawn to the main protagonist, and this movie had many of them(or i tough so) and none of them ended up appealing me at all... This movie is just a confusing mess, with a couple good fights thrown it, but too few of them to be noticeable.
No matter how independent, how underground or how Japanese the movie is, its just not to my liking. They throw so much stuff on screen just for the sake of having it. For example main hero being bitten by vampires, only to bit them back and show how "supernatural he is" or when he pull out his katana turned shotgun only to kill the "zombies" that seem to not fall down to any hits... In the end all of this do not matter in the movie. Even the last fight, our hero get defeated by the goddess, she goes to heaven to slaughter angels... i think, and he rise up and some character say he is the hope... yeah but he just got defeated... whats the point. No really, i know Japanese can make good movies, but this is not one of them. -
running_with_scissors19 July 2006Death Trance is from the action director of Devil May Cry 3, if you've played that game then you should know what to expect!
Death Trance is a completely O.T.T. fantasy action movie, a few have criticised the plot but I found it to be good and the humour is genuinely funny which is something that Versus failed at. If you hate the plot then rest assured, it's the crazy action scenes that provide the entertainment and there's plenty of them!
My only disappointment with the movie was Steven Seagals son, if he takes after his father then it doesn't show, he has a small action scene at the beginning, and it's nothing special. -
udar5531 July 2006This insane genre hybrid from a majority of the team that brought us VERSUS is quite a surprise. Grave (Tak Sakaguchi) steals a coffin from a monastery and drags it around (shades of DJANGO) with a little kid following close behind (shades of LONE WOLF AND CUB). A lone monk pursues him in order to regain the coffin. Everyone thinks the coffin will grant you wishes but it actually houses a Goddess of Destruction who was banished from heaven. Director Yuji Shimomura, who choreographed the action in VERSUS, should get credit for making such a unique film that, despite sharing the same lead, sets itself apart from VERSUS. It is essentially a period piece except people sometimes use guns and ride motorcycles. There are some truly surreal set pieces (a human spider forest, a sword fight where blood floats around the participants, dead angels falling from heaven) and great fights. But the most surprising film is the amount of dry comedy featured in the film. One of the co-stars is Steven Seagal's son Kentaro who is quite good as comic relief Sid. Unfortunately he has inherited his father's hairline. Poor kid.
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EVOL6666 August 2006I picked this one up after seeing the trailers for it (which looked pretty damn cool) and I will say it was better than I thought it would be. Lots of kick-ass fight scenes based around a decent but somewhat hollow storyline - DEATH TRANCE is pure chop-socky entertainment.
Grave (Tak Sakaguchi of VERSUS fame) has stolen a sacred coffin that it is rumored will grant the "owner" anything that they wish for. This is obviously a hot-commodity for others who would also like to partake of the coffin's secrets - and the entire film is basically about Grave trying to protect his new acquisition from rival kung-fu kickers...
Basically - the whole plot for DEATH TRANCE is just a set up to show a bunch of super-stylish and awesome fight scenes - honestly - that's fine with me for this sort of thing. There's never a dull moment in the film and martial-arts fans will probably get a boner over this one. It has a VERSUS-like feel to it - but I honestly dug DEATH TRANCE a little more than VERSUS. Non-stop ass-kicking action, worth a look to Asian-action fans...8.5/10 -
koenvidts23 March 2006This movie is just great, with great fighting scenes, great movie and cool characters with each having their own characteristics. Saw it on the a festival, and the publics laughed and applauded more than once, the head actor was present and gave a nice demonstration of movie fighting, + he was very humorous because all questions (except one) were answered with a french oui (asked by the public) The story isn't hard to follow and the movie is just a no-brain entertainment, there's lot of humor in and the story is continuously good so it never bored me. Don't mark the low ratings, these are older people having no ideas of having fun in a movie.
only one but, the ending was kinda disappointing but for the rest nothing to mention negative about this movie -
CoA-Labaer3 April 2006If i ever had to classify this movie, i would call it a Trash Movie. However, do NOT think this makes it a BAD movie. Although the storyboard is weired even for a Japanese movie, the screenplay is strange and there isn't even the the "there is no morale" morale, this films brilliancy lies in a great feeling for funny situations and fighting (no bloodbath!!).
While watching it, i felt reminded of all those console-games where you just kill the enemies with power-moves listening to a heavy metal soundtrack. And as a fact, the whole movie is full of homages to those games. Actually, the main difference is, you cannot control the character on the screen ;) So however liked this kind of game, will like this movie - all others may feel at the wrong place. -
LivingDog14 July 2009Phew. Well, most westerners think the same - "this movie has no plot!" But if you're into metal/heavy metal/dethklock etc ... then it's a no brainer you'll love this flick. As for me I liked it enough to give it a 10 rating b/c I could see the attention to detail given every costume as well as sound-track and location. Add to that the amazing special effects, choreography, and _beautiful_ photography as well and I had to give this a 10.
Now as for the plot, what I can gather is that this is post-apocalyptic; this is fantasy; this is about (Japanese) gods and demons; ... and a coffin. The rumor is that the coffin will grant you any thing for which you ask - if you open it in the western forest. BUT the truth is very different. So the first guy steals it and sets off to open it; then he is chased after by the last monk who survived the slaughter at the temple. (Now this slaughter is weird b/c all the other fights are bloodless ... all punching and bashing with clubs ... did John Carpenter leave the building?) Then another guys shows up and chases the guy with the coffin for himself and his own interest (he's carrying a doll tied to his belt). Finally a third character shows up who can whip the snot out of everyone in the room. She is the one who helps the viewer understand about the special sword. The monk is carrying the special sword - a sword that only the chosen one (chosen by the sword) can use... why? B/c your wish ain't what's waiting for you when you open the coffin in the western forest after you get through the (secret secluded hidden mysterious) gate - opened by none other than a character who seems to have no point ... but she's always there. So just b/c the story wasn't that interesting to me I wasn't going to reduce its rating - it's definitely a 10 and a bit of a rough ride for those not use to Japanese story telling.
-LD
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