Death Trance

2005 "His only desire is destruction"
Death Trance
5.7| 1h30m| en| More Info
Released: 21 April 2006 Released
Producted By: Fever Dreams
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.deathtrance.jp/
Synopsis

In an unknown place and unknown time, a lone Samurai known only as Grave thirsts for the ultimate battle.

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Reviews

Phil Hubbs An 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
sidiousuno 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
Melinda Elsing I 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 ;)
kbynum99 It 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!