Death Trance DVD Review
A supremely skilled fighter wanders the Earth, like Caine in Kung Fu, looking for the ultimate battle in Death Trance, a rip-snorting action film directed by Yuji Shimomura, action director for Versus, and featuring Versus lead Tak Sakaguchi as action director and leading man. The 2005 film is available on DVD in the United States courtesy Media Blasters.
Sakaguchi plays Grave, a mysterious man of few words who raids a hidden temple for a coffin the local monks had been guarding for a century. Rumor has it that the coffin will grant a person a wish. But when a Ryuen, young apprentice monk (Takamasa Suga), returns shortly after the raid, the head monk warns him that opening the coffin will release the Goddess of Destruction. He hands Ryuen a sword with an amazingly phallic handle and urges him to track down the thief with the sword. Unfortunately, many others are also after the coffin for the power it contains.
As the chase begins, it becomes apparent that the film is set in a fantasy world where images from Japanese period drama (jidai geki) coupled with modern and even post-apocalyptic anachronisms. For example, Grave appears as a typical chambara samurai, but at one point, he hops on a motorcycle to pursue someone who’d taken the coffin. Some of these rivals appear like extras in a Mad Max film, while others are dressed like ninja from Naruto.
Contrasting with this modernism is a silent girl dressed in a formal kimono who tags along after whoever’s dragging the coffin. Then there’s Sid, played by Kentaro Seagal, son of action movie star Steven Seagal, in his screen debut – Sid sports a towering pompadour, a samarai sword, a six-gun and a rocket launcher. Throw a few vampires and zombies into the mix, along with a nigh-undefeatable female kung fu fighter who shows up every now and then to test Grave’s mettle and you have a sometimes-incoherent but wonderfully entertaining actioner.
As you might guess, the plot is minimal – Grave drags the coffin around, gets in a fight, lather, rinse, repeat – but it serves to set up a series of spectacular fights. The action choreography’s visual style is, of course, highly reminiscent of Versus – rotating camerawork, occasional slow-mo and plenty of wire- and CGI-assisted kung fu. And like Versus, the action blends fists, feet, swords and gunplay, sometimes in the same battle. Throughout, Sakaguchi portrays Grave as one who takes a childlike joy in battle, even as he searches for the one who will pose an actual challenge.
Sakaguchi, who performed his own stunts in the film, revealed in the accompanying featurette that he wanted to use as much actual contact as possible and avoid camera trickery that lets actors pull their punches. (Luckily for the stunt team, the featurette also shows him wearing thickly padded hand wrappings.) Accompanying the action is a hard rock soundtrack written by Rui Ogawa and performed by noted visual kei band Dir en grey.
The DVD from Media Blasters presents the film in widescreen format with the original Japanese language track, optional English subtitles and an English dub. DVD extras include a Japanese making-of featurette, an interesting interview with Sakaguchi and trailers for Death Trance and several other films. A manga version of the story is also available.
Death Trance may not have fulfilled the creators’ stated ambition of reinventing the Japanese period drama, but it’s still a massively stylish, fun and entertaining flick that provides the kinetic energy of Versus while adopting enough of its own approach to avoid seeming repetitive. Sakaguchi is a charismatic actor and graceful fighter, and he’s backed up by an able cast. In particular, Kentaro Seagal gives Sakaguchi a run for his money in portraying an ultra-cool, super-bad fighter. Death Trance is without doubt a live one.
Death Trance
Directed by: Yuji Shimomura
Starring: Tak Sakaguchi, Takamasa Suga, Kentaro Seagal
Released by: Media Blasters
Related links:
Death Trance IMDb Entry
Death Trance DVD at Amazon.com
Official US site
Second opinion at KFC Cinema.com
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