Tags:film, martial arts, Tak Sakaguchi
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.


